Perhaps in some sort of “Bizarro World” where everything is backward and upside down, there would be hundreds of bands like The Poison Control Center. But on planet Earth, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another band with some of the peculiarities found in this group.

“This is actually the first time the whole band has been together,” says Patrick Fleming, creator of PCC.

As with many of the quirks that define PCC, something about that fact doesn’t seem quite right, but all of the members act as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Many bands make slight changes in roster, but PCC has fluctuated so much, it’s ridiculous. As a live band, PCC has had as many as 18 members playing onstage and as few as three.

For more than a year, PCC has played as a five-piece, currently made up by Joe Terry, Devin Frank, new member Ryan Meier, Patrick Fleming and his wife Natalie. Looking back at the history of the band, the members agree that playing with such a large band had its pros and cons.

“When we had so many people, it was impossible to get anything done when we’d all get together,” says Natalie, senior in anthropology.

“It wasn’t very economical to drive three cars full of people sitting on each others’ laps to Iowa City for a show and get paid 30 bucks,” Patrick adds.

PCC shows are marked by unpredictability and crazy shenanigans. The band fondly remembers instances of Natalie playing her keyboard on her head, Devin slicing his head open, Joe Terry playing two trumpets at the same time, Patrick breaking a girl’s foot and people doing the splits on stage and hanging from the rafters.

“It kind of evolved into chaos,” says Frank, sophomore in philosophy. “We never planned on attacking people on stage or anything.”

Songwriting is another process PCC handles differently from the norm, partly because Patrick Fleming is co-owner of Bi-Fi Records, which gives the band full access to the recording studio.

“Most bands will play a song for months and months and flesh it out before they go in and record it,” says Meier, senior in English. “Whereas Poison Control Center will record something first and then listen to it later and play it and that becomes the song.”

“We don’t think and talk about song structures like we should and like most bands do,” Frank adds. “The songs are what they are, for better or for worse.”

This reversed method seems consistent with the band’s unique way of doing things, and the members say it works to their advantage. Insisting yet again to keep themselves free to be whatever they want, the group makes no efforts to make their live shows a mere visual version of their albums.

“We’re a very different band live than on a record,” Terry says. “It’s a double-edged sword.”

People who come to Poison Control Center’s shows aren’t even necessarily there for the music anyway, the band says. The hope for silliness alone is enough to draw the crowds in and the band delivers.

“We get a lot of people who come out just to see what’s going to happen at the show because it’s different every time and people see some of the craziest things they’ve ever seen at a show,” Patrick says.

“In the end, Poison Control Center is just Pat and his friends,” Frank says.

“And right now, we’re the only friends that he’s got.”