Live Review: Spoon, Deep Sea Arcade, Hockey Dad

Hockey Dad may have played to larger crowds than the one that showed up early enough to catch this warm-up set, but not often on a stage as large as the Metro’s.

Despite being a two-piece, the band’s sound dwarfed the space, with huge hooks and splashy drum fills flying every which way. The no-half-measures medley of I Need A Woman into Seaweed was a bona fide crowd-pleaser, but perhaps more interesting was the handful of new tracks peppering the set. It was also encouraging to see the young band playing to an older crowd, who, for the most part, marvelled at their energy and charisma.

Maybe it was singer Nic McKenzie’s awkward stage presence, floating around the stage more like a karaoke singer than a frontman, but Deep Sea Arcade had a fair bit of trouble hitting their mark. New songs, which played up the band’s psych influences, were heavy on groove, but couldn’t lift the energy like their time-tested, poppier album tracks. There were just enough of these to keep the crowd on side, but by the end of their set it was abundantly clear who that crowd had all come to see.

Spoon have decades of experience under their collective belt, both in writing and performance, and this experience culminates in a brilliant show. The band is more dynamic live than on record, and frontman Britt Daniel is a captivating presence, whose voice really captures your attention. Their set spanned their entire illustrious career, showing off the band’s best songs.

Rainy Taxi made room for chaotic, keyboard-smashing solos from touring multi-instrumentalist addition Alex Fischel, but Don’t Make Me A Target’s heart-pumping mid-song tempo change elicited the first real roar from the crowd, as acerbic guitars piled on top of heavy, distorted keys. The band’s new singles, Do You and Inside Out, were both great showcases for Daniel’s impassioned vocals, and the latter gave him a chance to really explore the stage, whilst a tapestry of dueling, effected keys and steady drums held things down. The band aptly finished off the night with an Eddy Current Suppression Ring cover, followed by their two most upbeat songs, You Got Yr Cherry Bomb and The Underdog, during which the rapt crowd filled in for the absent horn parts, hands in the air.