C!BR
"I've been captured by robots," is how JBOT introduces his band. Last night at the sit n' spin (a strange Seattle locality combining venue, bar, restaurant, arcade ,and LAUNDROMAT) I saw "popular shapes" (in Kris' words a "god-awful" band), some rocka ass ass rockin metal band, and Captured By Robots (hereafter referred to as CBR because it's shorter).

Thing about CBR: robots. There's only one human on stage, all the other instruments are played by robots, including GTRBOT666, DRMBOT0110, and AUTOMATOM. There's also this fuzzy ape thing, but it doesn't have a name. (Constantly self-referred to as "The Ape Which Hath No Name")

I thought it'd be a tape track with Animatronics, like some kind of post-apocalyptic Chuck-E-Cheese, but the robots are really equipped to play their instruments. The recently-upgraded GTRBOT now has 24 actuated fingers and various strumming appendages (he used to be an autoharp), DRMBOT and AUTOMATOM have a shit load of hydraulically driven sticks with which to bash, and the ape thing wears a tambourine on its head. Which shakes. Go ape.

Weird thing is, though the setup is industrial, the music is strictly rock. Like, bordering on ass-rock. If there were no robots, it'd be stupid as hell.

I thought about making a shirt which says "I liked robots before they were cool"

CAPTURED! By Robots