Live music review: All the Weird Kids Up Front – Spoon at Mohawk Austin

Editor’s note: Today’s review is from Zack Teibloom, a local Austin writer we’ve been friends with for years. After an extended hiatus from live music coverage, Teibloom returns in a big way with a stellar review of Spoon’s underplay at Mohawk last night. Find Zack on Instagram and Twitter. All photos by Ryan Vestil.

“Let me get a pic of the hardcore Spoon fans,” a Mohawk employee said, pulling out his phone.

“You mean all the weird kids up front?” one of the collected said, wryly smiling.

This exchange outside of Mohawk between a venue employee and one of a half-dozen self-identifying “weird kids up front” (a Spoon lyric), a shade after 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, was the beginning of a special 36 hours in Austin for 400 fortunate fans and their plus-ones.

At 10:02 a.m. Wednesday, Spoon announced a next-day hometown show via social media—on sale at noon, in person, for $20 cash. I biked up at 10:45 hoping I wasn’t too late. I was fourth in line.

It set up one of those magic nights in Austin where everything falls into place, and you remember why you put up with the heat and skyrocketing rent and everything else the “Austin used to be…” crowd likes to remind you. Some nights, if you find yourself in the right place at the right time, there’s nowhere better to be. And this was sure one of ‘em.

I strolled into Mohawk at 8:15 p.m. Thursday after finishing a world-class dinner and drinks at one of the hottest tables in town, Lutie’s Garden Restaurant, to see Walker Lukens and band in fine form. By the time I settled in the balcony with a cocktail an old bartender friend mixed up, I got to see Walker introduce the band, experience a blistering sax solo, and witness a superb cover of Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again.” I’d somehow never previously seen the Austin-based Walker Lukens, and this is a mistake I need to correct soon with a full set. I loved every minute of the four songs we got to see and was happy to recognize Jackie O’Brien and Curtis Roush of Bright Light Social Hour playing with them. After a quick vinyl DJ set from DJ Sue, it was time for the main event.

“Is this real life?!” Spoon lead singer/guitarist Britt Daniel said as he took the stage to the eager crowd around 9:15. “That was one of the best walk-ons we’ve ever had.” Daniel could feel the palpable energy immediately, and there was no better night to be touring a greatest hits album. Spoon knows what fans want. They literally asked, putting together a fan-selected best-of “All the Weird Kids up Front” for Record Store Day as a supplement to their also great “The Best of Spoon.” 

The setlist Thursday pulled heavily from both compilations, with “Don’t Make Me a Target,” “The Fitted Shirt,” and “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” from the fan-chosen best-of, and “I Turn my Camera On,” “Do You,” “Inside Out,” “Don’t You Evah,” “The Underdog,” “Got Nuffin,” and closer “Rent I Pay” from their true best-of. It all hit.

Spoon knows the power of playing a smaller Austin club when they could easily sell out several days of Stubbs months in advance. Twenty-dollars cash when you might pay almost that much in fees for a bigger venue felt like the best deal in town, especially on a night when I paid $17 for a cocktail up the road on Red River at Lutie’s.

“The spirit of Austin is on full blast,” Daniel said a few songs in. “You can feel it the last few months.”

I knew exactly what he meant. After a year and a half away, the Austin I fell in love with the last dozen years is back, and I think we all have a newfound appreciation for it. My favorite moments were the beautifully haunting “Inside Out” and the pitch-perfect cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation,” a brave choice to start an encore, but it was all the hits, all night long for a music town desperate to have nights like this again post-pandemic.

Because of the way Mohawk folds in on itself with multiple balconies of varying heights, you inevitably see everyone you know who you’d think might be there. A crowd of familiar faces, where you find yourself bumping into a whole batch of old show friends, bartenders, and photographers whom you forgot how much you missed when the world was closed. Everyone came out for this one, and they were given exactly what they came out for. 

Love to the weird kids up front.