Holy shit. Sometimes you see a show and it’s fun: you know, there are like four dudes (maybe one or two ladies too) onstage playing some rock music, kind of pulling it all together and having a fun, infectious time. At other times, less frequently, you see a band literally detonate the stage with a vicious indie-rock Tet Offensive. I won’t say too much here other than the fact that the Poison Control Center blew up the Mill last night. Without a doubt this is one of the best shows I have ever seen in Iowa City and this is perhaps the best rock band in the state of Iowa. The Envy Corps, the Death Ships, etc… all of those bands should be shitting their pants because the Poison Control Center is not only writing impeccable nuggets of indie-pop, they’re also performing the hell out of them with an energy I’ve only seen in a band like Philly’s The Teeth. Where to begin? Everyone in the band sings which is always a plus and there’s a two guitar attack with both guys taking solos, not to mention a little Micro Korg synth in the background that gets assaulted from time to time. And yeah, they did a sing-a-long near the end of their set that had every single son of a gun belting out their lyrics: Love is the answer / Then you get cancer / And then you’re lying, dying, dead! At one point, one of their guitarists walked off stage and jumped on a table while cutting a solo. He was on the edge of the table ripping his solo and you could just see the whole thing was a about tip over: the glasses were sliding to the edge and it looked like a disaster in the making. At the very last moment before the apocalypse descended and broke this kid’s neck, he leaped from the table — wrecking havoc on all of the glasses — finished his solo mid-air and crashed back onto the stage. The mix of acrobatics and raw talent was astonishing.
If seeing this band was like smoking crack then not seeing them was like fist-fighting Stalin. I mean, I guess all I have for you is this: Quit yr lover, forget yr job, throw out yr indie rock tapes and go see the Poison Control Center at yr earliest inconvenience.
fuck yeah