Spoon, First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN - 4/2-3/2010

We decided a few months ago that getting to see Spoon at a club rather than a theater would be pretty awesome (and maybe not possible for much longer), plus we decided this would be a good excuse to check out Minneapolis in a hopefully warmer month. (Also, I had wanted to check out First Avenue ever since realizing its historical impact [Prince, the Replacements, Husker Du, etc.] in my teenage years.)

On getting into town Friday, we just hopped on the light rail from the airport into town. Very easy, very cheap, gave us a quick idea of the city. We got into our hotel without much hassle and grabbed dinner at Bradstreet Crafthouse, where we sat at the chef's table/bar and watched them prepare the food. Great cocktails, super yummy tapas style foods. We gorged, I'll admit it.

We got to the venue for night 1 right at the doors and were able to grab a good spot and see both openers. First up was Micachu and the Shapes, who were terrible. Waste of time. Then there was Deerhunter, whom we'd seen before and enjoyed. I thought they were great again - very tight, huge sound. I feel like if Bradford Cox was a super hot indie rocker, these guys would be huge. Oh well.

Then Spoon came on, and while the club was packed, it wasn't just crazy. And they were great - long set, very tight, very into it, pretty intense. If anything was a bummer, it was that the crowd seemed to have caught on to Spoon around the time of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but what can you do?

Setlist:

Before Destruction
Nobody Gets Me But You
The Way We Get By
Small Stakes
Me and the Bean
Ghost of You Lingers
Is Love Forever?
Love Song (DAMNED cover)
The Underdog
Who Makes Your Money
Written in Reverse
The Modern World (WOLF PARADE) (!!!!)
Don't Make Me A Target
Everything Hits at Once (!!!!)
The Beast and Dragon Adored
I Summon You
Got Nuffin'
You've Got Yr Cherry Bomb
Black Like Me
--------
Metal School
I Turn My Camera On
The Two Sides of Mssr. Valentine
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Don't You Evah
Someone Something
Rhythm and Soul

We stumbled back to our room and collapsed from exhaustion, as that was a marathon show.  Great stuff.

We started Saturday out at Hell's Kitchen, whose breakfast totally lived up to the hype.  Strikingly good stuff.  The Twins were playing an exhibition game thereafter at the new Target Field against the Cardinals, so we looked for tickets, but nothing was cheaper than $100 or so a pop, so we skipped the game and walked down by the river.  A gorgeous day in the Twin Cities.

Dinner was at the Oceanaire, a fantastically old school seafood place.  Wow, was this good.  Crabcakes, oysters, huge cuts of fish, creamed corn and hashbrown sides, and then Key lime pie to end it all.  All fabulous.  My only complaint is how stuffed I was afterward.  Great, though.

We got to the club for night 2 around 8-ish, as the doors were at 6 with it being an all ages show.  We got down on the floor just as Deerhunter were finishing.  I'd say it felt more crowded and, well, rude-ish than the first night, but I was also super full and still kind of tired from night 1.

Spoon came out and seemed a bit more jovial, not as intense as night 1.  But they were great again and mixed up the setlist nicely.  (In full disclosure, we left during "Finer Feelings" due to it being so packed, us being so full, etc.)

Setlist:

I Saw the light
I turn my Camera on
Jonathon Fisk (!!!!)
Nobody gets me but you
Way we get by
Ghost of you lingers
Stay don't go
Dont make me a Target
Love Song (DAMNED cover)
Who makes yr Money
Back to the life
Mathematical mind
Someone something
Vittorio e
They Never got you
I Summon you
Finer Feelings (!!!!)

(per the internet, the rest of the tunes:)

Written in reverse
Utilitarian
Cherry bomb
Don't you Evah
Trouble comes running
Underdog

So we missed seeing "Trouble Comes Running," but I'll live.  A great couple of shows, truly.  Their bassist (since 2007, I think?) was so on, and Jim Eno has been a tight drummer since the beginning.  Just a solid band.

We ended the trip with a 9-mile run around the Lake of the Isles, which was stunning.  The flight back Sunday was painfully long due to a delay at Midway, but a great, fast trip to a very cool city.