War on Drugs are the boss Americana band of these times, and Spoon are the beloved of Rock’n’roll obsessives. Their Spark Arena show is at the pinnacle of popular music.
American music is that country’s greatest contribution in conquering the world. The greatest art aspires to change consciousness in an instant of enlightenment. Whereas war is a constant of human nature and outbreaks of peace are rare.
The name of the band is both a misdirection and a portal.
Americana music was formed in the crucible of mass migration from the British Isles and Eurasia. The foundation of Folk and Country is Celtic and Gaelic music. When it was lost in the original countries, it was found in pristine form throughout the vast Badlands and mountain ranges of the USA.
We are not forgetting the essential contribution of Black America. Neither of these bands have Black members. The cultures are more intertwined than you may imagine, though.
Jazz was considered a part of Folk music initially. Thelonius Monk will set you straight. He told Dylan that in 1961.
Many white Country artists played and developed Blues in the early twentieth century. Many Southern Blacks listened to and loved traditional Country music.
James Brown recorded for a long time on the King/Federal label. Primarily a Country and Bluegrass record label.
It is important that both these bands are not bending to any tokenism and bowing to any pressure to be inclusive. That is such a demeaning practice. And this is not our fate/ So let us stop talkin’ falsely now.
War on Drugs were formed in Philadelphia in 2005 by Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile. They were friends and occasional collaborators prior, but what is important to note is that they shared a geeks obsession around Bob Dylan. As we all do.
Over the years and up to their breakthrough album Lost in the Dream, Granduciel has been the constant player and obvious leader.
They open with An Ocean in Between the Waves. The template is laid down here. I would like a better name, but post-Springsteen is accurate at least.
Take the charging guitars of the E-Street Band and intertwine it like double-helix DNA with synths and keyboards. You have a glorious wall of sound, which lays the bed from which all manner of musical elements can fire off.
It has the same emotional charge of Phil Spector and the legendary Wrecking Crew. How do Girl Groups connect with Americana?
The heart and soul of Springsteen’s music come from there. From Be My Baby to Born to Run. The Beatles debut album in 1963 is a direct homage, whilst being great Americana in hindsight.
Pain continues the same line, but with Granduciel phrasing like Dylan ’65.
Strangest Thing has a slower tempo to begin and soon charges off into familiar E-Street rhythmic fire.
Some commentators have criticised the lack of black rhythmic innovation like Funk in the Bosses songs. There were more Blacks in his band than there were in his audience. That was Clarence Clemons until he passed away. That number is one, which means zero in his audience.
He addressed that from the stage, when he last played in New Zealand at Mt Smart Stadium. Our music is a tribal thing.
It is true I did not see, apart from myself, any other brown-eyed handsome men or women in the audience tonight. Tribalism is deep human nature and is at the heart of constant warfare. And that is what art seeks to overcome by the revolution in the head.
Harmonia’s Dream is just one of many tour-de-forces. Sweet melodic electronic music starts, and slowly rises in grandeur. Synchronicity that Kraftwerk played the day before.
Saxophone plays deep single-note tones. Several times the guitars will extend in Neil Young with Crazy Horse fashion. The bedrock drone tones underpin. East and West merge. There is some connection to Lou Reed’s Street Hassle, where Springsteen does contribute a vocal cameo.
The six-piece band is a well-oiled machine. I can accurately identify Robbie Bennett keyboards, Jon Natchez saxophone, Eliza Jones keyboards and guitar, Anthony LaMarca keyboards and guitar. Cannot accurately identify the engine room drummer and bass guitar.
Red Eyes. I wonder if they are post-Husker Du as well.
An Americana version of Stairway to Heaven? Big and nasty guitars and then you hear Grandpa pissed his pants again/ He don’t give a damn. It’s Warren Zevon’s All Night Long!
I Don’t Live Here Anymore is a reflection on America as it has been heading in the last decade. Close to a quiet masterpiece and name drops another one in the lyrics for good measure.
I know it ain’t like I remember/ I guess my memories run wild/ Like when we went to see Bob Dylan/ We danced to Desolation Row/ But I don’t live here anymore.
Told you he’s a Blind Boy Grunt geek, and you can dance to They’re selling postcards of the hanging.
Spoon are 30 years old, almost double that of War on Drugs. They formed in Texas in 1993 with Britt Daniel and Jim Eno the founders of this cult classic Rock’n’roll band.
This is a genuine double bill tonight as both bands are of equal artistic merit.
Spoon have rejuvenated themselves with an album released early this year, Lucifer on the Sofa, which is amongst their best.
They blast off in the best bar-band and Garage Rock tradition with Wild. Intoduced by Toots and the Maytal classic single 54-46 Was My Number blasting over the big speakers.
Lead singer and guitarist Daniel gets straight into work, fast and loud Rock’n’roll and phrasing like Dylan. A common theme tonight.
He moves and dances on stage like Mick Jagger. All skinny arms and legs. He looks like Brian Jones as I know from the video evidence.
I presume Eno is still drumming. The engine room of this band is wonderful.
They have a guitarist and keyboard player who resembles Jerry Garcia and Lowell George all wrapped in one chubby package. That could be a good name for him. He plays air guitar with a real one. Then he does boogie-woogie piano as well as some Garth Hudson style inspired noodling which was a hallmark of the Band. Go Chubby Package!
As well as touching on Dylans most famous backing band (Play it fucking loud Robbie!) they also wail their way through Garage Rock, Stomp Boogie, Jook Joint, shades of the Cramps, British Invasion Rock with of course electrified R’n’B.
That makes them Americana and they carry the Wild Gift of Rock’n’roll as much as Los Angeles Punk band X did on their classic album with that name.
Brett Daniel has a great gritty tenor voice, and he is brilliant on the cover of John Lennon’s Isolation. You’re just a human/ A victim of the insane/ We’re afraid of everyone/ Afraid of the sun. Isn’t that the truth these days. I think he yells Salvation at the end, or else I feel it.
They can delve deep into Big Star and Alex Chilton psychodrama with My Mathematical Mind and I Turn My Camera Off.
They have a Power Pop side and Inside Out is perfect as that.
First time I have seen Spoon live, and they are a powerful stage presence which contains multitudes in music. I think that is their mission in life.
Rent I Pay begins with the melody line of the Rolling Stones You Can’t Always Get What You Want. They expand it out from there.
Read the interview with Britt Daniel as he talks about Spoon and Heading to New Zealand in 2023.
Indigo Sparke did open, but I only caught their last song. Early start, you know. Next time then.
War on Drugs finish with Thinking of a Place. We know it’s the final act of a magnificent show, so it feels like a genuine benediction.
Read the review of War on Drugs latest album I Don’t Live Here Anymore.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Brenna Gotje
War on Drugs
Spoon
