CONCERT ADDICT CHICK: Spoon @ The Hollywood Palladium

Before Thursday night, I had seen Spoon perform 3 times. The 1st time was at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas Night #2. Night #1 was way more pop rock-ish than Night #2. Night #2 was the indie rock night when Spoon played along with The Shins, The Silversun Pickups, Modest Mouse, Feist & Muse. It was a killer line-up & I was thoroughly impressed. The 2nd time I saw Spoon was at The Hollywood Bowl when they opened for Beck (& MGMT opened for Spoon). MGMT didn't blow me away at the time but Spoon & Beck DEFINITELY did. Beck played 1/2 of his set with The L.A. Philharmonic backing him up & it was amazing. And the 3rd time I saw Spoon was in April at Coachella 2010. Brit Daniel & the boys played the sunset set on the main stage on the 3rd & final day of my 6th Coachella in a row & they were ridiculously awesome. A special treat was when Bradford Cox of Deerhunter joined them for Who Makes Your Money...one of my favorite songs of their most recent album, Transference.

After already seeing Spoon 3 times, you'd think I wouldn't feel obliged to see them again when they came to play another show in Los Angeles on September 30th but they're just SO good live. I had to do it. And, boy, am I happy I did! Out of 4 shows, this was the only time Spoon was the headliner. I'm kinda bummed I missed the opening act, Cold Cave, because I like them & was curious to check them out live but, due to the doors opening at 7pm & a lot of traffic getting to Hollywood, I got inside the venue just AFTER Cold Cave had finished their set. Oh well! All I really cared about was Spoon anyway :-)

I LOVE BRIT DANIEL

There were 2 unexpected perks that made Spoon's Hollywood Palladium show even more bad ass:

1 - My buddy Matt was given some free VIP passes on the day of the show so we got to use a special venue entrance where there was no line, we were able to get drinks from the special VIP bar (also with no line) AND we were able to watch the show upstairs from the VIP balcony! We only spent the last 3rd of the show on the balcony because we were in such a good, close spot down on the floor but it was really cool to get a different view where we could better appreciate the cool stage set-up & sick lighting.

2 - About a week before the show, I saw a post on Spoon's Facebook page that said the 1st however many people to RSVP via Email would get special access to the pit to take some footage of Spoon up close & personal. Of course, I RSVPed immediately. About a week later (& 2 days before the show), I still hadn't heard anything back about whether or not I was going to get into the pit so I decided to send a little follow-up Email...just in case. Only about an hour later, I got the oh-so-exciting response I'd been waiting for! I was granted access to the pit for songs 4-6 of Spoon's set! When the time actually came to go into the pit, Spoon was just starting song #4 of their set & I was SO overwhelmed by getting to be RIGHT next to the stage & Brit Daniel, I didn't even record anything. I was too busy dancing & swooning. I did manage to record songs #5 & 6 though & they just happened to be 2 of my favorites, The Ghost of You Lingers & Who Makes Your Money.