Song Spotlight: Auditorium's The Sex Offenders (a night at The Fable)

It was a flashback night at The Fable (an In Sonic Dreams showcase). JOE LIES was playing their first set in 20 years (you can read that post here) and opening up the night was Auditorium (moniker for Spencer Berger). 

Auditorium at The Fable

I got my timing wrong and walked in as he was either in the middle of his second or third song. Berger has a long history in the music scene and this was my first time catching a set. As often as I head out, I still don't cross paths with many of the talented musicians in the Los Angeles music scene. When this happens, I often will do a Buzzbands (aka Kevin Bronson) search to see if I've been seriously out of the loop on a particular band or singer-songwriter. Bronson has been covering Auditorium since nearly the beginning. That answers that.

Auditorium at The Fable

When I walked in, Berger's vocals immediately caught my attention. I was thinking Freddie Mercury meets Bruce Springsteen. The white t-shirt and blue jeans might have influenced my first impressions. Back to his vocals, his bio on Missing Piece Group provides context for his pitch perfect sound, "Berger began performing at the age of nine as a member of The Metropolitan Opera’s Children’s Chorus, singing onstage with such golden-throated legends as Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo." The site also mentioned that he performed all instruments and did all the vocals for his 2017 release The First Music. 

The Song Spotlight has to go to "The Sex Offenders." I was getting myself comfortable after arriving late and the opening lyrics immediately caught my ear. How would it not: "There's a bunch of sex offenders . . . ?" It is rather easy to judge a sex offender, but we all struggle to be good citizens. Are people we look down on also looking at us with a side eye?

Auditorium at The Fable

So maybe they all lock their doors at night.  

Setlist: Mt. Moriah, Girls Will Love Your Lips, My Grandfather Could Make the World Dance, The Sex Offenders, Cedars-Sinai Cafeteria Breakdown, Wires and Wires, George Washington's Last Will and Testament, Sunday, Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash cover)