Robot Lounge Entertainment Art Reggie’s Rock Club Chicago, IL September 24, 2009

When seeing them live, it may be best to close your eyes. One may feel like they’re at several different shows at once. Robot Lounge have a particular penchant for sliding through the slick minimalism of Spoon, combined with Eftekhari’s gift for jazzy runs on the double-decked ivories. This was evident on “Great Romancer”, where Eftekhari sings, “I can play the part of a great romancer, and then behave like a child” with a whiny-kid croon evocative of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard.

After a round of the Spoon b-side worthy “I Just Don’t Know Anymore” and “Patterns” (the former having a nice…lounge-y piano refrain and the latter being a perfectly possible Britt Daniel-centered acoustic track), there weren’t many questions left about originality. But there was a hope that the band would continue on this path of praising their probable indie-rock heroes. “Don’t Know” even had Eftekhari sound out a groggily-but-cool “yeah” in Daniel’s style.

Open your eyes, and you’d have seen Eftekhari drown out the rest of the band with his stage-grabbing presence; a lanky guy that flails his arms and legs around and bobs his head to the rhythm while frantically pounding on the keys. He exudes a geeky persona that is all the more infectious when considering that his band is a local act trying to win a reputation and fans.

This silly mode doesn’t hurt them too much, until it’s combined with a few of the filler songs in their catalogue. Namely, “The Zucchini Bros.” and “Last Few Days” sound like Barney the Dinosaur sing-alongs.

Eftekhari sings in “Don’t Know”: “It’s not original…” No, it’s not. But Robot Lounge certainly borrows from the best in the business.

For a quick check-up on the circuitry, check out Robot Lounge at: www.robotlounge.net

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