DC music geeks are in for a very special treat tonight that almost slipped in under radar. Peter Kember aka Sonic Boom, a founder of the legendary Spacemen 3, is bringing his band Spectrum to town tonight for a rare states-side gig. They’ll be carefully crafting a a dense force field of sound with their vintage electronics, keyboards, and absurdly modified guitars along with DC area favs Screen Vinyl Image.
As far as I can recall, Spectrum has never played DC before. If they have, I missed it. I am ridiculously excited to catch this band tonight. I saw them at All Tomorrows Parties New York in 2008 and it was excellent but felt painfully short, as is the nature of great festival sets. Tonight’s full set should provide one of the true mind-bender sets of the year. For the curious, Spectrum does indeed unleash some Spacemen 3 classics through-out the set that blend perfectly with their own sound-as-drug approach.
Any fan of underground music within a hundred miles would be a fool to miss this rare opportunity to see Sonic Boom and Spectrum lay down the law.
The show is at Velvet Lounge, begins at 8:30 sharp, and only costs $12.
Spectrum played at Black Cat in 1994 and later in the ’90s. I saw both shows, totally amazing.
Cool! Thanks Julia! Were you there on Thursday? My review is going up Monday. In short – it was fantastic!