A roadshow well worth the trip

I had a great time at the Montreal edition of the Perpetual Motion Roadshow last night. Cafe Esperanza is an interesting venue because of its eclectic decor. The space used to be a pharmacy and the old wooden shelves now showcase antique toys, collectibles, and Indy zines.

The cafe is divided into two sections: a non-smoking front room and an almost hidden back room. The roadshow took place in the back room which also serves as an art gallery and it sure felt like I had stepped back in time with all the antique chairs and tables - I particularly got a kick out of the flower print sofas.

The crowd wasn't very large but that made for a more intimate evening. I sat with Laura (a classmate of mine and also the editor in chief of Black Heart Magazine) and we were also joined by Mingus Tourette who was performing that evening. It was great to finally meet him and get to talk for a little bit. It turns out he's checked out my website before so that was a pleasant surprise.

The performances didn't start till after nine but the evening was pretty laid back anyway so there didn't seem to be much of a rush. Some went better than others in my opinion:

CoolhandLuke started off the evening with some enthusiastic raps but without any mic and accompanying beats the songs started to sound too similar to each other. I might be generalizing a bit but I find spoken word to be exciting at first but then if the other poems/song are performed in the same way they begin sounding like William Shatner reciting poetry. Not that I dislike Bill Shatner but eventually I end up zoning out in the end.

The other poet - whose name I can't recall - also didn't blow me away. He had his moments but I found the poems he selected to read didn't translate well in public. I probably would have enjoyed reading them rather than listening to them out loud.

Mingus delivered an energetic performance; reading from sections of Nunt as well as some new poems. Although I've already read most the new material from his website, it was great to put a voice to them. I find his poems contain the melancholy, barroom bravado and lyric simplicity that really reminds me of Canadian poet, Al Purdy (especially the speaker in Purdy's, "At the Quinte Hotel". Read that poem, it will blow your mind!) The energy of the room died down somewhat when a young boy walked into the room when Mingus was blasting out one of his more explicit and explosive poems but that didn't detract from the strong reading too much.

The last performer was Jason Anderson who was also acting as MC for the evening. I was a bit weary due to the fact that he was going to be reading an excerpt from his new novel Showbiz and I generally find that reading prose generally kills an audience but I really enjoyed the story and it seemed that most people in the audience did too because of Anderson's sense of humour, comedic timing, and great characters. It was a very nice way to end an evening supporting Indy arts.

So while the first section of the evening was simply ok, the last half was certainly worth the long metro and bus ride from Laurier back to my house. I was extremely glad I went.