The great band Spoon is experiencing renewed popularity these days and for good reason. Their 2014 album, They Want My Soul, was not only amongst the Best Albums of 2014 but was also one of the band’s best ever.  It is rare to see a band hit such lofty creative heights 16 years into their career, but that’s exactly what Spoon has done.  And the band has been playing live to sold out shows across the planet.  Britt Daniel and the boys continue to lay down intelligently crushing rock and roll, as Daniel continues to cut the quintessential rock n’ roll figure.

We caught the band last Saturday at The Wiltern, and all was right with the rock n’ roll world.  After a solid opening set from Austin’s stage-filling and energetic Sweet Spirit, Spoon hit the floor and gave heaping spoonfuls of propulsive, guitar-and-keys dominated songs that were rounded out perfectly by Daniel’s rasp-accented vocals (he is one of the best, most-unaffected vocalists in rock).  The sold out and souled crowd ate it up, giving back due adulation to the noticeably appreciative band.

During their set, Spoon played songs spanning their 17-year discography (see setlist at bottom), ultimately closing the night with a thrashing, reverb-laden (naturally) cover of The Cramps’ song TV Set.  The band opened the night with a ringing Rent I Pay and the highlight Knock, Knock, Knock, two of the six songs they would play from They Want My Soul (matching the six songs from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and featuring five from Gimme Fiction).  Standouts this night were the superbly-spare Inside Out, the groove-heavy and heavenly Don’t You Evah, new song Satellite, the closest Spoon comes to a ballad–Black Like Me, and You Got Yr Cherry Bomb.  But our favorite of the evening without question was Outlier, which gathers and grooves in a rhythmic throw-down that would never end in a better Eden.  It was a great night of music and we can’t wait to catch them again (perhaps when the sound is more on-target than the curious levels at times on Daniel’s vocals and guitar at The Wiltern).

To get a feel, last night on Conan, Spoon let the world experience their fantastically schralping cover of TV Set.  Check it out below, followed by their riveting cover of the great Wire’s Mannequin (Wire played Saturday night at the nearby Echoplex–conflicts, ya know).

And then get ye to a Spoon show. 

Wiltern Setlist:

Rent I Pay
Knock Knock Knock
Don’t You Evah
The Way We Get By
Small Stakes
My Mathematical Mind
The Ghost of You Lingers
Satellite
Outlier
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
I Turn My Camera On
Inside Out
Do You
The Fitted Shirt
I Summon You
Don’t Make Me a Target
Got Nuffin

Encore:
They Never Got You
Rainy Taxi
The Underdog

Encore 2:
Black Like Me
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
TV Set