My take on PHM after last night at The Waiting Room is the same as it was before last night -- there's an throw-back quality to their sound that's unquestionable; a throwback to the Omaha/Lincoln scene of the mid-'90s that reminds me of bands like Mousetrap, Sideshow and Opium Taylor, bands that were popular around here when members of PHM were about four years old. It's a punky, dissonant sound, angry and chaotic. The difference last night: It was less messy, more controlled, more refined, but just as brutal. Most young bands these days are playing a brighter-sounding almost tinty cacophonous punk. New Times Viking, who plays at TWR Thursday night, comes to mind. PHM is darker, deeper, more rhythmic (the drums never sounded better). Frontman Paul Hansen's vein-necked screaming continues to remind me of Pat Buchanan but with less flailing and spitting (but just as disturbing). PHM hits the road tomorrow for a two-week tour of the upper Midwest down through Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Here's hoping they find their crowd, and that their crowd finds them.

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown its heritage alt-country band Old 97's with Hayes Carll and I Love Math. $17, 9 p.m.

And speaking of Slowdown, in tomorrow's column the club's frontmen talk about the venue as it celebrates its first year of operation. See you then.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--