Recap: The Spinto Band’s celebratory Cool Cocoon launch (photos, review, setlist)

Returning from an international tour with a new album to launch, The Spinto Band found a homecoming celebration waiting for them at Johnny Brenda’s Saturday night. The Wilmington group, who has been together in some form or another since 1995, packed the venue. It was clear that the show was celebrating more than the new album, Cool Cocoon – particularly when a friend of the band, Pat Finearty, introduced and heckled each band member as they came onstage.

The band’s homecoming aside, its live show reflects the amount of time its members have spent devoted to playing very upbeat music for very happy people. Between their dance moves and their cohesive, explosive presence, the fun that the fellows of The Spinto Band have while playing music is contagious. During “Na Na Na” from the new album, the audience chimed in for the titular chorus. Everyone was swept up into the performance – all the way to the folks fist-pumping in the balcony section.

Yet the most exciting aspect of Saturday night’s show was the album that the release centered on. Cool Cocoon is an unarguably good album. There are moments that sound like early Vampire Weekend, songs which recall old Rogue Wave, and on tracks like “She Don’t Want Me,” the youthful, unpredictable early 2000’s Spinto sound is revitalized. The album has received unanimously favorable reviews, even garnering praise from Pitchfork, who ranked Cool Cocoon as highly as they ranked Nice and Nicely Done back in 2005. The Spinto Band’s album release show was the stuff that indie rock dreams are made of – from the audience perspective, too.  It went neither unnoticed nor unappreciated when Thomas Hughes made a beeline for the merch table as soon as the encore ended so that he could interact directly with the audience members. Nice and nicely done, guys.

Set List
1. The Living Things
2. Summer Grof
3. Trust vs. Mistrust
4. Take It
5. Brown Boxes
6. Shake It Off
7. Later On
8. Memo
9. Look Away
10. Amy & Jen
11. Leave Yourself Alone
12. Spy vs. Spy
13. What I Love
14. Na Na Na
15. Oh Mandy
16. Direct to Helmet

Encore
1. Mountains
2. ?
3. Late