SXSW Spoken Word: 1996
by Phil West in the Austin Chronicle

There can be too much of a good thing. For the three weeks following my first SXSW last year, I had a bad case of rock & roll poisoning. It all tasted good going down, but seeing a month's worth of shows in a four-day span left me barely able to stand, or even sit, through 40-minute sets I desperately wanted to enjoy. For three weeks, I was in an emotional state somewhere between being happily drained and easily overwhelmed by any sound coming out of a guitar amp. Local poet Mike Henry understands that feeling.

"Hundreds of bands can meld together into one distorted bar chord," said Henry. Last year, Henry was in the thick of performer traffic as one of the showcase's production coordinators. This year, the walkie-talkie is out of his hands, and he's focusing on his other role from last year: overseeing the spoken word stage at Mojo's Daily Grind.

"This is a chance to see something different," Henry said of the music festival's only extra-musical venue. "We have some of the nation's best performers in a completely different art form." The people who do see it have been really affected by what they've seen, especially after seeing a lot of bands. People say, `Listen to what this guy is saying, by himself, with no guitar.' And for the industry, spoken word is a largely viable and untapped area."

Spoken word is in its fourth year as a SXSW feature, and each year, the line up has included at least one well-known link to the music world. SXSW spoken word stage veterans like Robyn Hitchcock (class of '93) and ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra ('94) came into spoken word as distinctive singers and lyricists. New York poet Maggie Estep ('94) toured with Hole last year, using a backing band to help bring her message to a concert crowd. Henry Rollins, who did a SXSW-related in-store with Roky Erickson last year, has created a name for himself as a commercially successful spoken word artist. This year's best-known spoken word stage performers, Exene Cervenka and Lydia Lunch, have toured together for over a decade, at first on the strength of their reputations as formidable punk rock frontwomen, but now on the strength of their reputations as poets and performers. "I think it's a natural transition," said Henry of this music-to-spoken word phenomenon, "especially for people who do music that's lyrically important."

Last year's spoken word event is stretched over three days and included a poetry slam; this year, Henry chose to focus the event into "two high-energy nights" on Friday and Saturday, featuring a mix of notable local and touring poets. The decision to do no slam means poets like Chicago's Shappy, San Francisco's Beth Lisick, and once and future Austinite Danny Solis won't be heard in their most natural environments, but it will guarantee them longer and uninterrupted readings. There will still be open mike readings, from 8-9pm both nights, for those poets in the audience who want to carve out their own little piece of SXSW history. n

Mojo's Daily Grind is at 2714 Guadalupe. Tickets (for non-badge and non-wristband wearers) will be $5 on Friday night and $10 on Saturday night. Friday night's times are subject to change; Henry says screenings for the new United States of Poetry documentary and additional poet performances may be interspersed with the current schedule.

FRIDAY BLUE PLATE POETS HOST OPEN MIKE

Each poet in the five-member troupe can be considered among the most accomplished writers in town. Their monthly shows at the Electric Lounge are consistently one of the best-drawing local poetry showcases, and their strength is drawn from both their broad cross section of styles and their almost-psychic ability to draw on similar themes. (8pm)

DAVID JEWELL

This poet's latest claim to fame is having one of his pieces appear in Richard Linklater's latest film, Before Sunrise, which only seals his reputation as one of the scene's smartest and savviest performing poets. Austin's poetry scene couldn't ask for a much better representative to the filmgoing world. (9pm)

SPIKE GILLESPIE

Netizens can enter the world of Spike by webbing to http://www.marystreet.com/SPIKE. Those without a modem, however, can enter the world of this tattooed single mom/magazine writer through her poetry. Spike wears her large heart on her sleeve, stringing hilarious personal anecdotes together with a flair unrivaled by most writers in town. (9:30pm)

NASHVILLE BILL WISE

Whenever Mike Henry books this local poet/actor, he's doing it on trust. Henry never knows what Wise will say. Henry suspects that Wise himself doesn't know what he's going to say every one out of two trips to the stage. Yet his ad-lib banter, as well as his prepared piece, add up as some of the funniest, most manic work in Austin poetry. (10pm)

STARK RAVING CHANDLER

Chandler has logged thousands of miles in his truck, traveling with longtime companion/singer-guitarist Amanda Stark and his faithful dog, all in the name of spreading his own uplifting, edifying gospel from town to town. Chandler's rants about the United States of Generica and his resonant personal stories have to be seen to be believed. (10:30pm)

RICH FERGUSON

His work, both as a solo artist and with his alter ego project Fuzzy Doodah, is marked by a histrionic intensity and dangerous voice. He's versatile enough to mix fond remembrances with horror stories strung together by his acute sense of how the seedy underbelly of society lives. (11pm)

PAUL BODY

Body has many claims to fame: poet, writer, accordionist, and longtime friend of Tom Waits. On his album Love Is Like Rasputin, Body lays out his humorous and sometimes-touching thoughts on 1965 Los Angeles in a series of diary entries. Thirty years after witnessing the Watts riots, his mother's death, and the rise of his beloved Rolling Stones, Body is still actively performing across the city where he came of age. (11:30pm)

BLUE PLATE POETS: JOE HOPPE, MARLYS WEST, PASHA, ROBERT S., MIKE HENRY

See 8pm slot (12midnight) SATURDAY

AUSTIN SLAM TEAM HOSTS OPEN MIKE

This group of four poets (including Wammo, see below) were the first-ever Austin representatives to the National Poetry Slam, competing in last year's bout in Ann Arbor, Mich. Their head-to-head victory over the Dallas team, plus their rented Lincoln Town Car with horns on the front, marked them as the most ebulliently Texan team there. (8pm)

TIM COHN

Accompanied by a guitarist, the New Orleans poet is big, bad, and bruising, and does pieces about guns in a big, bad, and bruising delivery style. This is Cohn's second straight year on the SXSW spoken word stage. (9pm)

JULIETTE TORREZ

Torrez is the Hideo Nomo of the Southwest performance poetry scene. Her delivery is distinctive and disarming; even her most vivid depictions of depravity are wrapped in a warm, smooth, sugary voice. It's the kind of voice that should cancel out the tension of her words, but she uses it so skillfully that it actually ends up adding new layers of tension to each piece. (9:30pm)

DANNY SOLIS

Solis is, in the world of slam poetry, the complete package -- an artful poet with a smooth delivery and dominating presence. His victories on two National Slam Poetry teams, including last year's Asheville, N.C. team, give him an impressive track record. Even more impressive, though, is his ability to transcend the often boisterous and I-centered world of slam poetry with a fluid, immaculate coherence that works well on any stage. (10pm)

BETH LISICK

This San Francisco poet was one of the brightest and best-loved performers at last year's National Poetry Slam. Calling herself the "reigning queen of the Toshiba BD 9240 copy machine," Lisick is especially adept at punctuating her funny, engaging work with sharp, satirical piques at the patriarchy -- the kind that leave you thinking long after you've finished laughing. (10:30pm)

SHAPPY

No one wears horned-rim glasses and a bad haircut quite like Shappy, the poetry scene's clown prince of Nerd Pride. His humor, pushed by a manic delivery, is all the way to the left field fence, and nothing in the pop culture pantheon is sacred, be it child TV stars, high school jocks, or John Tesh. (11pm)

WAMMO

For those who just know him as the Washboard Stomach of the Asylum Street Spankers, here's a chance to see an even less reserved side of the man. As a poet, Wammo is direct and loud, but is gifted with a deft comic timing and an uncanny skill of playing off the audience. And he's got trophies to prove he's a performer. (11:30pm)

LYDIA LUNCH AND EXENE CERVENKA

On their new Rude Hieroglyphics CD, one of the best-known duos in spoken word mix poems, rants, and socialist feminist philosophy to damn The Way Things Are with force and clarity. Each of them, as frontwomen for ground-breaking bands, chipped at negative perceptions of the female rock singers, and for over a decade, they've worked at public conceptions of spoken word. (12midnight)