Fischerspooner Electrify Elephant & Castle
Fischerspooner, the electroclash duo from New York, are famous for their live shows. Specifically one extravagant light display that nearly bankrupted their record label in 2001. And so it was with much excitement that I headed for Elephant and Castle’s Coronet last week to the see them headlining the Neon Noise Project.
Some electro bands mix it up a little bit and overlap into techno or drum ‘n’ bass but FS stay true to bristling bass lines, glorying in distortion that sounds more like technology than any other instrument.
Fischerspooner are Warren Fischer, a classically trained musician, and Casey Spooner, a former experimental theatre trainer, who are doing a world tour to herald the release of their third album, Entertainment. They are, in the words of Spooner, ‘walking that line between art and entertainment and bringing the love we have for both things together.’
Anyone concerned that theory might not translate into practice would have been soothed instantly by the appearance of Casey Spooner. He appeared on stage dressed in silver with a painted white face, peroxide hair and the cherry on the cake: an enormous hat/lantern that actually gave out light.
Whether for the sake of art or because he is genuinely disgruntled about being cast in the unoriginal role of frontman, Spooner complained in a slightly whiny tone throughout the set. When the time came to play Emerge, FS’s biggest hit to date, Spooner’s sulkiness came into its own, ‘I’m sick of this fucking albatross, I’m supposed to be an artist’ he said over the opening bars, adding, just when you thought he’d got it out of his system, ‘I made it I can kill it,’ yet despite his barrage of complaints the sound kept building and he performed it like a superstar.
With this exception, they played mainly new tracks including the brilliant, slow burning Money Can’t Dance. Warren Fischer seemed content to remain in the wings, his face concealed by a small blonde wig that shot forwards and backwards as he worked the synthesiser with the furious energy of a dog on heat.
Dancers, four glamorous minions to Spooner’s robot king, soared and jerked across the stage like disciplined androids on the verge of breakdowns, burning more calories in one hour than I do in a week. Dressed in silver they later lost layers to leap around in a state of near nudity in perfect time with the spiky yet smooth, raw yet pure electronic heaven.
As the set drew to a close, Spooner stayed true to his role as commentator on his own medium: ‘This is the bit where we go off and you clap and ask us to do an encore, but it’s so formulaic, so boring, that we’re just going to skip that part, do the songs and leave,’ he said, voice dripping with scorn.
Before the final curtain dropped, the sparkling showman had two final points to make which, fittingly are how I would summarise seeing Fischerspooner: ‘That is what you call a show motherfucker!’ he yelled, ‘remember, everything is intentional.’
Fisherspooner played at:
The Coronet
26-28 New Kent Road
Elephant and Castle
SE1 6TJ
Tel: 020 7701 1500
Images by Tavallai courtesy of Flickr
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