February is packed. It's almost annoying - nearly every night that I have something I want to go see, there is at least one other thing I want to go to as well. The New Stalgica is back on Monday night. Friday the 13th is the Steve Sauve Tribute Show at the Mercury Lounge, followed by Slowdance Night at Shanghai. Sunday the 15th has Ritallin, Luna Allison and Amanda Earl at Talented Tongues. And that's not getting into the two nights of Writers Festival events on the 19th and 20th.
But the buses are running again! Which means I'm not bound by the weather... just by the annoying fact that there's only one of me.
Friday, though, was a bike ride. But worth it. The AB Series hosted Hear from Melbourne at the NAC Fourth Stage - four spoken word artists from Melbourne, Australia: Justin Ashworth, Alicia Sometimes, Sean M. Whelan and Emilie Zoey Baker.
The NAC Fourth Stage is a great space (although I could wish they put the tables a little further apart - the cabaret-style seating around little tables is lovely and informal but it's really hard to get between the chairs to get to your table in the first place. But the audience is right up there with the performers.
Max Middle and the Young Griot Collective opened up for the Aussies - Max did a drum-solo-like sound poetry piece (halfway through I started recognizing the drum riffs I was hearing and the returning motifs... if you've never heard sound poetry before, give it some time and the benefit of the doubt.) The Young Griot Collective were a little raw, owing to having had to restructure their show at the last minute apparently, but put out an impassioned and grounded set, with a singer I've not heard before: she had a gorgeous voice.
The Aussies were a diverse bunch - Justin Ashworth was much more abstract in his poetry. He's primarily a musician, so his poems were accompanied by a musical soundscape of fading static and electric feedback tones. Very moody stuff. The others were more in the slam vein - funny, for the most part, touching and striking where they were serious, and moving. Alicia Sometimes had an astronomical, microcosm/macrocosm sort of theme running through her work (she admitted to having a thing for Carl Sagan when she was a kid) and a streak of bawdy fun. Sean M. Whelan's surreal, funny, touching poems reminded me a lot of Stuart Ross. And Emilie Zoey Baker, probably the most stage-roaming of the bunch, was unnerving with "Bratz Camp" (which wasn't exactly 'about' cyberbullying) and hilarious with "Hells Bells" (a trailer-park-kid's eye view of the death of Bon Scott from AC/DC.) And she gave all the Canadians in the audience a quick lesson on why Australians smother a laugh at the word "fanny pack."
(Probably for the same reason my Australian eighth grade class, in Geelong, burst out in giggles when I mentioned "pussy willows" during a discussion on "signs of spring.")
They're on their way to the Festival Voix D'Ameriques in Montreal, and from there to the US and the Bowery. I wish they could have stuck around an extra day, though, because they're doing a documentary on the spoken word scene in North America, and they could have come to Capital Slam. Apparently it's an entirely different scene from Melbourne, where, according to Justin Ashworth, who did make it last night, "people just get drunk and heckle the poets." Ottawa's not like that. It's a really supportive, warm, fun scene, and I think Greg Frankson's enthusiasm and Danielle Gregoire's warmth had a lot to do with kicking that off, setting the foundation for the values of the community that exists now.
Again, I have to say: when I'm working the door at a poetry show and I've got to turn people away because we're sold out; when there are people waiting downstairs in case someone leaves so they can get in; when people try to bribe me because their friend is performing and they've got to be inside; it's a strange but good feeling. Capital Slam sold out again last night. Twice the number of people wanted to slam than there were spaces for. Staff from the Mercury Lounge were standing downstairs so they could count when people left and let that many people in. And a lot of the slammers were brand new. Whatever wave the slam scene is riding, it's huge.
They're doing a second slam this month to accommodate all the people who couldn't slam last night... in two weeks. Keep an eye on their website.
