Hamster Theatre was formed in 1993 by multi-instrumentalists Dave Willey and Jon Stubbs. Both had previously been members of Big Foot Torso, but Willey left to spend time in Europe where he experienced Rock in Opposition and related music. Willey was particularly drawn to the music of Swedish accordionist Lars Hollmer from Samla Mammas Manna. When he returned to the United States, Willey recorded a solo album entitled Songs from the Hamster Theatre, which he released on cassette tape (later reissued on CD in 1995).
Stubbs then joined forces with Willey and they formed Hamster Theatre, with an initial lineup of Willey (keyboards, guitar, melodeon), Stubbs (bass guitar), Deborah Perry (keyboards, vocals), Steve Doyle (guitar), Greg LaLiberte (saxophones, flute), Josh Wright (drums) and Jay Trolinger (percussion). The group played Hollmer covers and songs from Willey's album at venues across Colorado. Their first performance was on August 20, 1993, at the Penny Lane coffeehouse in Boulder, Colorado.[1][4]
Hamster Theatre underwent several personnel changes, which included the departures of Doyle, Wright, and Trolinger, and the addition of Mark McCoin as the new drummer. During this time, Willey and Stubbs expanded their repertoire by incorporating accordion and trombone, respectively. In 1996 Willey (on bass guitar) and Perry (as a vocalist) joined Thinking Plague, an avant-rock group based in Denver. Consequently, Mike Johnson (guitar) and Mark Harris (reeds) of Thinking Plague joined Hamster Theatre.
In 1998, a new lineup of Hamster Theatre consisting of Willey (accordion), Stubbs (trombone), Johnson (guitar), Harris (reeds), Mike Fitzmaurice (bass guitar) and Raoul Rossiter (drums) recorded their first album, Siege on Hamburger City, live at Mercury Café in Denver.[1] The band's subsequent album, Carnival Detournement, was released in 2001. It was a studio album featuring Willey and Stubbs on multiple instruments, alongside Harris, Johnson, Fitzmaurice, Rossiter, LaLiberte and McCoin. Carnival Detournement received favorable reviews from critics "for its melodic, atmospheric, moody, and unpredictable blend of modern classical, avant rock, and European folk influences."[1]
In August 2002, Hamster Theatre performed at the first Progman Cometh festival in Seattle, Washington. The same lineup was used as for Siege on Hamburger City, except for Brian McDougall replacing Fitzmaurice on bass guitar.[1] Most of their performance, with mixing and mastering by Bob Drake, appears on the second CD of their double-CD, The Public Execution of Mister Personality / Quasi Day Room: Live at the Moore Theatre, released in 2006. The first CD of the album consists of studio recordings of compositions by Willey and Stubbs, also mixed and mastered by Drake.[2] A reviewer at AllMusic called the album "a landmark two-disc studio/live set proving that the European RIO-based sounds of the '70s and '80s have taken root and can sprout up almost anywhere, even in the post-millennial Rocky Mountain State."[2]
