Spoon's sustained relevance over the past 28 years was undeniable during their first-ever appearance in Ottawa. Selling out the 1,000-person capacity Bronson Centre within minutes, the band welcomed a healthy mix of Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z fans, setting off the evening's electric atmosphere right from the moment the doors opened.
Also making their debut in the nation's capital, the Austin, TX quintet A Giant Dog rode the wave of early momentum. Vocalist Sabrina Ellis commanded the crowd's attention with her magnetic oddball energy, while her bandmates came off beefier and anthemic than they do on their five studio albums.
When Spoon took the stage — joined by guitarists/keyboardists Alex Fischel (Divine Fits), Gerardo Larios (Hard Proof) and Ben Trokan (Markey Ramone) — founding members Britt Daniel and Jim Eno looked exulted but weathered from their ongoing, three-year Lucifer on the Sofa tour.
Kicking off the set with the cascading "Wild," Daniel immediately struggled with sound issues that would go on to hamper them during the first few numbers, as Fischel's guitar seemingly overpowered the vocals and Daniel's guitar and pedals both required repair.
After a shaky rendition of "My Mathematical Mind," the band found their groove with a buoyant performance of "I Turn My Camera On," featuring an extended intro where Daniel and Fischel traded guitar licks. Moving into a set of songs of mid-career material including Gimme Fiction's "Don't Make Me a Target," Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga's "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" and They Want My Soul's "Inside Out," Daniel sensed the rise in energy and decided to replace the currently unreleased "Love Right to Your Door" with the beloved "The Beast and Dragon, Adored" to sustain the room's forward motion.
As virtually all of Spoon's material runs from the engine room of their elastic rhythm section, the pairing of "The Underdog," "Don't You Evah" and "The Way We Get By" was as brilliantly sequenced as a setlist can be, as fans began to transition from bobbing in spot to full-on dance moves.
Closing the hour-long performance with their slinky rendition of the Cramps' "TV Set," Spoon would quickly return to the stage for a four-song encore. Obliging a fan in the audience, they pulled out their rarely performed cover of Tom Petty's "A Face in the Crowd" before moving into the even rarer album cut "The Fitted Shirt" from 2001's Girls Can Tell.
With singles "Got Nuffin" and "Rent I Pay" wrapping up the evening, Spoon's set relied heavily on fan favourites from their stacked discography and a perfectly locked-in backbeat from Eno and Troken, transforming a plagued performance into an all-out celebration.