Re: Spoon in Boston

While I was visiting colleges with my daughter in Boston, I had the opportunity to see Spoon. I haven't seen them since 2014 and while that show didn't blow me away; since there wasn't much else to do at night and we were staying nearby, we went. I'm glad I did. In the years since I saw them, Spoon has matured into a band more comfortable playing in front of large adoring crowds (at least that's how I saw it). Kicking off with the first song on their new album "Held", Spoon played a set filled with crowd pleasers, though one of the songs that got a big crowd response was a new one "My Babe". Personally, I would like to have heard "Don't Let it Get You Down" but I don't think that has every been played live so I can't really complain. The encore was a cover heavy set with the highlight being the Modern Lovers "She Cracked" (us being in Boston as all).

Setlist:
Held (Smog cover)
Wild
Small Stakes
Don't You Evah
Do You
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
The Hardest Cut
Don't Make Me a Target
The Underdog
My Mathematical Mind
My Babe
I Summon You
Inside Out
I Turn My Camera On
Got Nuffin
Rent I Pay
Encore:
Isolation (John Lennon cover)
She Cracked (The Modern Lovers cover)
The Way We Get By
Black Like Me
TV Set (The Cramps cover)
Jonathon Fisk

We stayed at the Verb Hotel which unbeknownst to me at reservation time styles itself as a rock and roll hotel. And it sure was. Not only was the hotel right next door to Fenway Park (and down the street from the House of Blues) but it was crammed with all sorts of rock memorabilia. I wasn't able to spend much time at the hotel (visiting colleges and all) but I could've spent a day looking at everything. To top it off, the room I had reserved was a 'themed' guestroom and I had a choice of several artists (Queen, Rolling Stones, Elton John, etc...), being in Boston, I went with the Cars. The room was decorated with all sorts of Cars memorabilia*, autographed record albums (I didn't know that Greg Hawkes put out one) but the most interesting piece was each member's handwritten history before joining the band. This was done at the suggestion of their A&R guy when the band was getting started so he would know them better. Each room is set up with a record player and guests can grab records in the lobby to play on them. If it gets too loud, earplugs have been provided in each room. Pretty cool place.

*all of the memorabilia in the hotel is loaned to them from a former music editor of the Boston Phoenix.

Very cool! The band isn't coming to the PNW till September. But perhaps I should go ahead and get a ticket. They're playing at the Paramount Theatre, so I suspect the promoters anticipate a "large adoring crowd."

I forgot to mention that Margaret Glaspy opened. A bass player, drummer and Glaspy on guitar played catchy bluesy rock and one very political song about keeping 'hands off her body" which in a strange way reminded me of "Walk on the Wild Side". I joked with my daughter that she should talk with to Glaspy after the show because she's probably friends with Phoebe Bridgers (my daughter loves Bridgers). Later on, my daughter found out that Bridgers follows Glaspy on Instagram (high praise for her) so yet another example of her regretting not listening to the old man.

I've been meaning to explore Glaspy further - what I've heard at least from her first album I've quite liked. Plus she's married to jazz guitar wiz Julian Lage, whose brilliant recent record Squint she produced. They did songs together during the pandemic, and I hope that's a musical partnership they explore further in the future.

Would be very interested in Margaret Glaspy but never was a Spoon listener.

Same, which is blasphemy here in Austin.

What colleges did you look at? My son is trying to decide where to go. I figure a rock and roll guy would have some good advice.

We looked at: Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Wellesley and Brandeis. Walked around Tufts but they weren't giving tours (which was a negative in my book). We considered Emerson but their tour information was too complicated and then we noticed they have a major in the 'comedic arts' so I don't know about that school. I liked BC but my daughter thought it gave off a snob vibe and I also thought BU would be a fun school; in the city but still separate and right off the Charles. My daughter liked Wellesley but that being a girls school would eliminate your son. Didn't bother with Harvard or MIT. Walked by Berkley College of Music (which Margaret Glaspy is an alum).

I did my master's at Tufts University. My wife is from Boston and has a lot of opinions about the various schools Incidentally, it's the Berklee College of Music, not Berkeley! (Mary Lou Lord is also a Berklee alumna).