The Randolph Street Festival in Chicago is a sort of "Taste of Randolph Street," with booths from area restaurants and businesses selling their overpriced products, and bands playing on a stage throughout the day. The weather was essentially perfect, low 80s with a cool breeze. The first band we really wanted to see was Calexico, a sort of indie-rock/southwestern mariachi music breed. I'd heard good things about them, and we'd played a couple songs on our radio show, so I was excited to see them. They definitely lived up to expectations. There are six members of Calexico, two germans, two guys from Tuscon, AZ, one from Nashville, and one other whose origins are unknown. What a random combination to create this kind of sound. They had a large variety of instruments, including trumpets, an accordion, a contra-bass, maracas, and various types of keyboards. We only caught about 4 songs, but this band was extremely fun and I'll definitely be getting their latest cd.

After Calexico, the crowd dissapated quickly, leaving us plenty of room to get right up front for Spoon. After about 15 minutes, Britt and the band (including the smallest bassist ever, who could fit in the palm of my hand) came out to set up, Britt looking all cool in his button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, until he put on a pair of turquoise plastic sunglasses, which he ended up wearing for half the concert. After 45 minutes of waiting and a minor celebrity spotting (Brendan Leonard, Chicago resident and host of ABC Family's The Brendan Leonard Show), they finally came out to play. I noticed their set list taped on the drumset, and it looked extremely long, which got me very excited . . . until I remembered how short their songs really are! It seemed like they were blazing through them at top speed. Spoon opened with Small Stakes, which was very enjoyable. Britt Daniel strikes me as an extreme perfectionist, as nothing seemed to be right for him, especially the keyboard. He spent a lot of time trying to fix things that were completely unnoticable to me, though I guess that's why he's the musician and I'm just a fan. He also is pretty funny to watch, he kind of plays while doing this dance that's sort of a mix of the Robot and the Moonwalk. Also, while I think he has a really cool voice, I've always thought it kind of sounds like he's singing with something in his mouth. Well here I realized what it is: his tongue. He kind of sticks it out while he's singing.

Anyway, they played quite a bit from Kill the Moonlight and Girls Can Tell, including an excellent Lines in the Suit and Anything You Want, two of my favorite Spoon songs. However . . . there was one song above all that I wanted to hear, my favorite Spoon song of all: Everything Hits at Once. I figured this was a minor hit for them, with a video and everything, so there was no way they weren't going to play it. Unfortunately, my deep desire to hear this song made me increasingly anxious as the concert went on and they weren't playing it. Soon, they'd left the stage, and I thought to myself, "well, it's probably a good encore song, they'll play it then." NOT THE CASE. Actually, the encore was a bit weak in my opinion; they played Car Radio and Metal School from A Series of Sneaks, both good but short songs, and then ended with a song I didn't recognize at all. This left me incredibly unfulfilled, though admittedly by my own fault for wanting so badly to hear one song and one song alone. I think Britt owes me an apology and a private concert where they just play Everything Hits at Once over and over again.

-Nicole