Biography
They didn’t do more than 20 gigs. They only played about 15 songs live. But their reputation has grown so much over the past three decades that musicians who were just kids when the band played have heard of them. Their first gig was December 8th 1980.the same day John Lennon was gunned down in New York City. It was just like most other night at Seattle’s legendary Gorilla Room on Second Ave. Just a handful of people showed up, and more free beer was drunk up by the bar staff and their buddies than was ever sold. Just like a lot of other nights at The Gorilla Room, one of the finest bands of the era played to a near empty house. Over the next few months the band would be regulars at the Gorilla Room. By Summer, Bob Mould, having heard them on with Husker Du‘s first national tour, called them “the greatest unsigned band in America“. A year later they were gone.
Byron Duff, Jeff Farrand and Stan Filarca made their dent on the Seattle music scene of the 1980’s as The Spectators. Their combination of surf, metal, jazz and punk predates bands with similar influences…like Primus… by a full decade. They were a power-trio, but one that dealt their deadly blows with intricate and subtle precision rather than blind swings. This was a band that had brains as well as brawn. By using a limited amount of effects, guitarist Byron Duff and bass player Stan Filarca created a sound so tightly woven that it was hard to tell who was playing lead, where the rhythm was coming from and how they could possibly sound so big. Add to the mix the powerful, inventive and perfect tempo of drummer Jeff Farrand. It’s hard to think of any finer trio in rock, signed or unsigned even today.
During their short life The Spectators managed to record more than most Seattle bands of the era. Notable was a live-in-studio session they did with producer/engineer Ed Shepard at his place The Funhole in Fremont. But only a few cassette tracks remain of those sessions, although two songs ended up on the 1982 compilation PRAVDA Volume I. The cassettes are incredibly rare, and those that remain are old and warn-out. But the brilliance of The Spectators still shines through. Both tracks, FINE LINES and IDIOT CULTURE are typical of the band’s live performance. They show the deft ability to overlap bass, rhythm and lead guitar sections into their music so effectively that it can confound the listener into thinking there are far more guitars at work.
After The Spectators disbanded guitarist Byron Duff faded from the Seattle scene, much to it loss. Drummer Jeff Farrand left the NW for San Francisco. Bassist Stan Filarca managed to fill duties of another of Seattle’s best bands to emerge in the 1980s The Beat Pagodas. Filarca used the same creative arsenal as he did in The Spectators. A few very well placed effects and superb musicianship filled -in for any lack of a lead or rhythm guitar. It was Filarca’s ability to handle The Beat Pagoda’s instrumental needs that allowed them to revel in their “No Guitar” motto. Byron Duff emerged very briefly in the 1990’s, and dropped back into obscurity….then suddenly reappeared with his band Idiot Culture and it’s searing 2010 debut album .
The Spectators brilliant guitar/bass interweaving would come as a revelation today. They were no slackers in the lyrics department either. That first night the band played The Gorilla Room an old beat-up big screen TV projected flickering images behind them. As someone behind the bar changed channels back and forth they stopped on an old sci-fi flick. Giant locusts were attacking a horrified city. At that moment, by coincidence, the band lit into one of their signature tunes, Idiot Culture As the creatures wrecked havoc and terrified the population Byron sang:
There is
Something
Of great size
Out of control in the head
Of an insect
Of an insect.
Great size and out of control…a perfect way to describe The Spectators.
Also a pop punk group based out of cleveland
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