Aug 28

Aug 28 Concert review: Beck, Cage the Elephant, and Spoon in Raleigh

When Spoon is a show’s opening act, it's all but guaranteed that a quality night of music awaits.

Though placing such a venerable and still ultra-relevant band like Britt Daniel’s crew in the leadoff position may seem odd to certain camps, it mostly makes sense when the bill’s subsequent sets are by Cage the Elephant and Beck, whose co-headlining Night Running tour stopped at Raleigh’s Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek on Saturday, Aug. 24.

Noticeably happy to be along for the ride and rocking massive amphitheaters with famous friends, Spoon adapted well to its truncated onstage allotment. On the road in support of the recently-released career retrospective Everything Hits At Once and sounding in peak form, Daniel & Co. filled the sprawling outdoor grounds with upbeat jams like “Don’t You Evah” and “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” flexed their dexterity with mid-tempo head-nodders “Inside Out” and a pleasant cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation,” and got pockets of hipsters rightfully bouncing to “I Turn My Camera On.”

Engaging and sonically-pleasing as Spoon’s set was, it felt downright conservative once the stage lights came up on Cage the Elephant. With his band majestically stacked in a tiered arrangement as flames spouted in rhythmic fashion, frontman Matt Shultz entered from stage left and promptly added to his reputation as an exceptional showman.

Leading with “Broken Boy,” the energetic opening track off the group’s 2019 earworm-friendly album Social Cues, the vocalist made a show of progressively shedding his wardrobe, gradually removing such items as a masquerade mask, gloves, and multiple layers of clothing over the course of the set until he was down to a spandex cyclist one-piece.

In the tradition of Freddie Mercury and Iggy Pop, Shultz commanded the stage with near-constant motion that brought him to practically every visible corner, and even down with the audience on multiple occasions. Helping sustain their leader’s action, the band dialed back the intensity for the anthemic “Trouble,” which was handled with equal aplomb before returning to the manic enthusiasm that defined the performance. Seemingly built to rock all night as long as similar recharging moments were sprinkled throughout the set, Cage the Elephant built to a crescendo that ceased somewhat abruptly — though in a manner that only left the satisfied crowd yearning for more top-notch entertainment.

And still there was Beck yet to come. Following a refreshingly brief changeover, the genre-blending veteran answered queries of whether or not he’d play “Loser” — which launched him to stardom 26 years ago — by opening the damn set with what remains his biggest hit, and only grew his hold over the crowd from there.

Seamlessly hopping between albums, from the electro-pop of Midnite Vultures (“Mixed Bizness”) to the eclectic sample-heavy rock of Odelay (“Devil’s Haircut”) and the dance-friendly grooves of Colors (“Dreams”), the impressive stylistic variety made one want to enjoy the moment and, once home, delve back into the quieter Mutations and Morning Phase, neither of which had representatives in the set. Despite their absence, the realization that they issued from the same mind currently controlling the party at hand was somewhat jarring.

Likewise earning a spot on the revisit list is Sea Change, whose “Lost Cause” — paired with a shortened rendition of his Korgis cover “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — formed the evening’s lone laid-back, acoustic stretch.

As the full-band vigor soon returned, somewhere amidst the one-two, pre-encore punch of the jangly piano-driven bop of “Dear Life” and the shred-a-thon known as “E-Pro,” with the crowd in his palm as he moved around the stage with the funky confidence of a 20something, Beck made a strong argument for being crowned the definitive rock star of his time. Again inspiring reflection on his remarkable career, it hit home that perhaps no other living musician has so successfully traversed so many types of music, and been such an enthralling live act. The best analog may be Mick Jagger in the late ‘80s, at a similar distance into his professional life — albeit an alternate version still making daring, important music.

Back from the break with a rousing take on “Where It’s At,” Beck invited Daniel up for a spirited cover of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up.” The Spoon representative then stayed on guitar as the host brought Shultz to the stage for their tour’s namesake song. Resembling one of Alex’s droogs in A Clockwork Orange and moving like a musical ape, Shultz slotted nicely into Beck’s particular brand of elevated pep — and made one want to hear a full album collaboration between the two. Everyone (including unseen show starters Sunflower Bean) then joined in on a second, looser performance of “Where It’s At,” during which Shultz found one of the giant audience-engagement balloons that had made its way onstage, and promptly popped it with a belly flop.

A stunning display of sonic creativity and showmanship, the triple bill was the kind of show that temporarily makes one forget that anyone else on the planet is making music. Though that amnesia soon dissipates, the notion of whether the artists not in attendance are creating songs on the level of Spoon, Cage the Elephant, and Beck, however, is debatable.