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With the Jonathan Richman show postponed, the best musical bet this Friday night is over at Metro, where Austin's Spoon will perform. Combining some of the best elements of Elvis Costello and Wire, Britt Daniel’s band writes simple, infectious rock songs that make creative percussive use of handclaps and breathing sounds. (Chicagoist firmly believes that handclaps can make any good pop song great.) Spoon put on a solid live show, to boot, doing strong renditions of tracks from the awesomely titled albums Girls Can Tell and Kill The Moonlight. (And, if you're lucky, tracks from Daniel's fantastic EP collaboration with Bright Eyes.) At this show, expect to hear some new songs from their unreleased, not-so-awesomely titled record, The Beast and Dragon are Adored.
Also, look out for something funny that a friend of Chicagoist noticed at a Spoon performance last year: their core audience seems to be comprised of single, geeky 40-year-old men. (We don’t know if record companies consider this to be the most desirable demographic. Most of the band’s indie-rock contemporaries, after all, go after the single, geeky 20-year-old male set.) Go to their show on the 25th and see all the middle-aged creepiness for yourself.
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Re: the 40-year-olds... This is also true of Wilco fans, AFAIK. My roommate and I first conceptualized the "30 and over show" at last year's Wilco/Minus 5 beard-a-thon @ the Abbey.
...On the subject of fan demographics (and my roommate): His brother graciously provided us with some comp tickets to the last Bright Eyes show, but wanted to know why we (in our 20s) were interested in this show, because there were, "nothing but 14 year olds lined up outside" =)
Geeky 20-something male here. If you go to Spoon, be sure to razz them about the keyboard not working. During their past 2 shows at the Abbey Pub, their broken keyboards delayed the show for 15 minutes. Bad times. On the subject of that Wilco/Minus 5 show, I think the only person drunker than me that night was Peter Buck. He could barely stand up.
Spoon definitely caters to the veteran indie rocker demographic. But hey girls, don't hate. The geeky lo-fi R&B of "The Way We Get By" is a hit on every mix tape I give away - it was licensed to "The OC", for shit's sake. This Friday, let all the pretty girls go to the city, and make some hard-luck indie gawkite's night.
JTL
FYI: The keyboardist with the unreliable Casio(Friendo) is now touring with Michelle Branch. Bla-dow.
i'll be there getting my hand-claps on. ooh. ahh. ooh. ahh.
Britt Daniel kissed my friend during a show; of course, she had a boyfriend. NIce work, Britt!
Was that the girl he was trying to make eye-contact with for the majority of the last Abbey Pub show?