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Creative Commons Benefit: Spoon @ The Henry Fonda Theater, 9/10/07
Last night Spoon played alongside Kool Keith at the Henry Fonda Theatre. Need I say more?
Oh and it was for a great cause! Both artists rocked out to raise money for the non-profit organization Creative Commons. This was the third time they've held a CC Benefit. Prior CC Benefits featured David Byrne, Gilberto Gil, Girl Talk, Diplo, and Peeping Tom. I had no idea who was opening this special event until I arrived at the venue and words can't even describe the face I made when I found out that Dr. Octagon, a.k.a. Kool Keith, was opening. It's definitely a weird pairing, but they're both legends in their own right.
In conjunction with the Wired Magazine sponsorship, Kyoto born robot Keepon made an appearance in the lobby as well as in between sets. If you haven't already seen this yellow snowball looking creature, then I suggest you check out youtube sensation Keepon dancing to Spoon's "Don't You Evah". The video was shot in Tokyo while Spoon was on tour and it features costar Hideki Kozima, the man who designed this cute little furry guy.
Keepon was originally created for clinical research with autistic children and it's easy to see why. I'd spend hours upon hours watching his hypnotic bop. He's like the new furby or tickle me elmo, except way more socially acceptable. He serves the greater good in a similar manner as Creative Commons. Also, he gets major points in my book for dancing more than most did for Dr. Octagon.
Kool Keith rapped his little heart out to a half-empty Fonda. To say that his performance was neglected is a misnomer of sorts. He was massively underappreciated by the electronically inclined (dare I say geek-y) Spoon crowd. I don't know what I should have come to expect. I mean, Wired Magazine presented the event in order to kick off their Wired NextFest. So no one who, first and foremost, reads Wired Magazine and, secondly, listens to Spoon digs Kool Keith? I guess not.
Spoon took stage after two brief introductions by Wired editor Chris Anderson and Jimmy Wales, the man behind Wikipedia. Don't ask me what the relevance of this was. My friends and I were stupefied by the fact they would throw Mr. Wikipedia up on stage before our favorite indie rock band Spoon. Way to kill the mood by essentially reiterating every trivial tidbit Chris Anderson muttered. I squirmed for you man.
With a certain indefinable swagger, frontman Britt Daniel tore into the first of Spoon's three night stint at the Fonda. The scintillating twenty-one song set encompassed primarily material from their last two releases Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. However, we did get the opportunity to hear some classics from Girls Can Tell, A Series of Sneaks, and Kill The Moonlight.
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I was contented from the get-go, but Britt always has these tricks up his prodigious sleeve. They're currently touring in support of their latest Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
Thus, it was assumed that Spoon would be accompanied by a horn section for "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" and "The Underdog". We got all that and a bag of chips when the horn section stuck around for revamped versions of "The Ghost of You Lingers" and "Jonathan Fisk".
Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a brass addition of any sort to either of those songs, yet somehow Spoon pulled it off magnificently. The caliber of these renditions even inspired some inebriated idiot to climb a speaker in the midst of "Jonathan Fisk". What a masturbatory move. Never try to steal the limelight from Britt. You will be crushed.
Spoon's Set List:
Japanese Cig Case
Don't You Evah
Cherry Bomb
Stay Don't Go
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Rhythm and Soul
The Ghost of You Lingers
Anything You Want
Don't Make Me a Target
Vittorio E.
They Never Got You
Monsieur Valentine
I Summon You
Fitted Shirt
I Turn My Camera On
Quincy Punk Episode
The Underdog
Jonathan Fisk
Black Like Me
Eddie's Raga
My Mathematical Mind
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