Spoon with Great Northern, Buffalo Killers and Happy Chichester, LC Pavilion, 12-3

“Indie rock” has become somewhat of a meaningless term over the last few years, with plenty of bands who are by no means independent being tagged with the descriptor. The term also assumes all rock on an independent label must sound similar by nature of its origin. Such is the difficulty and danger of attempting to put music into neat little categories. But, the term has begun permeating the mainstream, finding its way into movies, TV shows and dozens of commercials aimed at the coveted 18-30 demographic. And when a genre is that pervasive and accepted, it makes sense to use it, misnomer or not.

Spoon embodies the indie rock ethos, and I for one am glad to see the band gain in popularity the last couple of years after toiling away since 1994. Spoon didn’t have a Garden State to catapult it to the level of the Shins, or a crossover single delivered to the masses like Modest Mouse (“I Turn My Camera On” came close), but the popularity of the indie rock genre and the band’s clever re-inventions on a succession of albums (and locally, a good amount radio airplay) have enabled Spoon to reach that first tier of indie rock recognition.

Britt Daniel is Spoon. He’s an unassuming guy, to the point where he walked through the crowd beforehand without most people ever noticing. He’s like the nondescript guy from every college dorm who keeps a low profile and always looks like he just woke up. But the style he has created for the band is truly his own, with a scratchy-but-soulful voice scraping away over sharp, quick guitar and piano. It’s as if every instrument in Spoon is part of the rhythm section, which creates plenty of space for quirky musical gestures and avoids claustrophobic tendencies.

Daniel and his Austin, Texas, cohorts communicated almost all of that uniqueness live, making the show a real treat for longtime fans and first-timers. While the set was heavy on cuts from this year’s confusingly titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon broke out some oldies, too, opening the show with a great version of “If You Say So” from 1996’s All the Negatives Have Been Destroyed. Daniel played his guitar like a jackhammer and sang with passion on danceable burners such as “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “Rhthm & Soul” and “Don’t Make Me a Target,” with lyrics about “nuclear dicks with dialect drawls” who “come from a parking lot town.”

There were a couple of weak points. “The Ghost of You Lingers” could have been cut from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and the same went for the live set. The horn section on “The Underdog” was sorely missed. Also, the person manning the sound board perpetually added short blasts of reverb and echo to Daniel’s vocals. I assume this was at the request of the band, but it came off as unnecessary and distracting--almost as distracting as the drunken college student who repeatedly attempted to talk to me about the 2008 presidential election during the concert, then asked if I would return something to Global Gallery for him. ($5 tickets = more beer money = muchos drunkenness.)

But the negatives shouldn’t be overstated. Spoon saved up a whole lot of energy for a taut encore that ripped through tunes such as “Japanese Cigarette Case” and “I Turn My Camera On,” ending the night strong and cementing its place among indie rock royalty.

Three other bands opened the show, and I was most impressed by the atmospheric pop of Great Northern. The crowd as a whole never really seemed to buy into it, which made the band’s set seem a little more ho-hum than it should have. Great Northern played a new song that the band admitted wasn’t fully complete yet, and it showed, but otherwise the songs were well-crafted with borderline boy-band melodies disguised by lots of Silversun Pickups-style guitar feedback, keys, synth and Rachel Stolte and Solon Bixler’s lush vocals. It was super-catchy stuff, and the arrangements and ambience kept things interesting.

Buffalo Killers, a three-piece from Cincinnati, played southern garage rock in the vein of Kings of Leon with louder guitars and lots more hair. The bluesy riffs evoked Hendrix while brothers Zachary and Andrew Gabbard emitted phlegmy yowls over top. I couldn’t help thinking how great the songs would be on Guitar Hero. Local stalwart Happy Chichester opened the show solo with some uptempo acoustic numbers and moody piano, and his tunes just keep getting better. Still, I again lament the fact that performing solo has become the art of how to use a loop pedal. Solo musicians: It’s OK to just use a guitar and your voice. No one will think less of you.