They never got you

As much as I've enjoyed the recorded works and live shows of Spoon, the band from Austin, Tex., I admit I was a little wary going into Britt Daniel's solo show tonight at the Swedish American Hall above Café du Nord. I've always thought that the best thing about Spoon isn't the core songwriting, it's the piecemeal style of arrangement, in which the little atomic blocks of music get stacked up in sonic space and time, sometimes tricking your ear into hearing what isn't actually there. That doesn't really translate to a solo guy-with-guitar night; hence my apprehension.

Daniel redeemed himself, however, on most of the material tonight, though I can't quite say everything added up to a truly exciting show. Some songs sounded strong with just voice and guitar -- "The Beast and Dragon Adored," "Advance Cassette," "1020 AM," "The Way We Get By." Others, such as "Metal Detektor" and "Stay Don't Go," benefited from the prerecorded tapes Daniel brought along. Fine enough. (I still saw people yawning, but most responded pretty enthusiastically.) Daniel is a creative guitarist, although it's time for him to stop using so many of those half-step interval progressions; he can do enough different things with his naturally unique voice that he can pull off an hour of solo material.

But there were times, as on "Anything You Want" and "Sister Jack," that some popular favorites in the Spoon catalog were revealed as the thin songs that they really are, reliant on piano hooks or layered guitars or whatever, with very little to recommend them in stripped-down form. I mean, I love the alternating snare tones on the Girls Can Tell version of "Anything You Want." I dig the rhythmic hitch in the coda of "Sister Jack" when Jim Eno plays it. As whole, complete songs, though? There's really not much there at all, come to think of it. Two new pieces added little to the party, besides more familiar tantalizing two-note melodies that mysteriously turn into dastardly hooks. Wonder how they'll sound when the band plays them, and when they record them.

(Actually the whole night sounded like a bunch of demo tapes to me. Pleasant. Illuminating. Not the whole story. What was that about spending $15 or so...?)

Daniel essayed an ambitious cover tune in John Lennon's "Isolation." It takes courage to try that one. (I think Matthew Sweet did it in the early 90s.) As much as I enjoyed seeing Daniel do it with such intensity, I have to say that the performance merely threw into relief the spottiness of the rest of his set list, at least when his songs were treated as voice-and-guitar pieces. Many of Spoon's most enjoyable pieces are really vehicles for group interaction and minimalist composition, as opposed to intrinsically great songs that could work in a variety of arrangements. (It's hard to imagine anyone else succeeding with "Sister Jack," you know what I mean?)

I like Daniel's style, and he sure sounded good with the guitar and voice thing, especially in the peak-ceilinged Swedish Hall. (He deployed a hollow-body Gibson, by the way. Looked old. Not sure what kind. Plugged into a Vox amp.) It's just that he writes for a full rock band, and without the others he's a little lost. This was a fine way to kick off the NoisePop weekend. Hope to make time to write about Vetiver after Sunday's show too.

[UPDATE: Here are some recent live mp3s from Britt Daniel's SXSW show. There's some Bob Pollard stuff elsewhere on that blog too, if you're interested... and I think at least one of you is interested.]


FMFM: Sweet Soul Queen of New Orleans, an Irma Thomas collection. Now there's someone who could find meaning in a turn of phrase, no matter where it came from. A Randy Newman song? Sure. The unstoppable "Break-A-Way," from the pen of the great Jackie DeShannon? The original "Time Is On My Side"? "Ruler of My Heart," which Otis Redding would soon try to steal for his own? One after another. Hot stuff.