Polyethylene terephthalate persons
Thursday, September 20th, 2007 
PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE: Bohemian rhapsody
(photo by Joeff Davis)
Even for a venue known for its unique events, this one was a doozy.
Last night, Eyedrum hosted Czech rock legends Plastic People of the Universe.
PPU is best known for the impact it had on politics. The band defied the crackdown on public artistic expression in Czechoslovakia that followed the Soviet invasion in 1968 – performing and even recording albums in secret. In 1976, the Communist government jailed members of the band simply for daring to be musicians – an act so egregious it mobilized Czechoslovakian civil society against its government’s tyranny.
As luck would have it, it’s also a great band – combining the Velvet Underground’s relentlessness and Zappa’s absurdity with an unmistakably Central European sense of melody.
If you were careless enough to miss them last night, you have another chance. On Saturday, the band has a gig at Prague in Motion, a Czech bar in Norcross.
