"Thank you for watching us practice."
That's how P.O.S. bid adieu at the Turf Club last night, following a riveting show with his "new" backing band -- actually his bandmates in Building Better Bombs. Fortunately for fans who couldn't make it, the semi-surprise show wasn't his last goodbye before heading to the Coachella festival on Friday. He told the Turf crowd he also plans to do "a couple more of these shows" this week to prep for Coachella. Based on a Tweet he just sent out, it sounds like Stef and the boys are going to show up at the Triple Rock tonight -- which makes sense since it's a Triple Double Tuesday over there (he references the cheap-drinkathon in his song "Optimist").
Assuming it will be just like last night's 35-minute show (the alotted set time at Coachella), if you head out to the Triple Rock tonight you're liable to feel like you're watching P.O.S. teetering on a diving board preparing to jump headlong into his next creative phase. The guy's punk-rock roots have always shown up in his rap music, but never as strongly as they did last night at the Turf, with two drummers and/or a guitarist behind him along with (GAYNGS leader) Ryan Olson's mad electronic wizardry and DJ Plain Ole Bill's beats. It's all too easy to say, but the Bombs guys really did make the songs more explosive, including the opener "Let It Rattle," "Optimist" and especially "Drumroll." Yeah, no duh, the latter tune sounds better with live drums. The band should definitely help P.O.S. make a bigger impression at Coachella, but I think its impact will be be much more lasting than that. Stef himself strapped on a guitar for "Graves (We Wrote the Book)," plus he delivered the lines in "Savion Glover" in a rabid manner that sounded like the words were fast, punky guitar riffs. "We've only practiced like six times before this," he admitted to the crowd near show's end. Actually, it sounded a little like he was bragging -- and deservedly so.
(Photos by Leslie Plesser for Vita.mn)
