Wednesday (Jan 20, 2010): It was a wild and crowded night down at the Blue Z Coffeehouse in Newtown, CT. Performance poet Sympetalous with his brand new backup band (called Be Here Now) took listeners on a drugless, trippy dip into the cool pool of the 1960s beat poetry mindspace!
The players were: Stan "Sympetalous" on the wild words, Martin C. Earley on electric guitar, Rob Dauphinais on acoustic bass guitar and finally Evan Foreman on percussion and special effects. Along with the low bass notes and the surreal electronic guitar sounds and smooth riffs, Evan's custom percussion tools included (but were not limited to) something that generated a thunder-like sound, a conch shell, zen bells and the hollow box he was sitting on which substituted for congas.
Sympetalous gives a five star performance even without music -- but with this addition - I have one word for the totality: Wow! The band created a time-warped, alternate reality mood that supported the poetry performance in an incredible way. These guys have really hit their stride!
"They took me back 35 years," said Alex, a WNPS regular. Indeed. It was old-style but it was also so present tense. The open mic was a wild one too with performances by more than a dozen poets including J-Cherry in a performance piece about the Belly of the Beast, and Victoria Munoz with a historically funny piece spoofing the Bachelor.
For information about upcoming Wednesday Night Poetry Series events, check its website at
http://wedpoetry.wordpress.com
