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The Spectacles are not the kind of band you'd expect to find in Kansas. But then you meet them - the tour of their cramped garage space cut short by someone's dad returning home - and you realize, they just might be the real thing.
There's Ethan, blowing the smoke from his cigarette off to the side, like he's doing you a favor. He's the leader, a fact he'll gladly repeat for you. However, every once and a while, you'll catch him turning to the rest of the band for approval. Approval which usually comes in the form of a nod and a smile from Clark, the bass player whom Ethan readily calls his 'Paul'. "Without all the fighting," he grins. The band laughs - with or at Ethan, you can't tell.
The Spectacles may be Ethan's band, but they didn't come together until he moved from a tiny Kansas suburb to Metropolis to attend college. He spotted the reed-thin keyboard player, Thomas, at a club and tried to buy him a drink. When Thomas turned out to be straight, they talked music instead. After turning down Juilliard and taking up with a second-hand Casio, Thomas was ready for something new. As was Astrid, their drummer in Mary Janes, when she escaped Gotham City and a family of brothers for Met U.
Together, they're almost too pretty; a casting director's wet dream. Their self-produced, self-titled EP is selling better with the new cover: a candid shot of the band taken by Thomas' girlfriend, Franny. Ethan lets slip another advantage (Clark's longtime boyfriend is Lex Luthor, heir to the multi-interest LuthorCorp, including a number of record labels), and you finally figure out why Rolling Stone sent you to find a nondescript garage in Kansas.
Listening to The Spectacles play a similarly anonymous, half-filled club convinces you to stay the extra night. - RS 964