Spoon and Deerhunter shake down First Avenue on its 40th birthday

As Micachu took the stage, I was finishing a transaction which left me with a very vibrant Deerhunter shirt. I was so pleased with my purchase that I didn't hear the growing feedback behind me. At first I was unaware that the music had started, because the old 60s teisco guitar appeared to be on the verge of exploding, and I was under the impression that there was in fact a technical difficulty and not an intro to a song. I was kicking myself for breaking the Dan rule and not checking out Micachu and the shapes beforehand, so I was completely clueless as to their sound. With a synth, a modified acoustic guitar, and a plethora of cowbells, Micachu drenched the mainroom in a blanket of noise, snarls, and intensity. "This is a song about suicide" she croons. The series of tempo changes and clever percussion tricks that ensued made for interesting arrangements and powerful tacks, but there is a reason Micachu and the shapes opened the show.

The crowd was fairly unresponsive when the voice of Bradford Cox appeared behind the curtain which soon began to rise. Nevertheless Deerhunter commanded the stage and ripped through favorites off of Weird Era and Microcastle. The relentless slapback guitar echo paired with a driving beat and the reverb soaked voice of Cox recreated the trademark Deerhunter sound perfectly. About halfway through the set Cox explained that his guitar was really loud because he had just had his amp fixed. "Its like a horny teenager in a chat room" chuckled Cox. Deerhunter acknowledged its inability to connect with a lot of attendees who had presumably come to see Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga-era Spoon and went on to thank the audience for being polite. There were only a handful of kids getting into Deerhunter, and the rest of the crowd seemed to be awkwardly watching a select few rock out.

Britt Daniel and co opened up their set with a track off Transference in a cluster of softly glowing lightbulbs. To my amazement the audience reaction was minimal. Playing to a tough crowd is one thing, but Daniel even made the remark that the audience seemed smaller than the previous night. The unfazed Spoon rocked a good mix of tunes from the past and present, but it were the tracks from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga that finally got the audience into it. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb brought the house down, and Don't Me A Target followed suit. Spoon has got to be one of the tightest bands around. They didn't miss a beat, and despite some new members Spoon looked comfortable and the resulting sound was crisp and well rehearsed. The second encore was the Underdog, which despite the lack of horns was just dazzling. The audience was groovin and Daniel was smiling. It was the perfect way to celebrate First Avenue's 40th, because after 40 years even the underdog can be on top.

-Heiner