Hey all,
here's my review of Saturday's Spin Doctors show @ The Mirona in Salt, Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
First of all, I need to tell you folks how great, great, great the band sounded. Making it to this show (even from Germany) was absolutely worth it. The band was on fire and played an incredibly strong show - their first gig after a four month break. Aaron told me there was no rehearsal before this show except for the soundcheck at the venue. Here's the setlist.
La Mirona - Salt, Girona, Spain April 12, 2008 What Time Is It? ->
Nice Talking To Me
Off My Line
Cleopatra..s Cat
Little Miss Can..t Be Wrong
Sugar
Jimmy Olsen..s Blues
Can..t Kick The Habit
Margarita
Big Fat Funky Booty ->
Genuine ->
Jam ->
Genuine ->
Lady Kerosene
Two Princes
Encores:
How Could You Want Him
Yo Mama..s A Pajama
At This Hour
More Than She Knows
Details: - first show in four months, without any further rehearsal except soundcheck
- first European show since 2005-03-18
- first "At This Hour" since 2001-09-07 (according to the band)
Yup,
"More Than She Knows" and
"At This Hour". I couldn't believe my ears when they started playing "hour". Chris looked at me and had to grin because when they started with the opening chords of the song, I must have had the most confused expression in my face you can think of. I expected the show to be over after "Yo Mama", but then they treated us with those two classics that weren't on the setlist for years!! Chris explained to me that they rehearsed those songs in the afternoon and liked it, so they decided to "maybe" play them. And fortunately, they did (even with some small mistakes which did not matter at all)...
But hey - praising that awesome 4-song-encore doesn't mean that the rest of the show was bad. It wasn't at all. The guys had so much fun onstage, it was overwhelming. Sure, they played the standard set we know, but they spiced it up with a few surprises: Eric was on fire all night, but the extended jam after "Genuine" was the real thing. Loved it so much, and loved it when Chris and Mark stared at Eric in awe because of what he was playing. The segue of Booty -> Genuine -> Jam -> Lady Kerosene made the audience go crazy.
Speaking of the audience: I..m bad at guessing audiences, but I think it must have been about 600-800 people dancing and partying. Maybe some youtube clips will come up soon as a lot of kids were filming with their mobile phones throughout the show. Funny audience, by the way: lot of people in the 30-50 yrs old slot, but a remarkable amount of younger folks, too. The audience loved Chris as he did literally ALL the banter and announcements in Spanish. My friend who's from Switzerland but lives in Barcelona and had not heard of Spin Doctors except for "Two Princes" really liked the show as well and was impressed by Chris' skills to "win" an audience.
Few more things on the songs: "Nice Talking To Me" was brilliant, I found myself appreciating "the hits" more than ever - I mean, "Little Miss" was stellar, and so was "Jimmy". The crowd digged "Cleopatra's Cat", and "Can't Kick The Habit" ended a bit differently than usual with Chris doing some vocal impromptu stuff. As you know, I love "How Could You Want Him", so I went crazy when they played that one as the first encore. For excited utterances on "At This Hour" and "More Than She Knows", see above.
After the show, my friend and I were invited to have a drink with the band which was awesome, too - great to talk to those down-to-earth guys and to realize how great these four guys are getting along nowadays. Aaron sounded excited about the upcoming shows this summer, by the way.
So again, doing a 36-hours-trip to Girona including 4 flights, 5 hours in trains and only 4 hours of sleep to see your favorite band was one of the best ideas I had in a long time. I mean, they were almost playing "in town" considering the fact that this was their first and only concert on "my" continent since March 2005... ;-)
Even in their 20th year as a band, the Spin Doctors rock big time. Thanks so much, guys.