Review - Show - Poison Idea @ Thee Parkside, July 20th

The night started with a friend asking me: Do you ever look at a five dollar bill and picture a beer? I said, No, I see it as two. I had about ten beers in my wallet then, and by the time I reached Thee Parkside there were only two left. The bar was already packed with an impressive display of punk fashion; seriously, the sum of silver spikes must have been in the millions. It was a phenominal showing of old school punkers. I’d just learned of Poison Idea and I guess that’s pretty fucked up since they originated in 1980, two years before I was born. The band’s line up:

Vocals-Jerry A
Drums-Chris Cuthbert
Guitar-Jimmy Taylor
Guitar-Matt Brainard
Bass-Rawbo

The original guitarist, Pig Champion, died in 2006 and his presence has been missed ever since. But that didn’t stop Poison Idea from rockin’ hard as fuck. But wait a second, who played first… oh yeah, the Texas Thieves! It’s great to see an opening band that lists the headlining band as an influence on their myspace page (and they‘re from SF people). These guys have a sound that almost rivaled their stage performance. Lead singer Fozzy began the show by slapping hands with everyone in the front row and calling them by name. Then they launched into superfuckingfast punk. I really liked them. The guitarist Johnny Bouldt was asked to tell the girls in the audience what he did to play the show, to which he responded, “I had to suck all yr dad’s dicks to play this show!” Later, Fozzy screamed to the crowd, “What’s it gonna take to get you to run around and hit each other?” It made me laugh really hard (while getting hit).

The Midnight Bombers were up next and the lead singer kinda ruined it for me, too self-obsessed. Also, they wore stupid matching outfits. But the music was alright and the drummer was a huge motherfucker. When he hit things it felt like Armageddon. He really should be in Nile or Napalm Death or something. Hey, dude, if you want to play with my death metal band email me!



I’m not going to say much about Poison Idea’s sound besides that it was tight, had a sense of humor, and hard. Earlier in the night it had begun to dawn on me that they were really big. I’d gone out to the patio and saw a neverending line set up in front of the Sold Out ticket booth. Quite impressive for 17th and Winsconsin or whatever. My bro said he was standing on the bar because the mosh pit was everywhere. At one point all the tables in the bar were even taken outside to make more room. That might explain why all my pictures suck. Anyway, here they are. Props to the bouncer (pictured below right), you earned yr pay that night. Poison Idea fucking rules!