Flash Forward

SIMPLE PLAN: ãThereâs no shit on a stick, no dead animal,ä says Casey Spooner. ãItâs really just singing and dancing.ä

Costumed lip-synchers Fischerspooner are not out to shock you.

by Sean O’Neal

"I don’t think we really do anything very shocking," says Casey Spooner, the flamboyant singing half of Fischerspooner. "There’s no shit on a stick, no dead animal. It’s really just singing and dancing."

Spooner -- backed by Warren Fischer (the laptop composer who used to despise pop music) and a posse of men and women who choreographically prance around the stage's platforms in front of a video screen -- immaculately lip-synchs the pre-recorded electro-pop. Constant costume changes put the duo in gaudy hoop dresses, polyester jumpsuits, long-tailed tuxedos and flashy headdresses.

The kitschy, sexy, comical, fashion-laden theatrics are as much for the performer as the audience, says Spooner.

"That's basically the way the psychology works," he asserts. "You're witnessing someone having this ecstatic experience, and therefore you have it as well. So if I can't lose myself or enjoy myself in it, then nobody can."

And, of course, there's always the question about whether or not pre-recorded music and vocals is a legitimate "live" performance. Fischerspooner feels that technology doesn't remove energy from the total experience but frees the band up to unleash something more exciting and spectacular.

"It isn't necessarily about executing the music live. It's presenting other things that represent the ideas of the music. But it is very live. There's definitely a great deal of spontaneity and virtuosity to it, but not in a traditional sense."

Spooner and Fischer met in a film class at the Chicago School of Art, then lost touch for a few years, only to reconnect in New York City. Their one-song debut performance at an East Village Starbucks featured Fischer dutifully pressing "play" and Spooner striking exaggerated poses in wraparound sunglasses.

Somehow after that, the star-studded pair went on to sign a multimillion-dollar record contract with Ministry of Sound, perform for David Bowie, earn representation by New York art gallery bigwig Jeffrey Deitch and play a series of massive shows and festivals in Europe after the enormous success of their pulsing first single, "Emerge," which DJ Hell re-released on his International Deejay Gigolo label.

"I guess you can consider it a cult classic," jokes Spooner. "It's weird -- I never get sick of it." That's probably because a band this remix-able won't let a song rest. "I love fucking with it. It's always evolving the way we perform it."

Fischerspooner's first album, #1 (Capitol), is as good as its name suggests: pulsating pop songs doused with razor-sharp synthesizers, whining vocals and sheer, flat digitalism. The duo wants to expand their horizons on the next album.

"The first was all about using only the computer and making a total digital statement," recalls Spooner. "And now we are open to newer ideas with all kinds of instruments. The sound may be very similar, but the instrumentation may change. Today is interesting because we have a live drummer coming in for the first time -- but it's literally for one drum fill. It's kind of absurd."

The music definitely fits into the realm of electroclash. You'll hear elements of Kraftwerk, Human League, Detroit techno/electro and New Order's "Blue Monday." It winds and grinds with an '80s vibe like most electroclash, but Spooner denies that nostalgia is a part of their sound.

"For me, the urge to create what we've made didn't come out of this desire to recreate the past. It really was something that was about the present. When we started working during the turn of the century, it was about embracing this traditional turn-of-the-century decadence, which is a pattern also from the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. It was really heightened because of the millennium, and everyone was paranoid about the Apocalypse. Everyone was buying jugs of water, and the city was hoarding body bags. So my goal was to have a fuckin' blast if I was gonna die at the stroke of 2000. So it was never about, ŒOh god, I wish I was in 1985.' I lived in the '80s, and it is not anything like what I am living right now."

Aside from odd gigs in New York and L.A., this is Fischerspooner's first U.S. tour, marking debut appearances in a number of cities. And no one knows what to expect from this forthcoming Philly debut. But there's no question that the gaudy Fischer and Spooner will continue to have the time of their lives while on stage.

"I completely think I am the most exciting thing," Spooner laughs.

Fischerspooner plays Fri., April 11, 9 p.m., $18.50-$19.50, The TLA, 334 South St., 215-336-2000.

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