I Am Spoonbender
with The Miniatures, Katja
Tuesday May 6th, 2003 @ The 360 Club, Toronto

It’s a shame when you see a great musical performance and there are very few people around to share the experience with you. Experimental/electronic/avante-jazz/fusion band I Am Spoonbender used to be one of the most talked about indie bands after the release of their debut album Sender/Receiver on Mint Records, but they havesince faded into a certain level of obscurity. I’m not sure why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that they’ve only released two EPs in the last few years, both arguably of lesser quality, the second of which was onlyreleased through a small San Francisco label. Even if their new material isweaker and harder to find, however, that’s no excuse for a poor turn out to a concert from one of the most unique and creative live bands around.

On the other hand, something I might have understood is if people had started leaving halfway through theshow because they couldn’t handle anymore of the opening acts. Although I enjoy having a variety of bands on a given bill, the two openers here were very out of place, and no doubt pushed a lot of people’s patience to the limit.

Katja are a 3-piece hardcore/math rock outfit, and although their precision and energy were admirable, they really didn’t do much for me. They just went up on stage and let loose, but their songs quickly turned into an aimless barrage of distortion and random stops and starts. Perhaps a better sound set up would have painted a more flattering picture for the band, but especially when they injected some screaming into their music it became painfully obvious that they were a mismatch for the show.

The second band seemed to think they were pretty big rock stars, but I’m not sure what universe they are popular in because I sure hadn’t heard of them before. They were called The Miniatures, and they really took their time setting up only to take the stage and play a set that seemed to go on forever. It might not have been so bad except that they were essentially a wanna-be brit pop band singing forgettable commercial rock songs. (They’re actually from Kitchener I think.) They barely moved on stage… they are apparently one of those bands who assumes that their presence alone should be enough to wow you. I found myself wishing Katja had come back for an encore instead.

Luckily, it was worth waiting through just about anything to see I Am Spoonbender live. After setting up their own lighting equipment and changing into some futuristic costumes, they built up some suspense with eerie keyboard noises to set an atmosphere. Then they started things off with a track from their new EP “Shown Actual Size” and got the relatively empty 360 Club moving. To give an idea of how cool this band is, they actually created their own custom microphones out of old telephones for the two singers. So whenever they sang, they would pick up the receiver and talk into it, and when they finished they would hang it up again.

They went on to play a number of brand new songs, definitely in an electronic vein similar to their other recent material. Their current band features 4 members, each of which are armed with a keyboard, although sometimes one of them would hammer away at a live drum kit or lay down beats with electronic drum pads. One of the coolest new songs involved duelling electronic beats on synth pads, for which the lights were brought down as they played with glow in the dark drumsticks. For most of the other songs they had screens set up on stage where they continually cast random primary colours onto while they played. Visually it was a very exciting show.

One of the disappointments of the night was the fact that I Am Spoonbender didn’t play anything from their Sender/Receiver album. The set was almost entirely new stuff except for a couple of songs from their Teletwin EP. It seems like the band has simply chosen a new direction and they don’t want to look back. The new material has energy and creativity, but the songs don’t seem to flow quite like the earlier stuff. Maybe it’s just a little too synthetic sounding to me.

The other disappointment of the night was the fact that the band could not deliver an encore, because of the programmed pre-arranged nature of the music. Regardless, this was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time. I haven’t really been out to a lot of shows lately, but I Am Spoonbender’s reputation was enough to get me on the road to Toronto and they did not disappoint. The next time you hear about this band coming to a town near you, make sure you don’t miss out. They will make you realize just how original and artistic a live musical performance can be, and let me tell you: there are a lot of middle-of-the-road rock bands out there that really should be taking notice. — Sean