GIG: Normal
So last night Dave -
nobleds - and I hopped in his shoebox car and we - mostly he - drove to Normal, Illinois to check out the Ear Candy show and for me to do a feature. I hadn't been to Normal in a few years, and I've always liked the poets that came out of there, so I was happy to make the 5.5 hour run. A run like that is less damage to my system when someone else is driving too. Even if you can't get real sleep in a car, you at least aren't staring down asphalt for hours, and that goes a long way.
Aaron Enskat is a fun, wild host, and his energy is very contagious. So contagious that between him and some mental exercises I picked up from Steve Marsh (not to mention some Olivier Othello pausing for good measure), I performed this stuff WAY above normal (no pun intended. Swear to God, I wrote that and the pun came to me ten seconds later).
The setlist:
1) Whuppins
2) Elementary
3) The Flavor of Love
4) Queen Takes Black Knight
5) Scowl
What's this?! A new feature poem launch? Why yes.
"Scowl" - the Ginsberg homage/Anime rip - may only be a few days old, but I did some serious revision to it since last Friday. It's tighter, funnier, shorter and better. I haven't timed it yet, but if I ever get it anywhere near three minutes, watch your backs, slammers. Right now I'm content to do it like it is because it's fun and I can really play with the performance.
But while "Scowl" was the feature highlight, I had a lot of fun playing with "Elementary", too. I did something with it I'd not done before, and man did it work! I played it sort of coy, more naughty. Changed nothing in the text, mind you. But the vibe was definitely different in the performance. You can tell a difference from the gig I did last night and the gigs I started back into the road with. I retooled some things and kept hammering away at the silences and the text. Good fights! I'd say I held poetry to three points last night.
Got home at 4 AM, crashed, washed, rinsed, repeated.
EDIT:
You will notice I did five poems, even though the time was about the same for an average feature. Clearly this had everything to do with "Scowl". Doing that piece costs me two "regular" pieces. I'll have to decide if I want to be respresented more by that one piece than the two I might have done in its place. Some shows I will, some shows, not so much.