Date:  Oct. 15, 2007
Venue:  The Kool Haus

Man, I really hope these guys are socially awkward nerds when they’re not on stage—I would just feel so much better knowing that they aren’t that cool ALL the time.

Breezing through their hour and a half set at the Kool Haus last night, Spoon were every bit worthy of the indie-rock royalty status that all us music geeks would thrust upon them—and why not? These guys have unleashed back to back to back to back albums of brilliance that defy logical thought (and strategy, in some cases).

A die-hard fan’s wet-dream, the set largely consisted of older tracks peppered by the odd highlight from Gimme Fiction or Kill the Moonlight. In fact, two-thirds into the sold-out show when they hadn’t played a single track from their latest album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (reviewed here), I was caught thinking they might not bother. Silly me, as this was dispelled the moment I heard the first note of that album’s lead track, “Don’t Make Me a Target,” after which they threw newer fans a bone by playing a solid 5 in a row. A big fan of their latest release, I was elated by the brilliant triptych of “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “The Underdog” and “Black Like Me.”

However, show highlights definitely included rousing renditions of Spoon classics like “The Way We Get By” and the second encore crowd-pleaser, “I Turn My Camera On,” not to mention whenever the horn section got put to use (a horn-clad “Jonathan Fisk” had me making some serious T-Rex comparisons—“20th Century Boy” all the way).

All told, it was a tough show to review, as, aside from a few equipment glitches early on, it really went off without a hitch, making it hard to resist simply filling the page with drooling love notes to a band completely in control and showing no signs of stopping.

Gush, gush, gush.

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In honour of the fantastic show, let’s try something new–a poll!

Want a second opinion on the show? Check out a friend’s review at Thickspecs.