Miniature Tigers/Spinto Band Show Wrap-Up

Delaware's finest, The Spinto Band, at Waiting Room 8/5/10

Made it out to The Waiting Room last night for a great indie pop show featuring The Spinto Band and Miniature Tigers. I missed the set from opener The Delta Mirror, but I heard they were really good, and were comparable to Interpol, among others. The Spinto Band was up next, and these guys were excellent. The band's sound is sort of like a mix between Vampire Weekend and The Shins with a little early period Beach Boys thrown in for good measure. Going into the show, I had only heard the Spinto Band's 2008 CD, Moonwink, which is great. I picked up a copy of an earlier disc called Nice and Nicely Done, which is supposedly better than the one I already have. We shall see.

The Spinto Band put on a feisty, energetic show; and despite the sparseness of the crowd, they did their damnedest to engage the audience and get them (us) involved in the show. Being the jaded older guy that I am, I stayed at the bar. When the brief set was over, I found myself wanting some more. That is a rarity these days, where I keep wondering when bands' sets will be over! The Spinto boys would ultimately return to the stage before the night was over.

I really enjoyed the Miniature Tigers first EP, Black Magic, and its first full length, Tell It To the Volcano, and I played both on my show. I'm still getting to the new one, FORTRESS. That being said, in a live setting, I didn't like the band as much. The songs seemed unusually slow, and the performances seemed lifeless and dull. Gradually, the band got better; and by the end of the set, they were really great. Still, it should not have taken 20 minutes to get up to speed, so to speak.

For the encore, Miniature Tigers brought up Spinto Band and members of the crowd

For the last couple of songs, Miniature Tigers' front man, Charlie Brand, invited on stage not only the members of The Spinto Band, but the members of the audience, too. Only about a half dozen or so folks from the crowd availed themselves of the opportunity to jump on stage. Still, it looked like they were having a great time.

I left the show as a bigger fan of The Spinto Band than I had been before. As for the Tigers, I would definitely not rule out seeing them in the future even though I had some issues with the early part of their set.