Agree w/Talia about Spoon. My first time seeing them, and it was decent, but I expected more. Thought they'd play tighter. The pacing of the set seemed uneven. The encore felt more like a short, 2nd set, and the ending abrupt.

Kathryn's right - the crowd wasn't moving too much. I'm not a dance-and-sing concert-goer, so that didn't bother me. But the crowd largely didn't seem that into it. Enthusiastic for the Gimme Fiction songs at the beginning, didn't seem to know the Kill the Moonlight stuff or get into the songs I didn't recognize (new material?), and then, once they'd been lost, they never really came back, even when they got more GF.

Webster? A great venue?

If what is posted above is true, it's incredibly sad the losers at this show apparently only know the "Gimme Fiction" stuff, because that album is BY FAR Spoon's worst. It's not even close, really.

Johnny-come-lately fans really burn my ass. Oh, and Webster Hall is an absolutely terrible venue.

The majority of the audience barely seemed interested in the band, minus the two or three gimme fiction singles. They didn't even seem to know the band's most famous single , "the way we get by"? They just stood there, motionless. When the band played anything off of "girls can talk" you would of thought the band was playing material from an obscure solo album or something.

This was one of the more expensive shows of last year, and leads one to ask why do people shell out so much money, when you they even know the band?

Yet another casualty of indie going mainstream.

I couldn't disagree more.I think the band played great and I found Brit Daniel to be exceptionally engaging. As far as the audience, most people have absolutley no attention span for songs they don't know and this kills me because if you are into a band and paying good money to see a show and the band decides to play some new material (or old stuff you might not know)...........................you listen!
or if you can't then stay at home, save $32, throw on your Gimme Fiction album followed by the lastest from (insert generic altrock band here) and still have time to catch Laguna Beach.

I thought that they just sounded a bit tired. And for some reason the music was stifled as a result. I didn't hate it though, and Im certainly not regretting my decision to attend.

Thanks for the link, by the way :)

my sister and i have seen spoon about 20 times each (they're our fav band) and the first thing we said to each other was, "this is a weird setlist." the songs didn't seem to flow as well as they usually do and even i (as someone who knows every single song they play) found it to be a bit tedious--they played too many "long" songs where they either start with a long musical entrance or end with one. to be fair to them, it's probably because this gig came about last minute and they all flew up either that day or the day before and had to put it together quickly. they usually work hard on their setlist and are AMAZING live. this show was still better than most bands ever put on, but there was definitely something missing. oh and the crowd who clearly only knew the songs that were played on "the oc" was totally lame lame lame.

What's with all the anonymous postings...?

It was a great show. Webster is a terrible venue BUT whoever was mixing sound that night did a terrific job. And the energy where I was standing - middle front - was great with everyone singing along to almost every song.

You cannot expect every single individual to know the lyrics of every song... done and done.

Jason

i've seen spoon a bunch of times, even caught them a few times previously at webster hall. admittedly, the setlist was a bit strange but i thought it was good overall. the new song was pretty good. britt's voice was great. the band played fine and i thought it was probably a 6 out of 10 performance.

however, no matter WHERE my girlfriend and i stood, we were surrounded by people talking and talking and talking and talking. everywhere we stood, no one would shut the fuck up. webster hall's sound system leaves a lot to be desired and, when coupled with a NYC crowd that seemed really young and talked through EVERY SONG, well, it soured the whole experience. it was a bummer, too, since it was the first time seeing spoon for my gf and she didn't think much of it.

bah humbug. maybe i'm just getting old.

spoon is one of my favorite bands on the planet, i blame the bassist for the show being less than mind-blowing. the guy playing the bass was not their usual bassist and several times during the show britt daniel actually turned to him and shouted out names of the keys they were in. "F!" what happened to the short dude with the pointy ears? he is an amazing bassist...

That new bassist is Rob from The Get Up Kids - I think that was like his 5th show with Spoon. I understand he is the bassist now, dont know what happened to the last one.
I thought the show was good; I was pleasantly surprised, never having seen them before.
I agree that people were talking a lot but that has never really bothered me that much. I was on the balcony and couldnt see shit but thought the sound was better than other shows I have seen at Webster.

what is this crap? webster hall blows. period.

I can't believe all of the negativity I see posted here about my favorite rock band. This was the first time I saw them & they sounded amazing, bass player included. It was the CROWD that didn't belong there. Most of them did NOT seem like real Spoon fans. Spoon are so talented & put so much of themselves in their music & it really showed, but I think that only a small portion of the Webster Hall crowd really got it. Sad! But for a real fan, Spoon's performance was da bomb. I hope they don't keep away from NY for too long considering the chilly reception from the not-so-real fans.