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Captured! By Robots - A Musical/Mechanical Marvel?
Duke Boo Boo of Ouch writes: "Last night, I ventured out to the local tavern to catch musical acts Mini Band, and more importantly Captured! By Robots. This act is comprised of one human and seven fully functioning musical robots, which play guitar, bass, horns, drums, and percussion. To ensure the full effect, this must be witnessed live, but there are some videos to spark your curiousity." If you've seen one of these shows, please share your thoughts on the experience.
CBR rocks my socks off!
I discovered them three years ago when they played a little punk rock record shop in tampa called Sound Idea. Back then, I was renting a 4 bedroom house, and only had one roommate, so I graciously offered to let j-bot stay at my house. In the morning me and j-bot went to an IHOP to eat some breakfast, where I interviewed him for a local zine called "Burn Brandon"(brandon is a suburb of tampa). Back then, he only had GTRbot666 and drumbot 0110, with "the ape which hath no name" on backup vocals. Drumbot used to be pneumatically controlled by j-bot. There was a pedal setup where j-bot would stomp on the pedals to control the bass drum, snare, hi-hat, and splash. He also had a keyboard/touchpad deal strapped to him like a guitar, where he would control GTRBot, and do synth work. I saw him last time he came to tampa, when he had assembled this new motley crew of 7 robots, and it was quite the show. The music is alot better than before, and he's quite the showman, just as he used to be.
It's definitely something to see. If J-bot stops by your town it would be worth the price to check him out, you will not be dissapointed.
I saw them (him) about a year ago, I think?
Engineering: Good
Engineering by doing it for fun standards: Awesome.
Songwriting: I want to go home now.
IMHO, overshadowed by opener Reload, who has gone on to form The Punk Group.
I saw a CBR show in Sacramento at Worlds Best Comics in Sacramento.
It was great, even though I was sober. I believe they played with The 4 Eyes, another great geek rock band.
I say that with a straight face, for being a Star Trek punk rock band.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
Here is the link to the Drum Buddy, designed and manufactured by the amazing Mr. Quintron
I saw him live in concert and I must say, his act is amazing and his skill with the instrument he designed is fascinating.
Be sure to see his infomercial.
This isn't a dupe, but a mention of this band has appeared on slashdot before. I thought I remembered hearing about this band over the summer.1 765
Here's the link to the original comment, with props. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=66547&cid=612
I saw Captured! By Robots at the Elbow Room in beautiful downtown Ypsilanti, MI and it rocked my socks off. The concept is cool, and the execution is flawless. JBOT is hilarious and really knows how to work the crowd. This is not something to miss. My buddy posted some pictures from the show that you check out.
My only regret is missing the 10 Commandments show that he's touring now.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
A year ago, I had the dubious pleasure of running the sound board for CBR. It was fun watching him set up the robots, talking to him about how he built them. Asking him how he programmed their actions etc ad nausuem. Then, the music started. I put my earplugs in and tuned out the show. Most people who showed up for the beginning of the show left after the first song. They were just there for the novelty of watching some dude dance around on stage with a bunch of robots playing backup for him. The music? Well, all I can say is that it was as if Slayer, Metallica, The Ramones, Drop-kick Murphies and Strongbad got stuck in a blender together on high and were poured into funny shaped molds with about a gallon of Jell-O powder. The talkback was raucus, racist, sexist and obnoxious. Partly amusing, but then again, I was paid to be there. After the show I asked the guy why he uses the robots. He told me that he used to be in a band with other people, and decided that he hated it. He couldn't control their actions, he couldn't control the way they played. Can we say control freak? Robots breed consistency. However, during the show one of the robots broke down. On the geek end, he had 2 whole racks of computer equipment, micro-controllers, pneumatic pistons, a pneumatic compressor, keyboards, voice modulator built into a mask. Rather neat stuff all around. Would I ever run sound for him again? Sure, if I had a paid monkey to run the board during the show. Would I love to help him in his shop? Yep, but he would never let anyone near his tools or his robots, they are like his little children. Ahh well... rather entertaining. But I wouldn't pay money to see it.
Once more into the birch deer fiends!
I saw him about 4 years ago when I lived in Madison, Wisconsin. His show is pretty popular around here and has been for awhile. He has 3 "robots"; one that is "string bot", "percussion bot" and the ape. The guitar or string bot is more of a harp and it has mechanical picks, one for each string that is triggered by him (the human who is captured) He is in bondage, center stage and has a keyboard controller thing and has all these foot pedals that he controls drum bot with. Each peddle triggers a drum. You can imagine it's pretty intense on the stage. The whole show is he's in bondage (captured) and the robots make demands from him, he tries to disobey but they torture him into playing. As for the music, it's loud and fast. All in all, it's a great show and generally costs about $5.00 for admission. I saw him play with the "Lonesome Organist", a man with an old organ playing hockey game like music with a twist. Great stuff. I still wear my "Capture! By Robots" t-shirt. Oh, and for the ape? He's a robot in a gorilla suit that has a tambourine on his head and has sympathy for capture man. It's a great alter-ego.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer