Starfucker @ Backbooth, Orlando, Fla. 1/19/12
Tags: Backbooth, Florida, live show, Orlando, Polyvinyl, Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second, Reptilians, Starfucker, STRFKROrlando, Florida’s favorite grunge bar, Backbooth, pulled in a crowd of dancing fools Thursday night, Jan. 19 for the crooning synth-pop trio, Starfucker.
Starfucker—or STRFKR for those too ashamed—run in the vein of well-known electronic acts, such as MGMT or Passion Pit. Infused with the power of gliding synthesizers and four-to-floor drum beats, the Portland Oregonians put on a show that would have done Cyndi Lauper proud. Their version of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” erupted the crowd in an intoxicated dance pit. You could practically see the look on lead singer Josh Hodge’s face when the reverb-laden intro began and the crowd roared. He smirked, as if he was thinking, “Yeah . . . this one’s gonna get em going.” Coincidentally, Backbooth puts on an 80’s night every Friday. So it wasn’t the first (and certainly wouldn’t be the last) time the bartenders heard that song echo through those ramshackled halls.
The rest of the night was nothing but a whirlwind of bodies crashing into each other like wild animals, and hipster teenagers twirling around, wielding nothing but a can of PBR and a half-lit Parliament. Starfucker played mostly from their most recent 2011 release, Reptilians. They opened with the MIDI-happy anthem “Death as a Fetish,” the screeching anthem “Bury Us Alive,” and, let’s just say “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” had the crowd screaming like Bieber Fever when Hodges joined the drummer for that commercial friendly intro. He even tossed in an Orlando shout-out when he made a comment that it was “a song about Dwight Howard.”
It’s true; the band has a knack for anthemic material, so the night didn’t lack for sing-a-long choruses and even pumping fists. Starfucker themselves have mentioned in interviews that the band is mostly about getting people together to have a good time, and not much else. Sometimes, this showed in the way the band carried themselves on stage, swaying back and forth like their performance was nothing but a routine or a formula. There were moments when it would have been more fun if the band enjoyed themselves as much of the crowd did. Then again, that didn’t seem to matter to Backbooth’s at-capacity audience, especially when the night ended in a rupture of dissonant keys, squealing guitars and a smashing drum set, which rolled offstage like a casualty of the show’s mayhem.
–Dropped by Robert Miller
–Photos / Video by James Dechert | FishToaster.com
–Photos by Alye Sharp
Mon Jan 23
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