Spoon headlines the World’s Largest Block Party - Chicago, IL, 7/10/2010
The World’s Largest Block Party, an annual event in the West Loop of Chicago, is in fact quite a large block party. A few blocks worth of real estate is blocked off, stages set up, vendor and food tents go up. And it’s all for a good cause, as proceeds benefit Old St. Pat’s Church. Oddly enough, it’s also a pretty damn cool concert venue, as it features 2 nights worth of music. Plus, with each ticket, you get 5 free beers. Thank you old Irish Catholics. Saturday night was headlined by Spoon, and yes, it was a fantastic show.
The crowd was incredibly strong. Like I noted, this is a church fundraiser, so while there are a lot of people there for the music, there are also a lot of people who are there for the sake of being there. So it was nice to see a really energetic and festive crowd. Spoon went deep into their catalog as well, playing a few songs I’ve never heard live or only heard a few times, and I’ve seen Spoon live around a dozen times. Another bonus was the addition of a full horn section. Although a number of Spoon songs feature the use of horns, they don’t always perform with a horn section. The section featured 6 horns, easily the most horns I’ve seen playing with Spoon.
They definitely came out as if they had something to prove. Making quick reference during their encore to their last Chicago performance by saying “the last time we were here was our not so favorite show of all time” (as the sound mixer decided to totally dump on them at the Aragon), they came out blazing. They played as if they wanted to show that their last Chicago show was just a fluke, and they knew how to put on a great show and entertain for 90 minutes. Songs like “Small Stakes,” “Don’t You Evah,” “I Turn My Camera On,” and “Jonathon Fisk” were played with a little more pep and more energy than I’ve seen in the past. And the crowd ate it up. The band noticed too during the last song “Got Nuffin,” as frontman Britt Daniel said thanks, and that was the best reaction he’s ever seen to that song.
They’ve been around for a long time, a LONG time, and each show has more and more people. The older fans keep coming and younger fans show too, and each are singing the words to every song. That’s the refreshing part of a Spoon show. Everyone there regardless of age, is there to see a fantastic band. I can’t wait to see them back in Chicago in just under a month when they take the stage at Lollapalooza.
Check out the performance of “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” above.
PD
