The Future Legends: Glam and Goth

Just when you might think every Gainesville rock band wants to be Creed or Sister Hazel, along comes the glam-goth foursome Future Legends, a group working in musical territory virtually ignored by most bands in town.

Eric Spence, the frontman of the group, is part Bowie, part Peter Murphy and part Robert Smith, complete with jet-black hair, dark makeup and a gangly frame. The stage presence is the first thing you notice about this guy (if you can see him through the fog), then you realize he is no mere poseur - the dude has serious pipes.

The above artist references are no coincidence, as Spence cites Bauhaus, Bowie and The Cure as his main influences. Before coming to Gainesville a couple of years ago, the Indiana-bred singer also fronted a Goth band in Tampa, Mourning Gloria.

Future Legends formed about a year ago after Spence had been doing his bit for some months at open-mic night at Common Grounds. "They recruited me," he says.

The present lineup is Spence, vocals and guitar; Jason Bennett, drums; Sarah Zachrich, bass, and Brian Kennedy, lead guitar.

"I write mainly about personal experience," Spence says, almost absentmindedly, taking a long drag on his cigarette as we sit at the bar in Common Grounds. "I'm not real good at making stories up, so it's all real-life stuff."

Aside from the odd cover, the band plays primarily original music, written by Spence. It's not hard to imagine the genre looking at him; he actually does bear quite a resemblance to his hero, David Bowie.

"But it's not about style," he says, "It's about character." Spence admits that the offstage Eric is much different to the onstage one. "As soon as I start to put the makeup on, I become a different person. It's definitely me, but it's a different me."

When I mention something Pete Townshend once said about the time he whacked Abbie Hoffman with his guitar when the activist tried to join The Who onstage in the middle of its Woodstock performance, Spence laughs.

"Well, this one time, there was a character licking my boot and pants leg while I was singing," he says. "I had to kind of push him away, you know, I'm up there doing my job."

Spence sings in a deep, echo drenched voice, occasionally strumming his acoustic guitar and moving theatrically across the stage through clouds of fog he controls with a foot switch, not unlike the way a guitarist uses a wah wah pedal. Zachrich, quite fetching with bobbed blonde hair and a glittery Danelectro bass, holds down the groove well, while Bennett, who looks almost like he'd be more comfortable playing in a hardcore band, wails away at the kit. Kennedy layers simple but tasty guitar work between Spence's haunting vocals.

The band is currently working on a six-song demo CD that will be available at tonight's show. Last week, the West Coast radio station KROQ, which is doing a nationwide video documentary on unsigned bands (29 bands in 29 cities), came to Common Grounds and shot footage of the Legends' show, as well as behind-the-scenes interviews with Spence and the other members. "That was amazing," Spence says. "They picked us as the first band." Spence says the documentary is scheduled tentatively to air at the end of May.

--Doug Jordan