The Borg
at Mobius
by Lex Marburger
They approached from darkness, an amalgamation of flesh and circuitry, sent to assimilate the human race. The Borg. Known for centuries as the most horrific enemy to life, notorious throughout the quadrant. Armed with percussion objects and a keyboard from antiquity, they shall prepare us for our future.
Or so it has been said. To get this out of the way, I love the music that T-Max and Izzy create. A minimalist retro Brian Eno-ish rock with voice harmonizers and everything. Simple, with enough room (and reverb) to stimulate the brain. Elementary lyrics, reminiscent of Kraftwerk, speaking to us of assimilation and chemical disaster. Wonderful costumes and the guts to get on stage as Star Trek characters. Great music, but…
The Borg are a band that has a great premise and make ideas pop into your head. They are a concept that takes absolute focus and showmanship. Unfortunately, T-Max and son are still nervous about the proposition of a concept band, so they haven’t gotten their ideas straight. First: The Borg do not have a sense of humor, and have no concept of family (for all you Trekkies out there, I’m referring to the pre-Lor Borg, before Hugh even. As of the beginning of the last season, the Borg were no longer a threat). T-Max tried to make jokes and had skits that were supposed to be funny, but all that did was to make me disbelieve the premise. The Borg also don’t give a damn about any other living creature. Life is not respected, and they don’t care about anything except assimilation. Songs about the ecosystem and authority figures have no place here.
There were aspects to the show that made me think that they were not really concerned with their mission, like the snide asides written on the program, supposedly “witty” things that only made me think that they didn’t know what they were doing. They should take a clue from Kraftwerk, the Residents, and Gwar; don’t break out of character at any moment. Don’t thank the audience for coming like a human; do it like a Borg. Don’t meet the audience during intermission and chat away like this is just another bit of mindless fluff entertainment. Be dead serious about what you do, every movement should be that of a Borg.
The Borg should be experienced and watched. If they get a cohesive, solid performance down, they will be unstoppable. And even though it doesn’t fit in to the concept, their cover of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme is killer.
