The Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Polish National Home, Brooklyn

Max Fisher exists in real life. We spotted a late-20s version of the lead from Rushmore tearing it up on the dancefloor at the Polish National Home. White Members Only jacket, thick black-rimmed glasses, slicked-back dark hair and checked Vans. As songs by Salt-N-Pepa and Peaches, and Madonna's "Burning Up" played on the sound system, Fisher rocked moves we hadn't seen since Breakin' came out in 1984. But the move that stole our hearts was when he magically appeared adjacent to us to light a beautiful blonde's cigarette?before she could even think about finding her own lighter?then returned to dancing without exchanging a word or missing a beat. We gazed in admiration, just happy to know that a guy like that existed.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner says the Polish National Home is the best venue in the entire country?hope it remains that way after Village Underground's Steve Weitzman gets in on the deal and renames it Warsaw, as he plans to do this September. Upon entering the mammoth space I understood why Nick loved it so much. The building is equivalent in size to the Bowery Ballroom or Irving Plaza, and sports Renaissance-style paintings on either side of the stage, marble covering the bottom portion of all the walls, gold trimming and chandeliers. Plus there's the disco ball spinning lights across the room while 70s B-movies and other shifting images, including a blowup of the show flier, flicker across the walls.

So the scene itself was enough to occupy me during the two hours we waited to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs play. The ambience reminded me of the high school prom I never attended because I was too bombed to enter.

When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs hit the stage just after 11 the place was more than halfway full, a good-sized crowd for a local band that recently self-released its first EP. Though only a guitarist, drummer and singer, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on a show like they were a much bigger band. They create sexually charged songs that address sensory extremes. Karen O, one half Siouxsie Sioux, the other Holly Golightly, sings in a sultry voice: "My skin tonight is a-blazing/But I don't think you're my type/What I need tonight is the real thing/yeah, I need the real thing tonight? As a fuck son you suck?the bigger the better." She kicks her leg into the air and flashes evil smiles at the audience. Her eyes are wide and she moves like a wound-up toy while Nick and drummer Brian Chase remain stationary. Karen wears acid-washed jeans halfway unzipped down her leg, holding the mic in one hand. Sometimes she even wraps the cord around her neck to be more dramatic. She could be singing about men, but it's the women in the audience who really grasp what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are conveying, as we hear cries of "Fuck yeah" and "She rocks."

It's only a 20-minute set, but it sure is a powerful one. Karen mimics an animal panting, then the drums kick in, Nick's right hand quickly manhandling the length of his guitar's neck and back; Karen's vocals strengthen before the song climaxes with: "And you're more beautiful than ever/Looking in the car's rear-view mirror." We're standing at full attention, overcome by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as the set comes to an end with Karen O on her knees crooning "eeewww." We got our money's worth without even sticking around for headliners the Gossip.