Favourite Gig Fridays: Poison Idea

So, here's a band I only ever saw once ( at TJ's, Newport ) and whose records I've never owned, but they still make it into the ranks of Fave Gig Fri. The mighty ( and physically massive ) Poison Idea, a hardcore band from Portland, Oregon, whose late guitarist pictured above went by the delightful nom de rock of Pig Champion. They played the kind of loud, aggressive hardcore/metal that really only works in a live gig situation.....

As a special treat/torture I'm going to quote my gig review from my diary for July 1991 - yep, long before t'internet all we had was pen and paper to record our twisted thoughts; how prehistoric! Let the quotation commence, with 2009 comments in italics:

"Poison Idea lumbered onto stage: probably the most hideously obese Americans ever to thrash guitars and roar drunkenly on stage. ( Nice repetition of the word 'stage' ) Despite their whale-like bulks ( sensitive! ) they played blindingly fast and f***ing LOUD. The crowd went, as they say, wild. I went down the front, with Mark and Jon, which turned out to be a bad decision when someone accidentally smacked me in the face and cut my cheek.

( Poor baby! ) It didn't seem like much at the time, but when I got home and looked in a mirror, I realised I had quite a good cut - and it's still visible now. ( This was written 4 months after the gig for reasons of pure laziness ) Wow, rock 'n' roll, eh? Poison Idea were actually very good ( Don't hold back with the praise! ) and made it all worthwhile, even though their set fell apart at the end as the singer 'escorted' a too-abusive member of the audience outside for a little chat. Got home late, crashed out, thud!"

I was obviously more concerned with recording a very minor injury than talking about the actual music. That could be why I never ended up writing for the NME.

Soundtrack:The Badge by Poison Idea ( via the miracle of YouTube )