Ima Robot (16 September 2006)

I've never seen Ima Robot before. And I heard a ton of great things about them from friends who have seen them many times before. The consensus, for the most part, is that they put on a very active show, full of crazy antics. In other words, they have great stage presence.

After missing them a couple of times at Popscene, I dared not miss them this time around. Much to my dismay, they are playing Mezzanine. It's not a bad venue, but if it gets pretty packed, it's hard to see anything going on.

I thought this show sold out a while ago, since I couldn't buy tickets on TicketWeb, but after getting into the venue, the place wasn't even close to capacity. We got there early in anticipation of that, but instead my friend and I just hung out at the back while Tempo No Tempo and Persephone's Bees played. They sounded alright, but we'd rather chew the fat than watch these guys.

Ima Robot came on around 12:30am. Didn't seem that long, but having a couple of drinks and talking about random things (world domination, other parties to go to, etc.) definitely helped. Alex Ebert, Ima Robot's lead singer, came out wearing white M.C. Hammer pants! You don't know what those are? Will this help?



Well, it isn't white, but you get the picture. Ridiculous! And let's not get into what the bass player was wearing...

They opened up their set with the first three songs from their debut L.P. "Dynomite" was just a shot of energy from the get-go. "Song #1" (not to be confused with Blur's Song 2), was also another hit of fun. At this very early point, people in the middle of the floor were just having spaz attacks. "Alive" was great as well, with people jumping around at the chorus.

To the extent peole knew them, the new songs also translated well live. "Creeps Me Out" was a very danceable tune. Ebert's rapping abilities truly appeared in this song. The lyrics are pretty clever too. I guess some guys can relate to this. Another favourite of mine from Monument to the Masses is "Eskimo Ride." I don't understand what this song is (my friend said it's about the zeitgeist mentality?) but I could care less because I was getting hyper for this song.

Absolute highlight is when Ima Robot played "Black Jettas." We went to the middle of the Ima Robot dancing circle and yelled out "Ex girlfriends! Black Jettas!" Yeah, it was fun.

Overall, great show. The only setback is they didn't play "Disconnect." Which would have made this set so much better.

Beer Rating: 1/2