The Show Is the Rainbow

"Storm's coming." Linda Hamilton's portentous final line in Terminator 2 must have been on Darren Keen's lips as he watched the Faint, his Nebraskan countrymen, release their breakout Blank Wave Arcade. Though their days may be waning, the Faint's post-nuclear fallout has salted the earth a bit for the nation's budding Duran Durans. But Omaha's one-man band the Show Is the Rainbow offers something much more meaningful than derivative Devo mimicry—there is a clubby, atomic pitter-pat lurking in his 606, and punk sensibility coloring his production. A cadre of frantic, urgent melodies carries Darren's spot-on Mark Mothersbaugh warble, and his thumping, clacking tempos will have your toes doing double-time. If the Faint are neo-wave's spreading, diffuse mushroom cloud, the Show Is the Rainbow is its irradiated Omega Man, prowling the ravaged wasteland for an unspoiled dance floor and a few mutants with whom to shake ass. With Mel Gibson & the Pants, Mystery Palace, and Tay Zonday.
Sat., Feb. 2, 9 p.m., 2008