Add the unique, subtract the uniform
Plus/Minus Tonight 9 p.m. Spaceland, $8
Plus/Minus doesn’t like fast food. They won’t touch the stuff as though it represented some homogenized evil.
As the mathematically polemic band journeys west to Los Angeles, it seems the only thing it s members are desperately jonesing for is another dose of mom-and-pop cuisine to satisfy their travel sickness. This curious sense of withdrawal is not one caused by the obvious – the claustrophobia of four part-time job-holding bandmates being crammed in a Club Wagon – but rather by the sameness of American roadside culture.
“It’s sort of disturbing that every exit has the same stuff. I mean, you really could be anywhere,” said lead singer and guitarist Patrick Ramos.
Thankfully, they have at least one venue nailed down: tonight at Spaceland in Silverlake, as the band continues to tour in support of its latest release, “Let’s Build A Fire.”
“Touring (itself) brings you to that reality,” Ramos said. “Touring is surreal. There’s an element of suspended life.”
The band’s current westward trek is just the latest catalyst for more album-spanning themes of alienation and soul-weariness, be it in the face of modern corporate America or other choking routines.
Take the single “Ventriloquist” off of last year’s album “You Are Here,” for instance. Tentative electronic beats and fearfully affected vocals establish a recurring tone of a someone whose view of his own isolated and computerized surroundings has him “trapped under ice,” a mentality which Ramos himself claims to personally identify with.
The answer to melancholic consumer sickness?
Interject here the first annual Plus/ Minus Authentic North American Food Tour. Instead of a billions-served mentality, there is the individual love of a pork chop barbecue. Instead of the immaculate staff attire, overalls and hand-me-downs.
“Plus we just love to eat. It’s not all altruistic,” Ramos said. “It’s increasingly difficult to find great restaurants. There’s just so much homogenization across this great nation of ours.”
Replete with Polaroid pictures of the band members stuffing their faces with greasy-spoon gems from all over the country, Plus/Minus is keeping its Web site (plusmin.us) continually updated with a log of American regions staying true to the band’s culinary roots.
Continuing the theme of uniqueness past simple culinary offerings, Plus/Minus also fervently believes in keeping its live show as adaptive to each new setting as possible.
“People want to see a performance, not re-listen to an album,” said drummer Chris Deaner.
Offering a slew of new songs from “Let’s Build A Fire,” the current tour dedicates itself to “reinterpreting songs to make them more engaging,” according to Deaner. As pure improvisation isn’t exactly feasible for a band using prerecorded samples and synthesized instruments, Deaner earnestly wishes to offer the audience something new by avoiding complete reliance on these aspects. Instead, the band members hope to have guitar and drum solos last as long as they want, keeping the show as a whole adaptive and evolving. While there will be no Spinal Tapesque moment with a drummer airborne and rotating inside of a plastic cube, rest assured, the audience’s entertainment is the primary concern.
And there will be no hurling. The band saves its eating for after the show.
“(We don’t) eat before (we) go on, to be comfortable,” Ramos said.



