A reader reports from a Fischerspooner concert in Seattle, which sounds pretty much identical to Fischerspooner in New York: "My take on the Fischerspooner show in seattle. And yes, I saw the trend nerd in fake Gucci sunglasses and fake "i fucked anna wintour" t-shirt.

I would not even put Fischerspooner in my Top 5 Surreal Trainwrecks, up there with Tammy Faye's one-woman show and the recent televised portion of Celine Dion's new Vegas shitacular. But it was still highly enjoyable for how blatantly bad it was."

To paraphrase an old advertising slogan, "It was
everything I wanted it to be. And less." Part low-brow
Gallagher-esque splatterfest ("If youre inthe
first five rows, you will get wet"), part pretentious
wannabe performance art, part NYC club kid spotlight
grab."

"What's missing? Not a single note was actually sung or played every song was lipsynched to a pre-recorded track.

Casey Spooner and a few of the female dancers were wearing headset microphones, and they would also occasionally hold cordless mics up to their mouths, but only to mime out lyrics. During one song even that was too much, as halfway through a chorus Casey traded his microphone for a beer and a smoke. The whole show was "performed" like that, a massive overdose of mockery.

The one exception was when they did "Emerge" a second time, as an encore. Casey demanded that everyone "sing" along with him or he wouldn't do it.
Based on his howling through that number, lip-synching is definitely the way for this act to go. In fact, hearing him speak during between-song banter made me wonder if it is actually his vocals on any of the Fischerspooner recordings. His voice is kind of high and sharp with a slight Southern accent, nothing like the deep monotone in their music.

The musical half of Fischerspooner wasnt even onstage, though his voice would occasionally come over the PA to address a technical issue. Yes,even when youre only lipsynching to a CD, when youre Fischerspooner you have technical issues. Hey, it happened to Milli Vanilli too. Casey stopped one song about 15 seconds into it, whining "I cant do this number without a follow spot. Where the hell is our follow spot?" His outburst actually felt scripted (as a number of people
commented afterwards) and the follow spot re-appeared in the next song. Upheavals of other kinds included a guy spraying fake glittery blood out of his mouth, confetti cannons shooting off and bottles of champagne being shaken and sprayed into the audience. Even the dancers got into the act, blowing
mouthfuls of beer at the crowd.

There were 5 female dancers with tall feather headdresses and Liquid Sky-looking makeup jobs. Casey changed his clothes a few times but the dancers only got one outfit change, into red, white, and blue outfits reminiscent of the Brady Bunch Variety Hour. The choreography was clumsy to the point where the
dancers would get into little mock catfights after bumping into each other. But that was probably just part of the act too.

The one part of the show that didnt feel completely pre-programmed and contrived came courtesy of me. After a particularly uninspired lipsynching (the one where he switched the microphone with a beer) Casey mumbled something about how the song he'd just performed is usually a highlight of the show, and the lyrics were based on some book or author he liked. In keeping with the who-gives-a-shit spirit of the show, I yelled out, "So what?!!" And Casey went off. "So
he's a fucking genius and youre a nobody! So I'm onstage and you're out there in the dark! So I'm a fucking millionaire and you're worthless! I'M CASEY
SPOONER AND YOURE NOT!!!" It was hysterical to see him go from cool, cocky, rock star attitude to screeching hysterics in a split second, his insecurities flapping in the wind.

I'm glad I saw them before their 15 minutes are up, but what a let down. Especially after a glorious Polyphonic Spree show the previous weekend, that
actually had audience members weeping with joy. Pure talent can't be manufactured."