Critic's Choice

Jay Vance -- once a ska bassist for Skankin' Pickle and the Blue Meanies -- had such bad luck with bands that he finally decided to build his own. But infinitely worse than any ego-addled, carbon-based life form, his new musical associates (a Rasta-locked timekeeper called DRMBOT0110 and the menacing ax-wielder GTRBOT666) rebelled by shaving their creator's head, installing a bio-cerebral chip and making him answer to the generic epithet of JBOT. For almost five years now, the little buggers have programmed poor JBOT's every move -- forcing him to don heavy chains and a bondage mask and undergo all sorts of unspeakable indignities in public. Captured! By Robots, Thursday, May 17, at the Starlight Room in Fort Collins and Saturday, May 18, at the Lion's Lair with Maraca Five-O, offers silly but thought-provoking entertainment while giving a glimpse of the absolute torment that awaits all inferior and pathetic humans -- all of 'em! -- who've entrusted their collective livelihood to modern technology. Full of fantasy and foolishness, CBR boasts the wisecracking of Mystery Science Theatre 2000, the mechanical precision of Survival Research Labs and the profane spectacle of Pinocchio making Geppetto his bitch. Droning keyboards combine with fast and furious rock-based music (and yes, the machines actually do play) for a "one-man" show with off-kilter jingles on bed-wetting, dildos, cancer and robot superiority. The show also features the tambourine-haloed TAWHNN (The Ape Which Hath No Name), whose booming, Godlike voice offers meandering sermons on peace, tolerance and love -- not to mention a fresh take on the Book of Genesis. And you thought Messiahville was a cool idea!