Blistering.
White Rabbits, whose recent album It's Frightening was produced by Spoon's Britt Daniel, were an unexpected treat. The album is something of a grower, but there was a brutal immediacy to this live performance. The key was the percussive power of the band. Oscillating between two and three drummers/percussionists, the sheer force of the White Rabbits live experience won over a lot of new fans on Valentine's Night.
Clearly accomplished players, evidenced by the amount of instrument swapping that went on, the vocal yelps and harmonies of Stephen Patterson and Gregory Roberts work well together, and it's always a good sign if a band looks like they're having fun. There's magic in songs like the aptly-named Percussion Gun and gig highlight The Salesman(Tramp Life).
All that left Spoon with some work to do. But they pulled it off brilliantly. I know I go on about Spoon a lot on this site, but they're bloody fantastic. If The Beatles were around today they'd be making music like this - all White Album style rawness combined with studio trickery.
With quite a back catalogue to choose from, the band managed to balance old and new pretty well. There were fantastically electric versions of Jonathan Fisk, The Way We Get By and My Mathematical Mind (one of the stand-outs of the night), plus the hiighlights of new album Transference - Written in Reverse, Got Nuffin and a first ever live outing for the heart-meltingly gorgeous Out Go the Lights.
Ending on You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb made everyone happy, and it was off into the night for all the lovers.
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