Built to Spill

Wednesday night Trevan, John, and I headed to The Depot to catch Built to Spill; a long running and critically acclaimed indie rock act. Even though this band tours more than any other I know of, it seems as if whenever they are in my town I am always out of town. So I was excited to finally catch this act live! Built to Spill have been around since the early 90's and have released an impressive catalogue of albums. Most commonly they are compared to the legendary indie band Pavement, although I never quite got that comparison. Built to Spill could probably be best described as a jam band with prominent pop elements. I remember discovering their phenomenal 1997 release, "Perfect From Now On" sometime in 2001 and falling into a deep obsession with the band. That album is a pure 90's masterpiece that never looses it's appeal.

While The Depot is my favorite venue in SLC, I do have one gripe about it. Since it is a 21 and over venue, you can drink while watching the band. Yeah, this is cool and all; but they totally take advantage of this by scheduling two openers at every concert (and letting those two openers play for an obscene amount of time) and put 30 minute intermissions in-between each opener; just so they can make a lot of bucks at the bar. While this wouldn't be an issue during the weekend; a weekday concert makes for a very late night (and long, hard morning the next day). Maybe I'm just getting old... But regardless, I had a blast hanging out with Trevan and John during the opening hours.

Built to Spill finally took the stage after two lackluster opening bands, opening with "Traces" which is one of my favorite songs from their newest album. From there the band played songs from all different albums, instead of just focusing on their more recent material. I enjoyed this since their stuff from the late 90's is far superior to their previous two albums (don't get me wrong, their new stuff is pretty damn good too). There were even about four or five songs that I didn't recognize, which I suspect are tracks from their forthcoming (yet to be announced) album. Highlights for me were "Carry the Zero", "Stop the Show", and "Sidewalk". However, the best moment of the show for me was their cover of the Brian Eno song "Third Uncle". Fucking amazing!!!

Although they put on a great show I couldn't help to be slightly disappointed with the fact that they didn't play an of the songs that I REALLY wanted to hear; such as "I Would Hurt a Fly", "The Plan", "Car", or their very best song "Randy Described Eternity". But it's all petty complaints for a truly great and varied show by an awesome band that I will definitely see again next time I have the chance.