The Kirksville Socialite

Inside Wrong Daddy's.

Note: This series of blogs should have been posted at least a week ago, as the concert took place at Wrong Daddy’s on Saturday, November 1st. However, I’ve been quite under the weather for the past few weeks and I’m afraid I’m playing catch up, so I sincerely apologize for not putting this up sooner and hope you all enjoy a read about a truly great show that stopped in town a few weeks back. Cheers, Casey.

*Note: this article has been amended from the original posting to report that over 100 people attended.  It was originally reported that 60 to 70 individuals attended.  Cheers to me being a Senior in college and utterly failing at estimation.

It’s 11:00 and there are literally eleven people in this entire building who are not on the dance floor.  

One of them is the sound guy, who appears to be having his own private groove session in the sound booth high above the stage.  The sea of flailing limbs far below him is an awesome sight, I’m on the southern platform trying to figure out how to make my way through it to the stage to finagle a “from below” picture of the band, but there’s absolutely no path to be found.  Up on the stage, Dressy Bessy is well into a set that’s equal parts whimsy and rock’n'roll, and this crowd is loving every minute of it.  

I can make out a few people in the throng of bodies: to the left, a friend is shaking her head alongside the lead singer for one of the opening bands; directly below me, off to the right, is a guy I know from a place I used to work at.  He’s usually very mellow, doesn’t say much and seems to live his life trying to be as passive as possible, but tonight he has sweat pouring down his face as he belts out the lyrics with every breath his body can summon and he’s clutching what appears to be an orange, pumping the fist that holds it in time to the rhythm of the song.  Nobody really knows where he got the fruit but nobody really second guesses the impetus for it either.

This is Kirksville on a Saturday night.  And this rocks.

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The Facebook Event said that the show started at 8:00, so I showed up at 7:55.  Turns out that 8:00 means 8:00, and even though I’m covering the event the guy who owns the club asks me if I wouldn’t mind waiting

Poison Control Center in the middle of their set at Wrong Daddy's. Media Credit: Casey Millburg.

outside.  I step out to kill some time and scan the street scene; Wrong Daddy’s is on the corner of Main and McPherson, you can see DuKum from the sidewalk but there’s no one there now, it’s too early.

Outside the club there’s a girl talking with two roadies.  They’re leaning against what undoubtedly is the band van: a large, Dodge Ram-esque behemoth with a small trailer hitched behind it.  One of them moves aside and the door he was leaning on opens up; out comes a fierce-looking young woman dressed head to toe in black who makes her way to the door of the club without so much as glancing at the trio talking on the sidewalk.  I check my watch and see that it’s 8:00, so I pack away my cell phone and follow her inside.

I had only been to this club once before, last semester when it went by the name of Toons.  Nothing had really stuck out about the place as my group only stayed there for about 15 minutes and I was winding down from a few drinks. The inside of Wrong Daddy’s immediately jumps out at you, however, it’s all black minimalist industrial with neon signage and heavy primary color spotlighting. It could be tacky, but in Wrong Daddy’s case it works quite well. 

I settle myself in at a table and then make my way over to where Royce Kallerud sits in a pool of yellow light; he’s an English professor at Truman State and the founder of the Kirksville Rocks! website, and he’s also the guy responsible for putting the Kirksville music scene on the map (more about this little tidbit later).  He’s brought over 50 live acts to Kirksville, and although I haven’t been to many of them I can confidently say that they’ve probably all been the kinds of shows that you find yourself reminiscing about well after they’ve come and gone.  His taste in music, in my opinion, is rivaled only by his knowledge of it: there have been more than a few times when, during the course of a conversation, he’s dropped a group name I’ve never heard of and can’t be sure I heard correctly, but that I end up falling in lust with after doing a bit of research. Royce has impeccable taste, and what’s good to his ears has more often than not proven to be good for Kirksville. 

Tonight he’s watching the people entering the club with what he describes as a mixture of nervousness and anticipation, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at him.  Throughout the night Royce (and his lovely wife, Devon) will get well-deserved shoutouts and accolades from every group onstage, acknowledgements of the care and preparation taken in making sure that this night goes smoothly.  There ends up being over 100 people who attend the show, not a sold-out crowd but not a bad one by any measure.  About 15 or 20 of the concertgoers are milling about on the dance floor when the first act, The Poison Control Center, takes the stage, and it’s clear from the very beginning of their set that PCC intends to get each and every person in the club a shot of pure adrenaline.

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“The other night actually I went to a show of a guy by the name of John Richman, the guy from ‘Something About Mary’ playing the guitar and singing in the tree.  I guess he’s like an old punk, funky rock’n'roll guy or whatever, and he played the other night when there were about 40 people there I’m guessing, and

The Poison Control Center. Media Credit: Casey Millburg.

 the show was so inspiring and made me realize that there’s nothing…he’s been with his drummer for 15 years and they play about 200 shows a year.  It was inspiring to see somebody up on stage with one of his best friends and getting 40 new best friends that night. ”

I interviewed Patrick Fleming, guitarist and lead vocalist for The Poison Control Center the week before the show.  He was talking with me about why he plays music, what it is about the idea of being in a band that’s alluring enough to make him go out on 4 tours since last November.

“There couldn’t be a better job in the world than travelling around our beautiful country with your 3 best friends and giving some sort of creative art back to anybody who will take it, and it just doesn’t get any better than that.  I’m pretty lucky, in that sense.”

The crowd at Wrong Daddy’s was pretty lucky Saturday night as well, it’s absolutely impossible to not enjoy a PCC show, to not want to sing along with their lyrics or jam with a band that’s having as much or more fun as the people they’re playing for.  Patrick tells me during our interview that the band has always tried to put on a “really crazy party-like type of show”; Saturday night, it’s a philosophy present in Fleming’s mad leaps from the stage onto the floor while playing guitar, the band’s many headstands in the midst of verses, tambourine sessions whose intensity rivals anything Will Ferrell put forth as the “cowbell guy” on SNL, and Joe Terry’s jealousy-inducing all-green ensemble.

Exploration Iowa once tried to pen down the sound of The PCC.  “I can only describe them as ‘The Replacements’ meet the ‘Beach Boys’ in a dark alley, kick the shit out of them and now they’re driving across town to shove their Sketchers up Paul McCartney’s ass,” the author wrote, “Howling yet intelligent lyrics, Crazy Horse guitar tones and hints of classical instruments haunt their entire collection of songs.”  On stage, PCC is a relentless force of energy, kicking, shoving and shaking the room until the room kicks, shoves and shakes back just the way they want it to.  They’re the grand architects of the proverbial “good time,” the guys you would kill to have at your party, the guys who bring the party to the party. 

“The best shows are when you’re not just standing there with your hands in your pockets, and you actually feel like you’re part of the experience,” Patrick says, “We kind of try to do that, sing-alongs, rolling around.  When you separate the spectators from the performers it’s never really that fun, you know, when it feels like there’s a wall up between you.  It’s never as fun, I don’t think.  We try to make sure everyone there has a good time, at least, that they’re affected whether it be good or bad, I guess.”

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It’s not all about having a good time, though, PCC’s got a set of brains to go with their power-punk-pop brand of rock’n'roll.  Listening to their music is as much a workout for the head as it is a workout for the body, you’ll find no Nickelback-grade “whoa whoa whoa-ing” in a Poison Control Center song; the group’s songs are intelligent, provocative and frequently surprising.  They’re also irresistible sing-alongs, which Patrick proves by coaxing an audience that’s dancing, though largely mute, into joining him in repeating the chorus of “Magic Circle Symphony” no less than five times over, ending each time with the rallying cry, “Oh please sing what I just said!” 

What’s apparent to anyone at the show is how much everyone in the band loves their job.  They’ve spent a lot of time on tour this year, which Patrick says has been a great experience but one they’re looking forward to

Patrick of PCC. Media Credit: Casey Millburg.

drawing to a close.  Dressy Bessy asked them to stay on for the remainder of the tour, but a few of the band members have practicals coming up and they’re all ready to buckle down and start writing music for their next album.  I’d heard a few rumors about a double album the group was thinking of putting out, and I ask Patrick if this is what they’re going to be working on.

“Originally, the first release we were ever going to have was going to be a double album rock opera.  25 songs were recorded for it but it was never released.  This was when we had, like, 16 people in the band, and we ended up thinking that the idea was a little crazy, you know, ‘nobody’s going to buy this.’  Then, our last album was going to be a double album with 28 songs but we were talked out of it.  Only 16 or 17 of the songs ended up on the album we released and then we put out an additional EP full of 6 more songs, and there’s a digital EP that’s coming with 6 more songs.  So all the songs will be released in some way, shape or form, but not all on one album.”

Part of the reason for holding back on the double album idea, Patrick explains, is that peoples’ attention spans are too short. 

“There’s so much music being made now, which is really great, but you might lose people a half hour into the album.  People hear something they don’t like and they go to the next song, the next artist.”

Since they’ve spent so much time touring this year I ask him about what life is like on the road.

“Touring is great because there’s so many different experiences, and not always on the stage.  A lot of them come from just being with people.”

He tells me, though, that for everything that’s amazing about it there are downfalls.

“A few years ago we opened for Deerhoof and there were 500 people at the show.  Then we went and played Louisville and there were 3 people at the show.  It’s an interesting profession where you can go from opening for one of the acclaimed indie rock bands in the country, playing a 500 crazy, lunatic, fun, exciting crowd, and then go play in a town you’ve played in before and have there be only three people there.”

It’s being a team with your band that gets you through the highs and lows, Patrick says.

An accurate representation of PCC's energy. Media Credit: Casey Millburg.

“Most people probably couldn’t get through a situation like that without people who honestly love them.  We go through everything together, whether it be family stuff or a marriage or whatever; it makes the group a lot stronger.  There have definitely been crazy times when people are whacked out and you’re staying at their house and you don’t know what to do, or when you come to find out that your breaks are one push away from giving out and you’re going down mountains.  All that crazy touring fun, you know?”

The Poison Control Center have played a lot of shows (over 400, Patrick tells me) and while they’ve played for some pretty big crowds they’ve learned that bigger doesn’t always mean better.  I ask him if there’s one that stands out in particular, and he tells me that judging the success of shows is a very subjective exercise: while 3 people in the band might think a gig was the one of the best shows they’ve played, there’s usually one who wasn’t really feeling it.  They’ve travelled coast to coast on tours, opened for their idols, and played with their favorite bands, but at the end of every show there’s usually a little bit of second-guessing that factors into their overall impression of it.

“I’ve had amazing shows both playing in peoples’ basements and playing in theaters…I guess I can’t pick out one in particular.  If you feel like the crowd is with you and they’re sweating as much as you are then it’s a successful show.”

He’s more decisive, though, when we discuss some of his favorite concerts that he’s attended.

In 2005, Patrick played a solo tour that was booked around seeing one of his all-time favorite bands play a reunion show.  The Olivia Tremor Control was reuniting in Athens, Georgia, that year, and he wasn’t about to miss it.

“Just seeing a band that you never thought you were going to see, because they broke up in 1999 and you weren’t old enough to get into 21 and over shows then, playing a half hour set in their hometown was pretty magical.”

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Poison Control Center was a good choice to start the evening off.  I’ve never experimented with drugs, but I imagine that PCC is the live music equivalent of an intravenous injection of something slightly less than legal: the mood in the club is downright frisky, people are nervously holding their positions on the floor waiting for their next hit of sound.  There’s a general consensus that the bar has been set, by the end of the show the band has doubled the amount of people on the floor in front of them and not one of the people has put their hands in their pockets.  The show has been, on all accounts, a success.

The band starts disassembling their instruments, The Melismatics are getting ready to take the stage.

Yes, Kirksville bars will advertise for Truman but Truman won't advertise events that happen in bars. Media Credit: Casey Millburg.