I heart Spoon.

Last night I saw Spoon at the Scoot Inn. It. was. awesome. Chill and I got there around 8pm, soon after the opener, Black Nasty, started playing. I found it interesting that during the opener, the crowd stood far back from the stage, leaving a ton of open space in the front (much like the Jo’s Coffee shows during SXSW ‘07, as documented briefly here). Right when they ended though, as expected, everyone pushed up front. We got a decent spot about six feet back from the center front of the stage, and throughout the entire show I somehow kept getting pushed closer and closer, until I ended up basically right in the front underneath Britt’s mic. Sweeeeeeeeeet.

The set was good - they played Everything Hits At Once! Which basically made my night - I hadn’t heard them play my favorite song live since the first FunFunFun Fest. They sounded great as usual for the most part, although Britt seemed a bit more uptight than usual. Either that, or whoever was in charge of tuning his guitars was horrible, since Britt spent a lot of the show tuning (and even switched guitars mid-Black-Like-Me, he was so disgusted). Outside of that, they rocked hard as normal with Britt doing his normal shuffling and jamming across the stage while missing the mic every now and then. They played a handful of new ones too (they actually started the night with three of them), which sounded good although I’m going to reserve judgment until I hear them on disc. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t play anything off A Series of Sneaks, but I guess they are at that point where such things are difficult to fit in, especially when you’re playing new songs.

I should start keeping tabs of all the times I’ve seen Spoon (much like my list of 18-soon-to-be-19 Guster shows). I’m probably up in the 7-8 range right now, with hopefully many, many more to come. In fact, here’s my crack at it (list also includes Britt Daniel solo):

June 2, 2005: Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro NC
September 30, 2006: Emo’s, Austin TX
November 2, 2006: The Parish, Austin TX (Britt Daniel solo)
December 1, 2006: Waterloo Park, Austin TX (FunFunFun Fest)
September 13, 2007: La Zona Rosa, Austin TX (ACL aftershow)
September 14, 2007: Zilker Park, Austin TX (ACL Festival)
December 13, 2007: Emo’s, Austin TX (Britt Daniel solo)
March 13, 2008: Auditorium Shores, Austin TX (SXSW)
October 13, 2008: The Parish, Austin TX
April 21, 2009: The Scoot Inn, Austin TX

Ten times! Thank goodness they play in Austin a lot.

I have to say though - I am tired. I ran almost seven miles after work and was dehydrated even after downing a few cups of water before heading to the show yesterday. While standing and waiting before Spoon came on, I couldn’t stop yawning and wanted so badly to sit down. Plus the fact that it was hot and stuffy, me being short and unable to breathe in fresh air (and breathing in cigarette smoke-infested air instead), I almost thought I might pass out (remember FunFunFun 2007?). But as soon as Spoon went on all thoughts ceased to exist and I did not pass out and rocked out instead. When it was all over though (and after I bought a Spoon t-shirt at the merch booth, which I am wore to work today), I was exhausted, and still am.

Maybe a quick nap after work will help me rally for GUSTER tonight (show #19!). Hopefully I’ll survive - I haven’t done back-to-back shows in quite awhile. We’ll see how it goes!