By: Dan Schultz
.jpg) |
| The Poison Control Center - Photo by Dan Schultz |
The Poison Control Center clearly missed guitarist Devin Frank, who normally sings lead as well on several songs. The primary vocalist and remaining guitarist, Patrick Tape Fleming, played above and below the stage as usual, while the rest of the band passed around the vocal duties as needed to cover for Devin, who was busy teaching Philosophy at grad school. The PCC tend to make the most out of any live show. If there are ten people in the room, they’ll personally thank each one and probably dedicate each a song as well. Given a huge stage at The Fitzgerald a year ago as part of The Current’s Fakebook series, they led the crowd in a sing-along about cancer, hurled a guitar 30 feet in the air and generally careened up and down over every inch of the space. Mary Lucia was sufficiently inspired to try a PCC-signature leap from the bass drum herself.
The band is mostly known for their stage acrobatics and reminding people of Pavement. But after getting around to listening to a few of their albums, I’ve decided the stage antics are secondary to the songwriting. The Pavement comparison wears thin; the PCC are funnier and make more unexpected cultural references. A song on the previous album, Kennedy, offers a tale of self-defense from the persona of David Koresh. It hardly sounds like material for an uplifting pop song, but the song somehow manages to be both humorous and sympathetic. Collage of Impressions, the latest album, continues in this vein. One song steps into the head of obscure sculptor and lunatic Camille Claudel, a lover of Rodin, turning her ravings into a passionate plea for escape and equal opportunity. This great songwriting just ups the expectations for their live shows.
After their set, Patrick went straight into deflecting all attention to the next band, Casper and the Cookies from Athens, GA. Led by Jason NeSmith, formerly in Of Montreal, the similarity with his former band is clear. They seem to be a bit more fun-loving, definitely pop, but eccentric without being pretentious. Several of the tracks on their latest album, The Optimist's Club, are instantly catchy and translated well live. The final band of the night, THEMES, aims for an epic, operatic Midwestern sound. They cite “Mother Nature's Random Acts of Violence” as an influence and go looking for ground-swelling climate change in their recorded material. Live, they sounded a little more laid back and accessible, putting on a pretty straight-forward rock performance.
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Casper and the Cookies, THEMES, The Poison Control Center
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus