(part of T on the Fringe)
Lights? Check! Filthy-hardcore-house beats? Check! One Scary, bemusing robotic-flashing freak? Check! Ahem: Ladies and Gentleman please give a warm welcome to My Robot Friend. Yes indeed, tonight’s gig will go down in this reviewer’s viewing history as being the most exciting yet mind-warpingly bizarre yet highly erotic yet hugely fucking amazing gig ever seen. My Robot Friend brings forth a concoction of sex, sleaze and hard techno beats with an amazing light show. From ejaculating paper sperm to stretchy ball camera thingys, this show seemed to have it all. It all begins with the excellent ‘`The Cut’ from debut album ‘`Dial O’ – which is out on Soma Records – where our robotic pal’s Freddie Krueger-styled flashing fingers grow and grow while he whispers seductively, ‘`Fingers never stop touching you’`. The song builds and builds to an exhaustive peak when we are all reduced to techno robot-slaves dancing into an epileptic’s nightmare. I mean, maaaan, this shit is mental.
But My Robot Friend leaves the most mentalist of mental till the end. With that weird stretchy ball with a camera inside it. And what does he do with this stretchy ball thing I hear you ask? Why he makes weird faces in it which are projected onto the screen, and then, wait for it, he takes the camera through the crowd pointing it at our faces whilst yelling ‘`You arrrrrrr the Wuuuuurlds Grreeatest Hackerrrrr’` to a thrumming beat that feels like it’s penetrating through your chest at a million miles an hour! I know fucking mental, BUT, by far one of the most intriguing, fascinating performances ever, ever.
If this reviewer ever doubts that showmanship is dead again, then I insist I should be shot. ‘`Cos man, My Robot Friend are bursting with showmanship.
