Photo from heyrocker’s Flickr

Last night Spoon played an epic-length set to a sold-out Showbox. I’ve been a bit of a Spoon apologist in the past, defending the verve and wit of their albums over some underwhelming local festival performances at last year’s Bumbershoot or this year’s Capitol Hill Block Party.

The performance was a kick-off of sorts for the band, beginning a proper club tour after a summer of similar outdoor festivals and teeming crowds. Overall the band was in fine form, obviously comfortable and in command on stage. Part of this ease could be credited to the fact that half the band now resides in the Northwest, with singer Britt Daniel living in Portland and bass player Rob Pope living here in Seattle.

Starting the set off with “Small Stakes,” the band was soon joined by the horn section of openers Black Joe Louis, for “I Got Yr Cherry Bomb.” A guitar solo during “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case,” snarled and thrashed out of the delicate boundaries of the song before lapsing into the longing of “Someone Something.”

Throughout the show, Jim Eno’s drumming was crisp, tasteful, and nuanced. Eno really knows how to get the most out of each hit and his control was evident on songs like “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine,” where the tempo subtly flexed at the seams of the song; speeding up slightly and then hanging back on the beat, in synch with the song’s musical dynamics. An extended encore pulled upon songs from Girls Can Tell, ending the night with an extra R&B swagger to Spoon’s sharp rock and post-punk edges.

The evening’s openers, Black Joe Louis were flat out awful. Obviously capable musicians all, their flat take on the blues was a trial to endure. There’s only so much that can be done in the confines of the 12-bar blues and often the best relies on the old adage that “less is more.” With a full horn section and keys, Black Joe Louis were suffering from bloat with no real stand-out soloist to elevate the affair beyond the stale strictures of the pentatonic scale.