Spoon w/ Twin Peaks at Palace Theatre, St Paul (15 Sept 2017) (Updated)

The Austin, TX band pulled into The Palace Theatre in St. Paul for the first of two long sold-out shows, to a crowd strong enough for singer Britt Daniel to consider this their second hometown.

Before that, Chicago indie garage rock band Twin Peaks took advantage of their name being back in the news (compliments of the recently-resurrected David Lynch TV series of the same name) to open with a raucous 45 min. set.  The quintet (three of the five rotated on lead vocals this night) is out in support of last year’s Down in Heaven (Grand Jury Records) and emerged, beers in hand, ready to have a good time.

The opening ‘Butterfly’ (from the new album) was written as co-vocalist Clay Frankel found himself in a “sickened state”, ‘Boomers’ was a catchy song “about psychedelic drugs and the experiences that come with it” and had trippy light patterns to accompany it, and the closing ‘Strawberry Smoothie’ from 2014 had the chugging rhythms and endearing sloppiness of classic Replacements or Stooges songs. 

Following a break, rolling fog crept in under dim mono-chromatic lighting (with occasional strobe lights) and five louvered panels behind a set of scalloped curtains, to set the stage for Spoon’s hundred-minute headlining set.  An extended instrumental intro for the opening ‘Do I Have to Talk You Into It’ brought the band members up one by one in the near darkness, making it look like they were performing from inside the mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The new album, Hot Thoughts (released in March) finds the band back in friendly confines of Matador Records, a place they first called home with their 1996 debut. The group more than ever seems to enjoy taking their time with the songs now, stretching several out with appropriate instrumental passages and keeping things visually mostly dark and mysterious, with newest member Alex Fischel (keys, guitar) already taking on a prominent role.

“St. Paul, good to see you!” Daniel greeted the crowd, already on the band’s side as their local following seems to grow stronger with every show.  Daniel couldn’t remember the last time the band played St. Paul, having mostly played across the river in more recent years and didn’t re-visit anything from their first four albums this night (though the next would get a couple extra songs).

Bassist Rob Pope and drummer Jim Eno remain the band’s secret weapons, holding down the foundation of each song without much fanfare but a surety that allows Daniel to get creative when the mood hits.  The interlude ‘Via Kannela’ featuring keyboardist Fischel really seemed like they were channeling alien rhythms or preparing to launch leading into the new ‘I Ain’t the One’, a moody slow number about the moon rising and the night coming knocking.

Daniel thanked local station The Current mid-set, for being one of the earliest stations to play their music and the lyric of 2007’s ‘Don’t Make Me a Target’ resonated again with today’s current events.  ‘The Underdog’ found everyone clapping along to Pope’s bass beat, 2009’s ‘Got Nuffin’ churned like an out of control freight train, and the stories told in the main set closing ‘Black Like Me’ still seem poignant a decade later.

Daniel emerged solo to begin the four-song encore with a spare ‘I Summon You’ with its bracing first lyric, “’Remember the weight of the world, it’s the sound we used to buy”. The new ‘Pink Up’ followed, bringing back out the band, an extended jam with steel drum sounds against synths and dance beats, with rhythms again at the forefront for the title track of the new album.

The band went back to its previous album one last time for the evening’s closer of ‘Rent I Pay’, Daniel exclaiming “Twin Cities, you look beautiful!” as the song grew in volume with the band taking the song to the highest crescendo of the night, perhaps giving that star ship enough energy to launch off, and return again for the next night’s sold-out show.

With producer Dave (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) Fridmann behind the boards of the latest album, the controls were already set for the heart of the sun, and Spoon proves it can still musically evolve after more than two decades in the business, happily strapping the rest of us on the side of their rocket as they hurdle off into the stars.

Spoon on tour:

09/30/2017 Berkeley, CA Greek Theatre 10/01/2017 San Diego, CA Cal Coast Credit Union 10/03/2017 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre 10/05/2017 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre 10/07/2017 Austin City Limits Music Festival 10/10/2017 San Antonio, TX The Aztec Theatre 10/11/2017 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom 10/12/2017 Dallas, TX House Of Blues 10/13/2017 Austin, TX Stubb’s Bar-B-Q 10/14/2017 Austin City Limits Music Festival 10/15/2017 Houston, TX House Of Blues 10/17/2017 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues 10/18/2017 Memphis, TN Minglewood Hall 10/20/2017 Columbia, SC Music Farm Columbia 10/21/2017 Jacksonville, FL Maverick’s 10/22/2017 Charlotte, NC Fillmore Charlotte 11/02/2017 Brussels, Belgium Orangerie 11/03/2017 Crossing Border Festival

11/04/2017 Rolling Stone Weekender 11/06/2017 Brighton, UK Concorde 2 11/07/2017 Liverpool, UK Invisible Wind Factory 11/09/2017 Cambridge, UK Cambridge Junction 11/11/2017 Basel, Switzerland Kaserne 11/12/2017 Milan, Italy Santeria Social Club 11/14/2017 Barcelona, Spain Sala Apolo 11/15/2017 Madrid, Spain La Riviera 11/16/2017 Oporto, Portugal Coliseu Do Porto 11/17/2017 Lisbon, Portugal Coliseu Dos Recreios 11/28/2017 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel 11/29/2017 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel 12/01/2017 Poughkeepsie, NY Chance Entertainment 12/03/2017 Stroudsburg, PA Sherman Theater 12/05/2017 Clifton Park, NY Upstate Concert Hall 12/06/2017 South Burlington, VT Higher Ground – Ballroom 12/30/2017 Washington, DC 9:30 Club 12/31/2017 Washington, DC 9:30 Club