Concert Reviews
Fischerspooner at the Avalon
Casey Spooner stood upon a mirrored box, raised his arms to the audience, his face lighted up by a half-halo-half-lamp hat placed carefully atop his head. Four giant mirrors behind him reflected his image in quadruplicate. Then dancers in nude body suits rolled around or haphazardly marched across the stage like broken robots.
Is this hipster Vegas?
Not quite. Welcome to the house of Fischerspooner, the performance art-turned-electroclash duo who provided a beat-pumping, catwalk-strutting soundtrack to the early 2000s. At Saturday’s performance at the Avalon, Fischerspooner unleashed the whimsical world of their new highly theatrical stage show, nearly 11 years after they emerged in New York City’s (sort of) experimental scene. Known almost equally for their stage show as their sound, the Avalon performance proved to be no different as a cornucopia of stimuli was served up. A large projection of the troupe in rehearsals (oh, how post-modern…) glowed above stage while the dancers changed from the silver tutus of their bionic-ballerina get-ups to those not-quite-naked bodysuits.
Oh yeah, and there’s some music too.
Running through songs from their old catalog and the big hits from 2005’s crossover album, “Odyssey,” Spooner fronted the show while beatmaster Warren Fischer twisted knobs and nodded his head behind the DJ console. The deep bass and steady drum kicks intrinsic to their fashionista jams adequately stoked the crowd, who were dancing to the best of their abilities, despite the early set time of 9 p.m.
Although they were once the progenitors of turn-of-the-millennium electroclash, Fischerspooner doesn’t quite advance the sound anymore. What was once an edgy maxim is now just mundane. With their new album, “Entertainment,” Fischerspooner claims to be at the nexus where art and entertainment coincide, and the live show presumably hopes to satisfy on both counts. And while Spooner’s artistic background is undeniable and his work with the notable art collective/dance troupe/miscellaneous multimedia freaks has produced one of the more outlandish shows out there, is it really all that good?
Partially it is. Fischer is well-versed in crafting simple and catchy songs that get booties a-wigglin’. But as the irony age wears thin, so too has electroclash’s snarkiness and cooler-than-thou posturing popularized by Peaches, Chicks on Speed and Avenue D. Back then it was all about party ennui and the reaction against it: Put on some homemade but fabulous clothes, lip-synch onstage and make fun of the pop stars on television. But with no live instrumentation and Spooner’s frequent lip-syncing through a Britney Spears-styled mike, Fischerspooner has come too close to the pop stars they try to satirize. Unlike major pop stars, however, Fischerspooner’s D.I.Y. props and awkward choreography recall a slumber party, where prepubescent popaholics turn on the boombox and perform self-styled dance routines for endlessly patient parents.
Text and Photograph by Drew Tewksbury
from Pop & Hiss, L.A. Times May 26,2009
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