Techno Bunnies: Rabbit in the Moon

Map It  U Street-Cardozo 

IF YOU'RE NOT A DANCER, electronica concerts are almost always dull. There's only so much moving and grooving a dude stuck behind a turntable or a keyboard can do to stimulate the crowd and show he's lost in the music-making.

That's not the case with Rabbit in the Moon (RITM). Since the early 1990s the group has put on one of the most awe-inspiring live concerts in all of ravedom:

Think Blue Man Group after a tab of acid.

The band's music blends techno and industrial electronica, but where RITM makes its mark is in the visual department. A manic video display blasts all sorts of psychedelic images as a hyper man named Bunny, dressed in all manner of Comic Con-worthy suits, uses spastic bursts of energy to urge the crowd to higher planes — or welcome them onstage to grate their faces. Placing a metal mask on willing participants, Bunny takes a handheld grinder to their domes and produces a Chinese-fireworks display of sparks.

"We've never had any mishaps with the grinder," Bunny said. "It's like a sacrifice. … It's something that never fails to tie an audience together."

The long-running band, now a duo, has earned its reputation and built its career on wild performances as well as remixes for the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Smashing Pumpkins and, er, Eric Clapton. But all that touring and remixing has pushed RITM's original music to the backburner — until now.

The forthcoming CD and DVD package "Decade" is the group's first album-length release, and it highlights Rabbit in the Moon's musical offerings as well as its visual art, which only makes sense: Listening to RITM without seeing them is like eating an Oreo without milk. It's good, but you're just not getting the full experience.

"We approached ["Decade"] almost like the CD portion was the scoring of the video," Bunny said. "Some of the videos, like 'Star Shine,' we actually made the video to a scratch track and didn't finish the song until the video was cut and finished. We were almost scoring the video."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Fri., 11 p.m., $30; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photos courtesy Magnum PR/Rabbit in the Moon