Thursday's concert at the Capitol Theatre featuring Spoon, White Rabbits, and the Walkmen represents the fulfilled potential of Daytrotter.com for the Quad Cities.
Since its debut two years ago, Daytrotter has hosted bands for a quick recording session at a downtown Rock Island studio. Periodically, founder Sean Moeller has also organized small concerts at unconventional venues such as Huckleberry's pizza parlor and the Mixtapes record store. If bands are in town for a Daytrotter session, why not squeeze in a show, too? (Sub Pop Records' Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper will play Huckleberry's on Monday, April 7.)
Few of these bands are household names, however. The shows are exciting for music fans on the leading edge, but it's hard to get people out for bands that they haven't heard of.
The Spoon concert represents a major leap forward. This is undoubtedly the hippest and most surprising show in the Quad Cities since Wilco last year.
In an e-mail, Moeller said of the Spoon concert: "We've been going back and forth with their manager for two years trying to have them in [for a Daytrotter session]. He and the band have always wanted to do a session, but it just never worked. We finally had a way to do it with the availability of the Capitol. We're going to be able to bring a lot of people like that here now thanks to that theatre."
Joining Spoon will be two two distinctive up-and-coming acts. Neither is likely to reach Spoon's critical and commercial success - in their idiosyncrasy, they more closely resemble the bands Daytrotter has brought to Huckleberry's - but they're worth hearing, and certainly deserve the larger audience that Spoon will provide.
White Rabbits: Benefits with Friends
