When you hear the name Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, you expect to see something different, but you don't expect to see the exact opposite of the name- a robot statue singing into the microphone with one very nice guy backing it up on the keys and lights.



If you've ever heard a text-to-speech program, you know what the vocal stylings are like. With a simple electronic backing track and sci-fi topics like stealing your daddy's time machine, it's both futuristic and retro at the same time.



The "puppeteer", Mike, handed out home-made key-tars made out of cardboard and sharpies. Each one was unique, and let the audience "play" along to the music. He told me later that he has to make three or four replacements for each show to replace the ones that get damaged or become souvenirs. If I had known that he's actually OK with people keeping them, I would have held on to mine.



It was actually a pretty funny and engaging show to witness, with the robot sending shout-outs to the other bands and to the Radio Room. It would be hard for me to make it through the entire 4-CD box set, though. There's actually a fifth bonus CD of the unplugged show- it's the robot giving an introduction that they're about to play unplugged, and then silence. I can totally appreciate this guy's sense of humor.

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Having shot A Scribe Amidst the Lions here a couple times before, I decided to practice some new blurring techniques.

Panning:


Rotating:


Zooming:


And just getting really really close:




This band is full of nice guys and nice friends.