Poi Dog Pondering Vic Theatre Chicago, IL November 20, 2009

It’s always an experience when going to see a Poi Dog Pondering show, whether it be musically or visually. Next year will mark the band’s 25th anniversary, and much of that longevity is due to the band’s freedom to continually reinvent itself. It’s such a valuable commodity for a band to have the ability to create a sound that may borrow influences from other genres of music, but the end result is something unique to that band alone. Ever try describing Poi Dog Pondering to a friend? How many musical descriptors do you end up using?

Frank Orrall, the humbled and spirited frontman of the group, took to the stage like a proud lion on the prowl, ready to pounce on the microphone. For just a little over two hours, the capacity crowd was treated to a wide selection of the Poi Dog Pondering catalog. The injection of “The Watermelon Song” and “Thanksgiving” from 1990’s Wishing Like A Mountain and Thinking Like the Sea were fine reminders of the band’s early days, while “Blood and Thunder” from 1992’s Volo simply went for the throat and never let go. The dual guitar team of Dag Juhlin and Ted Cho brought a sonic presence that served the songs beautifully. Headed up by Dave Max Crawford and Susan Voelz, the brass and string sections shined their brightest on songs such as “From This Moment On” and the Zeppelin-esque “Space Dust.”

Not afraid to test itself in front of its fans, two of the most interesting moments of the night came when the band took different approaches to two of its songs. “In Comes The Night,” from the band’s last album, 7, went from a mostly acoustic driven song into a steady paced trance with Orrall channeling some of The Church and Echo and the Bunnymen into his vocals. “Complicated” generally marks the point of the show when the folks that had been hanging at the back of the theatre, next to the bar, come rushing to the front of the stage and “get down.” But this time the band took the song down a notch with acoustic guitars and Orrall on a ukulele. The song truly displayed Poi Dog Pondering’s Hawaiian roots and still captured the jubilation of its original shape. It was yet again more proof that the band can be anything it wants to be and still find a way to make it all work. They can be the no-frills rock band (“Lemon Drop Man”), the soul/R&B band that would have made James Brown sweat from just watching (“Natural Thing”) or just be Poi Dog Pondering (“Big Constellation”).

The level of consistency for which the band operates at could respectably stand up alongside more popular acts like U2 and Pearl Jam. From the marvelous vocals of Charlette Wortham, Kornell Hargrove and Robert Cornelius to the tight rhythm machine of Ron Hall and Dan Leali, Poi Dog Pondering was simply in its zone and never faltered.

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