The Carolina Theatre was alive with the sweet sounds of Spoon, The Walkmen and White Rabbits Sunday night.
White Rabbits took the stage first. The six-piece band tore through a set of songs from their debut LP,
Fort Nightly, including "Kid On My Shoulders," "The Plot" and "While We Go Dancing." They also played a new song called "Fox Hunting." The band recently signed to ATO Records and plan to release a new album next year.
Three of the band's members were wearing blazers with no shirts, which The Walkmen later revealed was because they lost in ping-pong repeatedly the night before. The band were not allowed to say anything about "losing their shirts" the night before while on stage.
The Walkmen took the stage next, playing a slew of new songs from their upcoming release, tentatively due out in August. The new songs included "If Only It Were True," "On the Water," "I Lost You" and "Canadian Girl." The band did play a few songs from their three previous LPs including "Wake Up," "Little House of Savages" and "All Hands and the Cook."
Singer Hamilton Leithauser confidently dominated the stage, both with his performance and his incredible height. He wore a three piece suit and between belting out intense vocals, would occasionally just stare up toward the ceiling like he was in a daze.
Spoon took the stage with a fury and immediately launched into "Japanese Cigarette Case." Through the night, the band played all but one song from their latest release,
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. "The Ghost of You Lingers" was beefed up with toms towards the end that sounded like guns shots, adding some intensity that was lacking on the album version.
One standout song in the set was the Paul Simon tune "Peace Like a River." The band added the Spoon stamp on the song, giving it new life. Another rare tune was "Chips and Dip" from Spoon's first release on Merge Records, the EP
Love Ways. The song was preceded by Britt Daniel saying that Merge is the "Number one record label...and it's just up the road."
The only weak song of the night was "The Underdog." The song is just week live without the horns. Keyboardist Eric Harvey played the horn part, but it was lost in the mix. I can't complain about one dud in a 22-song set.
The band played great all night, but Daniel was the focus of attention. His swagger and confidence kept all eyes on him.
Spoon is a great example of a band who has achieved success the hard way, through years of touring and releasing records. They've managed to beat the odds and find success. The sold-out show at Carolina Theatre is proof that good music can still appeal to a large audience.
Here's the Spoon setlist:
Japanese Cigarette Case
Rhythm & Soul
Stay Don't Go
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
The Delicate Place
Nefarious
The Ghost of You Lingers
Peace Like a River (Paul Simon)
Don't You Evah
Don't Make Me a Target
Chips and Dip
Someone Something
Back To the Life
I Summon You
I Turn My Camera On
Finer Feelings
The Underdog
Black Like Me
-----
Car Radio
The Beast And Dragon, Adored
?
Quincy Punk Episode
If anyone can fill in the gap
s, please send us an email or leave a comment.
[Thanks to our readers for the setlist help. We're only missing one song now.]
After a four-year hiatus, Spoon is back with their eighth full-length LP, They Want My Soul. This long gap in between albums allowed the band to add new styles to their repertoire and fine-tune their signature minimalistic sound.
This morning the initial lineup of the 2014 Hopscotch Music Festival, coming back to downtown Raleigh on September 4-6, was announced and just as in previous years it's a doozy.
Last night was a good night for music on the late night shows. Conan O'Brien had Spoon playing the song "Writing in Reverse" from their just released album Transference and Jimmy Fallon had The Mountain Goats playing "Genesis 3:23" from their latest album The Life of the World To Come.
Spoon's new album Transference won't be out until Next Tuesday, January 19, but you can stream the full album now. Head over to NPR's website to have a listen to the ten tracks. Check out the details of the album here.
Spoon's new album Transference which we first told you about a month ago will be out a week earlier than we originally reported. The album's release has been pushed up to January 19 and the first single "Written In Reverse" will be released digitally tomorrow, December 1. You can hear the single now stream the single now below thanks to the folks at NPR. The single will be released on 7" vinyl with an exclusive b-side titled "Mean Red Spider" on January 5.
Another best of the decade list has hit the web. This one comes from Paste magazine and mostly contains repeats from previous lists with one big exception. Paste named The Avett Brothers brand new album I and Love and You as the ninth best album of the decade.
It's a big week of announcements for Merge Records releases in early 2010. We let you know about Shout Out Louds new album on Monday, and now Spoon have announced that their new album will be released in January. It is titled Transference and will hit stores on 
Once again, Merge Records is well represented on one of Pitchfork's top music of the decade lists. This time, the label grabbed seven places of the site's list of the 200 best albums of the 2000s, including the number two spot with Arcade Fire's Funeral. You can't complain when the only album that beta you is Kid A. Spoon landed a whopping three spots on the list with their highest ranking being Kill the Moonlight at number 19.
While the XX Merge Converse "take away" series still has three more videos to roll out, the big kahuna has hit the web. It turns out we didn't have to wait long to see the results of all those cameras positioned around the Cat's Cradle and Memorial Hall of those nights in July.
There's been so much going on with Merge this year, we almost forgot about the Merge remix album. We first mentioned it back in January with the other initial news of the anniversary festivities. After all this time though, it's back on our radar because the track list and released date has been announced.
Pitchfork has apparently decided that the decade is already over and they've picked their top 500 songs of the 2000s. You have to take the list for what it's worth considering they picked Outkast's song "B.O.B." as the best song of the decade. Don't get me wrong, it's a awesome song, but the best of the decade? I think not.
The headliners on night three of XX Merge were none other than one of the label's biggest bands, Spoon. The band played a set, heavy on their early albums including "Chicago at Night," "Lines in the Suit" and the show closer "The Fitted Shirt," all from their 2001 Merge debut Girls can Tell. They also played the new song "Got Nuffin" from their new EP of the same name as well as another new song called "Is Love Forever?"
For tonight's Merge Video Retrospective, we go back to Spoon, one of the few Merge band's other than Superchunk that have a sizable video library. This one is for "Sister Jack" from their 2005 album Gimme Fiction. It's a fairly simple, but well shot performance video of the band playing in various locations with the occasional shot of a guy dressed as a nun. He is presumably playing Sister Jack.
In a surprising announcement today, Merge Records says that they will release a brand new Spoon single this Tuesday, June 30.
We're jumping ahead about nine years for today's Merge Retrospective video. This one is for one of Spoon's most popular songs, "The Way We Get By," from their 2002 album Kill the Moonlight. It's a simple, yet aesthetically pleasing video for the groovy little song.
With Merge Records celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2009, Prefix Mag has picked their 20 favorite albums from the label. The list is an eclectic mix from the last two decades of Merge going as far back Polvo's 1993 album Today's Active Lifestyles.
Spoon recently recorded a session for Daytrotter which includes their version of Paul Simon's "Peace Like a River." The session also includes "The Ghost of You Lingers" from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, "I Can See the Dude" from Soft Effects and "Back To the Life" from Kill the Moonlight.
White Rabbits took the stage first. The six-piece band tore through a set of songs from their debut LP, Fort Nightly, including "Kid On My Shoulders," "The Plot" and "While We Go Dancing." They also played a new song called "Fox Hunting." The band recently signed to ATO Records and plan to release a new album next year.
The Walkmen took the stage next, playing a slew of new songs from their upcoming release, tentatively due out in August. The new songs included "If Only It Were True," "On the Water," "I Lost You" and "Canadian Girl." The band did play a few songs from their three previous LPs including "Wake Up," "Little House of Savages" and "All Hands and the Cook."
Spoon took the stage with a fury and immediately launched into "Japanese Cigarette Case." Through the night, the band played all but one song from their latest release, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. "The Ghost of You Lingers" was beefed up with toms towards the end that sounded like guns shots, adding some intensity that was lacking on the album version.
The only weak song of the night was "The Underdog." The song is just week live without the horns. Keyboardist Eric Harvey played the horn part, but it was lost in the mix. I can't complain about one dud in a 22-song set.