Invisible Robot Fish

From SceneWiki

Once upon time, there were some guys who were friends. These friends were also musicians. One night these friends all went down to the Instant Karma open mic nite. They signed up to play, and waited politely for their turn. When it was their turn, the friends (there were 8 or 9 of them altogether) set up on stage with all manner of crazy instruments, including—but not limited to—a stand-up bass, record player, electric and acoustic guitars, trumpet, saxophone, drums, and several effects pedals. They played improvisational folk noise music for about 15 minutes. Then the groop left left the stage triumphantly and went back to their beers.

The group was called Invisible Robot Fish, named after the non-sequitur punchline of a greeting card one of the members had purchased for his dad.

For a number of weeks, IRF continued their Tuesday evening assaults on the Instant Karma open mic nites. As the weeks went on, their legend grew in proportion to the boldness of their performances. They added members. They added instruments. They did not write songs or plan anything in advance except the instruments they would bring. They did make homemade tee-shirt uniforms for themselves, and that was kinda cool. Eventually, the owner of Instant Karma began referring to Invisible Robot Fish as the "house band" and advertising them on the marquis outside. IRF had even convinced the open mic nite host to join as a full-time IRF member.

At some point, these performances stopped happening every week. Then they happened once a month. Then, they stopped happening at all.

Invisible Robot Fish was no more. Soon, Instant Karma closed, too.

IRF played their last show in 1997, although a reunion occurred sometime in 2000 at the now defunct Firehouse #3.

Now, if the group is remembered at all it's because its talented, multifarious membership founded a crapload of reasonably well-known bands, including Woozyhelmet, Matty and Mossy, Bring Back the Guns, Bright Men of Learning, The Jonx, and Free Radicals. Current Pitchfork Media indie darlings Jana Hunter and The Octopus Project are also IRF alumni.