Last weekend Sharon and I rolled over to the Orpheum with Mark and Melanie to see Spoon perform. Spoon first came to my attention in 2005 after Gimme Fiction was released. There was one song that I liked but the rest never caught me until recently when I began listening to them again. Now I think they’re “the best band ever!” (I say this about a different band every week so don’t take my proclamations too seriously)  That album in particular is huge for me and I kick myself remembering passing up the opportunity to see them when they played smaller club shows.

When the show was announced I nearly peed myself and made sure I was on Ticketmaster’s website to buy tickets at precisely 10am when they went on sale. What I didn’t realize at the time is the opening band was going to be the night’s highlight.

Deerhunter opened and I quite liked their sound. After a few songs, the singer jumped down into the front aisle and started rocking out his guitar. One girl jumped in beside him to bounce around and this triggered an avalanche of people piling in front of the stage to dance. When the guitar solo was over everybody stayed in front and kept the energy up for the rest of Deerhunter’s performance, which continued to be awesome.

Spoon was a more muted affair and I enjoyed their show but found myself nodding off halfway through when they got into some of the slower stuff. It was cool to hear my favorite Spoon songs live though. The problem with Sunday night shows is I have to be up early to run on Monday morning and don’t usually have much energy for late nights. On the way home I was talking to Mark and crashed right into one of the new low-level benches they’ve installed on Granville Street. I shoulda had more than one beer that night. Then there would have been an less-embarrassing explanation than sheer clumsiness. Doh!