If you’ve noticed a glut of concerts around Portland lately, often with multiple touring acts across the city’s venues, it’s not your imagination. In the first full year after COVID-19 shutdowns, musicians are scrambling to make up for two years of lost income, frantically touring in the post-music-festival days of late summer, competing for bookings and venues — as well as your dollars and attention. For that reason, it was wise of the rock bands Spoon and Interpol to tour together as co-headliners, as they did at Thompson’s Point on Saturday evening, pooling their resources and sharing their audiences.

It is possible, however, there isn’t a wide gap between the fanbases of the two bands. Both bands emerged around the turn of the millennium with effortlessly cool, post-punk songs defined by meaty rhythm sections and economic songwriting; they both combined for nearly three hours of music at Thompson’s Point, and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on the concert. There are naturally differences between the bands — Spoon has a tendency to swing a bit more, while Interpol songs are so rigid and precise that you could set a watch to them—but fundamentally, it would seem they share significant appeal.

By coincidence, both bands were touring remarkably close to the 20th anniversaries of the albums that broke their careers open; Interpol’s “Turn on the Bright Lights” and Spoon’s “Kill the Moonlight” were both released on August 20, 2002, and earned the bands massive acclaim and wider audiences. On this occasion, however, the bands were touring behind excellent 2022 albums—Interpol’s “The Other Side of Make-Believe” and Spoon’s “Lucifer on the Sofa.” Both bands opened their sets with the opening tracks on their new albums, and sampled from both records liberally.

One would be hard-pressed to find much difference between their early and recent work, however. While both bands have grown as songwriters, they’ve also spent decades refining their particular sounds, and finding new things to say with it. Spoon went on stage first and showcased how they adapt their aesthetic to glam rock (“The Beast and Dragon, Adored”), jangle-pop (“The Underdog”), funk (“I Turn My Camera On”), and more, while always sounding like themselves. When they returned to “Kill the Moonlight” material, as with “The Way We Get By,” they accentuated the minimalist grooves they were once known for; the updated version of this sound, on the recent “Wild,” adds more pieces but keeps the fundamental drama in place.

While Spoon’s frontman Britt Daniel, and his whole band by extension, has a warm, everyday charm about him, Interpol’s presentation felt more fortified and cool — maybe it’s the difference between coming up in Austin, Texas, and New York City, respectively. Interpol performed backlit and shrouded in fog, making them resemble faceless, mythic figures. Like Spoon, they too positioned early songs with recent songs in such a way as to show both the throughlines and the evolution of their sound. Early in the set, the explosive choruses of their 2004 song “Evil” sat nicely aside the taut “Fables,” a highlight from their recent album. “Obstacle 1,” their earliest and arguably still best-known hit, gave a stage for drummer Sam Fogarino. His kit was microphoned to perfection, lending additional gravitas to later songs like “Rest My Chemistry.” As with Spoon, the drummer provides a large aspect of the band’s character.

If one act drew the bigger audience, it was difficult to tell. It seemed like Interpol received the more enthusiastic crowd response, but the audience also had an extra hour to enjoy their beer. The combination of the two bands, their pasts and presents, proved a fine combination. At over 20 years, a band’s longevity becomes part of their story, particularly coming out of the past few years, but both bands are acclimating well. That’s the way they get by.

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