Great show. One of our best, in fact.

First, the setlist:

Notes From a Reptile Son/Peppermint Schnapps
Do You Know What It Means
Americanized
Classic Rock
I Need A Guitar
American History
Meditations On A Black Excursion
Getting Ahead
Mayans and Aztecs
Where Do You Live?

Packed house, although almost no one from the usual suspects at our sets were there; present and of note were a_solitaryman, frequegrl(of course!),
Capri (Faro’s girlfriend, who ended up judging her first slam), nerak_g (who extended her stay by one day to catch us — thanks, Karen), several of the Cantab crowd, and Regie Gibson, who honored us by foregoing his appointment with “Desperate Housewives” and shooting in to see us when he found out we were featuring. (That was a nice ego boost for both of us.)

Jerome DeuPree joined us on drums for the entire set and it rocked — hard. We’d originally figured on having him join us for just a couple of pieces, but he’d heard us back in April and wanted to do the whole set with us — no argument here; Jerome’s a terrific drummer and it added a lot to have him there. He and Faro settled in immediately and things worked beautifully; or particular note were “Americanized” to which he added a driving, martial beat and “Classic Rock” — this last one was a lot of fun, as he and Faro seamlessly worked through all the covers that make up this little homage to classic rock cover bands in smalltown bars. For those who haven’t heard the piece, Faro lays down a medley of famous classic rock basslines behind the poem. In order, it runs from an instrumental opening of “Black Magic Woman” to “Sunshine Of Your Love” to “25 Or 6 To 4” to “Satisfaction” to “Gimme Some Lovin” and closes with “Brown Eyed Girl.” All in slightly under three minutes! Jerome nailed it with a big grin on his face the whole time.

In general, the packed house seemed to like it a lot, although I was surprised that we had fairly low merchandise sales afterward; still, not a bad evening.

The slam (which preceded us) was pretty good, although there were only three poets in it. And the open which followed our set was superb, notable for the Trio’s backing (spot on as always with Jeff Robinson on woodwinds and Blake Newman on upright bass) and some great poetry, including highlights like Karen’s punk gender poem (I don’t know the title of this one) and a really neat piece from a woman named Jade; hard to describe, so I won’t try, but it was excellent. Jeff let loose at the end with some passionate and slightly alcohol fueled but no less potent testifying while the Trio took it outside and led it back in at the close.

Overall, this was an excellent night. The Lounge is a great place to perform — that jazz basement vibe lends a lot to any performance, I think — and it was cool to be there. This was my first feature ever at the Lizard, and I’m thinking of making it a more regular stop on my poetry excursions, even if it does make for a late Sunday night.

The set — indeed the whole night — was also recorded for posterity. Evidently, there’s something in the works to make performances at the Lizard available on iTunes by the first of the year; I’ll keep you posted on things as they develop.

Thanks to everyone who showed up. Next stop: Hotel Vernon in Worcester on Thursday, November 29th (Bobby Gibbs’ new reading), followed by our last show of the year at Storytellers in Worcester on December 14, where we’ll be doing the entire “Americanized” album start to finish for only the second time. There are also recording gigs coming up; new material in the pipeline already. And if anyone wants to book us in the New Year, let me know — right now, we’ve only got one date so far in February at Club Passim in Cambridge.

Viva la Duende!