By Art Bamford

Staff Writer

Start with a group of musicians playing laid back party music on a beach in Hawaii. Send them to the coast of California and sign them to a record label which has them poised as the next big `jam' band. Next our group adds a few members on their way to Austin, Texas, where they record the next album. It is good but doesn't catch on fast...and so our little band has been dropped from their record label. The few remaining members move to Chicago and add more members, and more synthesizers to their hippy sound. In a living testament to the American spirit of rugged individualism, the band releases a highly experimental album on an independent label, and it becomes their biggest success to date.

Fast forward to last Wednesday night where our band Poi Dog Pondering was putting on a show. Poi Dog is now known for playing few places except Chicago where they can sell out almost any venue. This performance was held at the legendary ``Metro'' club where Nirvana first smashed their instruments, and Smashing Pumpkins first played for an audience. As we marched up the old metal stairs, stained permanently with beer, blood, and sweat, we were greeted by the lush techno of ``Aspara's Dreaming,'' a three-piece group consisting of turntables, a violinist and a cellist. Aspara's Dreaming played a nice instrumental warm-up set that created an appropriate mood for Poi Dog. Because of a rash of recent random appearances in which Poi Dog would appear as a two person folk duo, or a one person DJ, no one was sure what form the band would take this particular evening.

When the full band took the stage the crowd went into an uproar, knowing this would be a wonderful evening. The `full band' is as many as 19 people if you include the visual artist who runs synchronized film loops from a projector in the back and the break dancing troupe ``House-O-Matic'' who have been known to appear at some shows. Although there was no break dancing Wednesday night, there were guest appearances by hip-hop duo Prime Meridian and Stewart from the J. Davis Trio. These guests rapped verses on some of the show's funkier songs and added an element of hip-hop to the Poi Dog mix. The setlist was drawn mostly from Poi Dog's newer material, of which there is an abundance (two new albums, one a double disc, are set for release in the next six months) but had enough oldies to appease the die-hards.

The Poi Dog Pondering sound is hard to describe. They have a string section, horn players, a percussionist, and synthesizers along with the basics like guitars, drums and bass. This makes it a large very lush sounding ensemble. This full sound is paired with highly danceable pop rhythms and melodies. The audience seemed to be packed with self-absorbed yuppies and drunken college students (you know, like a Dave Matthews Band concert) who were extremely energetic and enthusiastic.

The performance lasted close to three hours and left everyone involved, including the audience, exhausted. Still, neither group's energy level dropped a bit until the second encore when a small portion of Poi Dog came out for a beautifully simple bass, flute, and violin rendition of ``Collarbone.'' Poi Dog's performance was fantastic to say the least, and not only because of the audio and visual artistry happening on stage. Seeing a band making art for art's own sake and succeeding was a pleasure.