An appearance by a popular band out of Austin, Texas, at a Portland party Friday is still reverberating through the local rock scene.
After appearing at the State Theatre Friday night, Spoon, a five-member band that appears on the late night talk show circuit and was featured on Saturday Night Live, walked down Congress Street to an after party at the Empire concert venue. There they hopped onto the stage and took over the instruments.
“It was very exciting,” said Todd Bernard, an Empire partner, who only heard about it secondhand.
The party was organized by Portland musician Jeff Beam, 27, whose band had planned as a tribute to play all the songs from Spoon’s first two albums.
Beam handed out fliers to the 2,000 concert goers hoping some would show up at the Empire after Spoon’s concert. He tried to send Spoon an invitation via several channels. This was Spoon’s first appearance in Maine.
“We didn’t know how receptive they would be or even if they would get the invitation,” Beam said.
There were about 50 people at the party about an hour after the Spoon concert ended.
“I had zero expectations,” said Beam, who normally plays his own original music.
Then the band walked in just as Beam and his band had started playing songs from Spoon’s fourth album, “Kill the Moonlight.”
“Surreal is the word,” said Beam.
After a couple of songs, Spoon took over the instruments, playing “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” and “Jonathon Fisk.”
Beam said Spoon bought everyone drinks and seemed pleased about Beam and his band’s performance.
“They are really cool people willing to be open-minded enough to show up and have this spontaneous moment,” said Beam.
Even though Spoon had to be in Delaware the next day and Montreal the day after, they stayed for an hour.
Beam has been hearing from a lot of people who wished they hadn’t skipped the party, including Bernard who was at his daughter Lila’s seventh birthday party on Vinalhaven instead. Bernard said he wished he could have made the Spoon after- party as well.
“It sounds like an epic evening,” said Bernard.
This story was updated at 7:39 p.m. to correct the description of Spoon’s album “Kill the Moonlight.” A previous version incorrectly identified it as the band’s second album, not its fourth.
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