Get ready to dance in the toxic sludge known as the ’80s.
Black Moth Super Rainbow is an experimental project led by Tom Fec, also known as Tobacco. As the band name suggests, the group’s sound is a slurry of bold opposites — and that’s no surprise considering Fec’s main inspiration was the neon, in-your-face culture of the late 1980s and 1990s.
“I came up when everything was about gross-out stuff. Everything was big and bold with bright colors and weird faces,” said Fec. “I wanted to make something that looked and sounded like that.”
The result is a bombastic mash of instantaneous creations that Fec laboriously crafts into compact tracks that will have you tapping your feet.
Live, the mashed-up music lends itself to a one-of-a-kind show featuring an audio and visual eruption where music is complemented by video backdrops providing a cinematic scene.
“We’re on stage but we’re removed in a place,” said Fec. “It’s my world up there that I’m trying to bring to life.”
In the past, Black Moth Super Rainbow live shows featured frenzied imagery, but in support of their new record they have replaced frenetic flashes with slower footage shot near bike trails in Western Pennsylvania.
Clips of leaves changing, rustic cabins, and a playground overshadowed by a nuclear power plant will be part of the Black Moth Super Rainbow experience in December. With juxtaposed visuals like that one showing the playground and the power plant, Fec sees the unexpected harmony that defines his own music.
“[It’s] two things that just really shouldn’t be together,” said Fec. “I try to make music like that. It doesn’t necessarily make sense if you think about each part individually.”
Black Moth Super Rainbow at the Music Hall of Williamsburg [66 North Sixth St. between Kent and Wythe avenues (718) 486–5400, www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com]. Dec. 6, 8 pm, $15.
