Marissa M. Conner 
Indie rock band Spoon will bring nearly three decades of performances, collaboration and original music to a sold-out show at the Englert Theater on Saturday.
The Austin, Texas band stops at the historic theater before heading to Canada as part of a North American tour.
It follows the critically acclaimed album “Lucifer on the Sofa” which the band released in early February, featuring Rolling Stone calls it “the best thing they ever did”.
Spoon told Atwood Magazine in June that the group works hard not to repeattself, instead of trying new things in his sound for his 10th album.
Jim Eno, drummer and founding member of the group, described for the Press-Citizen how it goes in the studio.
Band members will suggest trying sounds they’ve heard on a track or sharing how they like the vibe a song creates. Spoon uses this as a starting point for inspiration, Eno said.
The band has conversations about how to approach a sound differently if someone suspects it’s something they’ve done before.
“I think those conversations were good because they helped us sonically try to do things that are new on every record, as opposed to just like, ‘Oh, we had success on ‘Gimme Fiction,’ let’s just keep doing ‘Gimme Fiction’ – typing things over and over,” Eno said.
Spoon formed in late 1993 with singer-songwriter and guitarist Eno and Britt Daniel, as other musicians entered and left the band over the years.
Eno attributes the band’s enduring quality to Daniel’s “incredible songwriting”.
“The songs are what the discs are built from, so I’m just amazed that he’s writing, in my opinion, the best material he’s ever written, and that’s disc 10. (It’s) pretty mind-blowing “, said Eno. “For me, it’s exciting because I constantly hear great songs and then work on them.”
Whether it’s Daniel’s songwriting to thank or more, Spoon’s four albums from 2000 to 2009 – ‘Girls Can Tell’, ‘Kill the Moonlight’, ‘Gimme Fiction’ and ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” – led to the band being named as Best Overall Artist of the Decade by Metacritic.
The group worked on “Lucifer on the Sofa” before the COVID-19 pandemic, but progress stopped in March 2020, which continued in the following months, reported Rolling Stone. The “silver lining” of the pandemic-related challenges, Eno said, was that a few more songs were written at that time, which made the record “even stronger.”
The 10th album is all rock ‘n’ roll, with Eno describing the second track, “The Hardest Cut”, as “swampy and harsh” with three people on guitar playing it live. He said “Feels Alright” is a “fun to play” song for him.
“It was one of the records that was the easiest to work on live because most of the tracks were performed (with) a lot of live instruments when we recorded it,” Eno said.
With COVID-19 still a concern, Spoon has limited interactions with friends and family on tour, Eno said. If someone gets sick, operations stop. Spoon faced this “nightmare”, as Eno called it.
Still, Eno said the band had found their groove despite the challenge, and it was exciting to play live again because people were craving it.
Previously:Hoyt Sherman chief says venue couldn’t accommodate Spoon’s request for proof of vaccination
“It’s really fun to play a show and then you meet someone where it’s like, ‘This is our first show and it was so amazing and it’s so awesome that you guys are playing again,'” he said. he declared.
With a new album and dozens of songs on nine others, Spoon will weave in new music with his staples during Saturday’s concert.
“We still have a lot of tours planned for this record,” Eno said. “We can’t wait to get back to Iowa. … We always have good shows there. We’re just gonna keep playing because we love playing in front of the fans and we love playing these new songs live.
Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and the arts at Iowa City Press-Citizen. Contact her at [email protected] or (319) 519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.
