Captured! By Robots -- Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City, UT (11.16.02)
Posted by Evocator Manes on 11.18.2002
Spectacle phenom, a couple of local acts + Earlier Salt Lake local bonus coverage. Ohhh baby, you just can’t miss this....
Contractually Obligated Advertisement: Sometimes people don’t recognize me when I go out. And I go out to a fair amount of live shows. That’s why I carry the 411 Widro Express card. And a pistol. Like Wu-Tang said, “good thing I brought the Glock.” Never leave home without it.
That said, I would like to correct the preceding statement. People never recognize me when I go out because I am faceless, nameless, silent and I move like the wind. I go out a fair amount of time, lurking here and there to haunt various venues, which is odd, because I typically intensely dislike live shows in general. I don’t mind playing them (or rather, I didn’t mind, when I was still playing them), but have a harder time sitting through one while in the audience. That goes for anyone, national acts, local acts, dog and pony shows, etc. I can barely tolerate live CDs, though that is for another reason. My basic contention is that live, the songs just don’t sound as “good”, for lack of a better description.
Anyway, after that fun time-waster, let me tell you about last eve. Earlier this month, I observed in one of the piss-poor content-free so-called “newspapers” we are plagued with here in Salt Lake City (henceforth referred to as SLC), that the infamous band Captured! By Robots was going to be in town tearing it up and wrecking shit. As I had missed them last time around due to oversight and laziness, I made a special note to have my rock journalist friend (Brian Staker, who will be appearing also later in this report) remind me, as he goes to a zillion more shows than I do and could be counted on to not let me forget this momentous occasion.
So, last eve, as I was saying, I get a call and we motor on down to the Urban Lounge, located in the outskirts of the downtown area. Now, this club used to be called the Holy Cow and I had not been there in at least three or four years, not at all since the name change. When we got there, the shitty parking was still much in effect and the inside of the building looked gutted, with plaster board and ceiling braces visible everywhere. Classy. Now, we got down there around 10:15 p.m. or so, about fifteen minutes after the “standard” start time for most shows, if there is an opening act. Tonight, there were to be two before the main event of Captured!. One was supposed to be some white rapper named Poopy-D, who didn’t manage to even do a damn show.
Scratch him and add the Chinese All-Stars. First up, though, was a band called Die Monster, Die!. The band had a huge backdrop, tons of skulls and other random shit for props, flashing lights, lots of those, those paper flame things, smoke machines and a host of other clothing-like accouterments, such as masks, Viking helmets, blood on the chest that looked like Kool-Aid, you get the drift. The band overall looked somewhat similar to GWAR crossed with Slipknot. With that dominant of a look, it would be easy to expect heavy metal and if you did, my friends, you would be dead wrong. The band is much more interested in punk, sounding like an poor man’s Danzig heavily leaned upon by Billy Idol. If there is any impression I take away with me the most, at least of their sound that is, it is the fact that despite their “horror” type look and goofy lyrics, they were near dead ringers for Billy Idol. I even contemplated asking them to play White Wedding, Rebel Yell or Mony, Mony , but I held myself in check. Somehow, I desisted, but Lord it was hard and Lord was I tempted.
The biggest problem with this band was not so much their sound, it was that they decided they had to be “rock stars” and take their lame asses on stage late. And by late, I mean heavily late. Here is a bit of advice for any local up and coming band. Don’t be dicks. If you go on late, shorten your set. Not only did DMD go on late, but then the assholes played not only their full set, but further extended it, nevermind the fact that the crowd just wanted them to get off the damn stage by their sixth song. Part 2 of that same advice. If you are an opener, chances are extremely high that less than 10% of the audience is there to see you. Leave the audience wanting more, definitely do not get to the point of saturation, like these clowns did, by playing their fucking CD over the PA as soon as they got off stage. That behavior is asinine and ridiculous and won them exactly 0 new fans and potential opening slots. Bands, if you want to dick around endlessly, headline your own damn show. Do not wreck everyone else’s set when you are an opener.
Anyway, next up was a band called the Chinese All-Stars, created from a somewhat large number of other bands. These guys are all very cool people and excellent players. The guitarists, CJ and T-Bone, are both fantastic players, while their lead singer, Dustin, is one of the most dynamic frontmen currently playing music today. He is probably easily the most interesting of any Salt Lake band, except for perhaps the Unlucky Boys (Sweatin’ Willy). The guy bounces around like a pinball up risers and over monitors and into the crowd, leaving no one out. As for the sound, the band has not been together a very long time, so there were a few rough spots that still need to be worked out, but overall, they were a very enjoyable act. The set was shortened slightly in accommodation of Captured!, something the first band could not be bothered with. Their sound was reminiscent of an earlier Rollins Band, with a few touches of Guided By Voices chucked in. Definitely, good solid, rockin’ stuff. These guys will be one to watch.
Sometime after last call (around 12:30 a.m. - 12:45 a.m. here), JBOT and the armada of robot musicians took the stage. If you have never seen this act live, do yourself a huge favor and check them out. While the music is essentially moshy heavy metal, it is the vast amount of engineering and technology that goes into the show that makes it such an experience. These are probably the greatest props ever devised as they create a dense wall of sound that rivals any human band playing out there. It seems to be mainly done with motors, circuitry and compressed air and the effect is unreal to watch the ‘bots not only play the songs but interact with their prisoner, JBOT. If you haven’t done so already, check out the website , which will give you a better idea of the ‘bots and the band itself. CBR is a true technological marvel.
So, we didn’t get out of there until sometime close to 2 a.m. and unfortunately, by that time, most of the audience was ready to flee for the doors. It was not Captured!’s fault, they put on a definite ass-kickin’ show. All through the night, various people tried to get a mosh pit going, but it never took off, except for sporadic moments during the Captured! set. I happened to be right up front, nearly in the damn stage and it was truly mesmerizing, which I suspect may be a slight curse for JBOT and the machinery. They just want to get people rocking, but the visuals are so arresting, it is easy to forget entirely about the music, just watching GTRBOT666 cleverly create chords on the Flying V guitar/bass. The only minor complaint I have about the show is the damn gorillas, which is a touch of overkill to a otherwise nicely done tongue in cheek joke.
I Got Your Bonus Coverage Right Here
I was originally not even going to bother with this show, but as it does tie in a bit with the show I just did, what the Hell. Fold it all into one report and run it. It’s not as if we have a plethora of live show reports as it is.
That show took place on November 2nd, 2002, at a different venue, this one called Todd’s Bar and Grille, just off the I-15 freeway. Now, both of the venues, Urban Lounge and Todd’s, are smallish venues. Neither one has a dressing room to speak of and both probably hold maybe a hundred or so people max. Todd’s is a bit more well-done, though, with a working fireplace, finished walls and even a kitchen.
The show on this night was a Halloween show a few days late for Get Stakerized!, who would be opening the show, followed by Bad Apple, then the headliner Rodeo Boys. There is a trend going around SLC, in which members of nearly every band are also in about five or six others. As you might expect, this does cut heavily on the efforts they can concentrate on any one particular effort. Get Stakerized! is a bit different, as it is the vision of Brian Staker, resident genius of SLC. If experimental wackiness and general unpredictability is your thing, definitely check this act out if you get a chance. The theme has been in flux since it’s genesis and sometime you can watch the evolution as it happens live on stage. You just never know what you will get.
This time, Stakerized! was joined with industry heavy King D sitting in on guitar. With that line-up, the GS! song set list takes on much greater dynamics and heaviness. Apparently, the act was supposed to have a drummer, but for whatever reason, they didn’t, so the double axe guitar-slinger show went on instead. They did this act during the Olympics also, in one of the greatest displays of sheer musicianship ever before witnessed. There is a short list of great guitarists in SLC and the King is right at the top, simply unmatched in tone and inventiveness. Tonight, he was making some sort of statement, with white face paint, with a red slashed out circle drawn through it. Sadly, I was unable to find out exactly what the statement was to be as he refused to speak to anyone and left immediately at the conclusion of the set.
As for their set itself, as they went on slightly late due to a soundman fuck-up, it was abbreviated somewhat, perhaps prompting the early departure of the mighty one. The sound is difficult to describe, with King D’s manic churning on the guitar buffered and tempered by the frenzied soloing and slightly dissonant and muddied tone of Stakerized!, thanks in part to some new shitty pedal, which itself was a direct result of the previous GS! show at the same venue, as Staker got too tanked and fucked his equipment up the middle of a solo. They did have a drummer that time, though. The thing about Staker is that when he’s on, he is the white Jimi Hendrix. The guy solos like a damn fiend. But, in his lust for experimentation, sometimes things don’t work out always quite so well. There is a air of excitability surrounding any of his performances, though, to the point where bands have invited him to “guitar-synch” while they are playing a set. His antics are incredible, but I see their point. When he starts to blaze on the guitar, it comes with no warning and there is no way of knowing what he will play and what the sound that he is making will do to whatever song they may happen to be playing.
The show that night doubtless would have worked better with a drummer. As it was, something was missing. Even still, the audience seemed heavily into their show. As for myself, the fretwork of King D was nothing short of masterful, though his guitar was a bit low in volume for my taste. The parts where he alone accompanied Staker, who was doing vocals and no guitarwork, were simply tasty. I have understood that these two are forming a new band called The Warbirds, which will probably lean more heavily towards a dense, thumping metal sound, if I had to guess. As of yet, they do not have a drummer or bassist, though, so who knows. I heard later it was King D’s last appearance with GS! in the two-guitar format.
After GS!, who put the rock in ummm rock, Bad Apple took the stage next. This band is a power trio, with harmonic vocals and fairly straightforward riffs and interplay between bass and guitar. Without getting too tendentious, even though I like all the band personally, Bad Apple is just not my thing. They sounded good, as usual, but they are bit too tame, too pedestrian and run of the mill for my taste. I much prefer T-Bone (in both bands) in the Chinese All Stars.
Finally came The Rodeo Boys, the headliner. Perhaps I was tired, perhaps I was overwhelmed by the spirit of adventure and danger in GS!. Whatever the case, this band struck me as interesting in concept, but execution seemed to be lacking something. Then again, a drumset, two acoustic guitars and a keyboard does not seem particularly inspiring. All in all, they sounded ok. It may too have been the crowd, which was thin to partly dead throughout the night. Then again, Low was playing just down the street, which may have explained that situation.
The 411: Definitely check out Captured! By Robots at least once. As they are in the middle of a huge nationwide-tour, they will probably get in your locale sometime. As for the rest, if you happen to be in SLC, Get Stakerized! and Chinese All Stars are very viable entertainment options, though the former plays very sporadically at best.
