Electric Cabaret: Fischerspooner

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GET AN EARFUL of Fischerspooner's sparkly dance-pop on the radio and you'll be reminded of electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk or Ultravox. But check out the New York group's outre stage show live and you'll go home feeling like you've seen avant-garde theater.

Fischerspooner, who come to D.C. this weekend, has built its reputation by juxtaposing pop and drama onstage. The reason? Unsurprisingly, frontman Casey Spooner likes drama.

Literally. The band's new stage show will feature Spooner, bandmate Warren Fischer and four dancers, all of whom will use various theatrical devices to lively up songs from the group's new album, "Entertainment."

Along with elaborate costumes, there will also be video footage from a variety of sources, notably rehearsals of Fischerspooner's stage show, which Spooner says was inspired by his recent theatrical gig.

"I did 'Hamlet' for about two years with the [experimental] Wooster Group," he says.

"So we're using some of their techniques for some of the choreography and some of the ways that we're trying to integrate dialogue and text in the show."
The ghost of "Hamlet" also fueled Spooner's inspiration, he says: "As I was writing the record, it influenced the writing on the album. I was so immersed in Shakespeare that it kind of snuck in there."

If all that sounds like a roundabout way to craft music, well, Spooner comes by music in a roundabout way. In college, he studied painting, then moved into performance art and video, then worked with the performance collective Doorika. Only after almost a decade with Doorika did Spooner start a band. That group, Sweet Thunder, evolved into Fischerspooner.

Trying to perform as a lead singer per se didn't work for him, he says.

"It didn't hold my attention very long. I need the challenge of all kinds of elements coming together. It's always a little bit like I'm setting myself up for failure, because with so many elements, the challenges are a bit beyond me sometimes. But I have to put myself into a situation that gives me a chance to grow."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Drop the Line, Sun., 7 p.m.; $20; 800-955-5566. (U-St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Tony Sclafani
Photos courtesy Dusan Reljin

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