Spectrum takes its time, finds its space
Kevin Bronson on
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The name Peter Kember might not ring a bell, but he rang a few eardrums in the wee hours of Monday morning at the Echo. The man known as Sonic Boom — who co-founded seminal trance rockers Spacemen 3 with Jason Pierce — brought his droney quartet Spectrum to L.A. for a club show prior to gigs Wednesday and Thursday opening for regal shoegazers My Bloody Valentine.
After an agonizingly late (1:04 a.m.) and rough (a balky mic cable) start, Spectrum lived up to the night’s spectacular light show. Kember’s outfit hypnotized a capacity Part-Time Punks club night crowd with 50 minutes of pulsing sound, dipping into the Spacemen 3 catalog a couple of times, covering Mudhoney and generally winning every stoner’s heart in the room. And a few ex-stoners too. The show coincidentally came in the very room where Pierce’s Spiritualized mesmerized a capacity crowd only last week.
If psych-rock and its effects-pedal-laden kin is on the rebound, Kember would have done well to capitalize on the gigs with MBV by having new product to promote. But his new album, “On the Wings of Mercury” — the first Spectrum album in eight years — isn’t yet ready. He has spent much time in recent years devoted to his other project, the soundscape-oriented Experimental Audio Research.
As they did for Spectrum’s late set, his fans think he’s worth the wait.
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