Future Rock switches up live show at Bluebird

Electronic rock group Future Rock will return to Bloomington to rock with fans at 9 p.m. tonight at the Bluebird Nightclub.

The band formed while members Mickey Kellerman and Felix Moreno were at Northwestern University. Since Kellerman bought his first synthesizer, a device used with a piano, life hasn’t been the same, Moreno said.

“We were completely obsessed,” he said. “Our love affair with the synthesizer never subsided.”

Moreno said the group has been able to get its music recorded and released through grassroot promotion and persistence. Last spring, the band signed with 1320 Records, the record label of Sound Tribe Sector 9 that represents Bassnectar and Big Gigantic.

During the years of writing, recording and performing its music, Future Rock has developed a more mature sound than its earlier days, Moreno said.

“We used to get really progressive for the sake of virtuosity,” he said. “But, we are now much more focused on just the finished concept of the music itself. Also, we’re just way better at the technology aspects through years of practice.”

Moreno said the members’ love and overall appreciation for music and technology is a major source of inspiration for their original sound.

“We’re drawn to the inherent emotional capabilities of music but also drawn to the way technology has enhanced our ability to produce and create music,” he said. “There seems to be no end to where the technology can take us. No sound is out of bounds.”

The group has played at Bloomington venues before, including Uncle Fester’s and multiple shows at the Bluebird.

Moreno said the group plans to make its show at the Bluebird unique by switching up its set list and light show and incorporating extended improvisation sections. He said no two live shows are ever the same, and that’s what he loves so much about performing.

Tickets can be purchased on the Bluebird’s website, www.thebluebird.ws.

“The moment when the audience and the musicians connect and the whole room becomes one is probably my favorite part,” he said. “That’s what makes music such a special art form. When everything is clicking between everyone in the room, not just the musicians, it is truly transcendent.”

The group plans to continue touring through the month of February in Illinois, Missouri and Colorado. They will also perform a few shows with electronic band Disco Biscuits, and they plan on releasing more live material and another EP later this year. Fans can download the band’s music for free at www.futurerock.net.