Poetry - Coffins Across From Grady

Coffins Across From Grady

A boom-saw clatter sent

large limb clusters to

asphalt hidden by the hill.

                At 10:05

                people left

                the emptied halls of Ta…

    Fate.

Across from Grady –

littered between

stones, groomed stalks

of grass tickle

sneakers

and enshrine stone slabs –

They’ve gathered

to sift words soft in the air.

The school’s false monument

with its smooth tops,

graveled edges, and perfect little

squares built in the ground

around like coffins

with their ghouls

on top.

Alive and not –

                Wake Up!

But they’d just sit there

dead on the coffins.

As the hollowed

husk’s of

sarcophagus.

Like walnuts rolling

in a football helmet.

And I was one

of them.

Waiting for a hand

to send me around again

and come out that hole

where the ear

should be.

They

stopped to look

at some pile

of grey

smeared on the

ground. And they would

drop their

eyes and slight their

heads

only to

keep walking.

By Brad Olsen

Sptember 29, 2010

Hindsight

As I look back somewhat, I realize that I should not play sets which are an hour and ten minutes long. As a new artist, and regardless of my large catalog of music, I should understand that an audience of unknowing people do not want to hear me play for any extreme length of time. They do not know my songs and are probably apprehensive as it is about staying in a hot lounge atmosphere for a one-man band. With this in mind, from now on I will bee keeping my sets to a maximum of 45 minutes with between 4 and 6 songs each set. If I start garnering a following I will begin to play more, but the bottom line is that I want venue owners and audiences to WANT to hear me again. Why would they want to hear me again if I play all my material in one night? What is there to come back for? Unless they REALLY enjoyed watching me play for an hour and a half alone on a stage (and believe me, I know I am incredibly sexy) I would be playing to an audience who was leaving as soon as they walked in the door.

End transmission...

Live Review - Sunspots at WUOG Live In The Lobby

Artist: Sun Spots
Venue: WUOG Lobby
Date: September 7, 2010

Setlist:
1. Relative Patterns
2. Bones
3. Rest Yr Brain
4. Collectin' Specimens
5. Chambers of The Sea


Sun Spots went on at a little after eight, subsequent to the WUOG Informational session held upstairs in the Tate center. Their first song, “Relative Patterns,” was loud and energetic, immediately filing the small WUOG Lobby with resonant volume. Unfortunately, technical problems early on prevented lead singer and guitarist Will Weber’s voice from being heard until the next song. Their second song, “Bones,” wasn’t too different from their first. The drums cracked and cymbals shattered while bassist Will Cantrells homemade speaker cabinet woofed over them. Weber’s simple guitar lines moved up and down the fretboard in quick but groovy patterns and provided a base for his high, almost screamed, falsetto vocals to dance on top. Meanwhile, Ryan Houchen’s bursting, at times over the top, drum fills evoked intensity reminiscent of Keith Moon and complemented the energetic vocals of Weber. At one point during their third song, “Rest Yr Brain,” which featured a nasally, distorted keyboard in place of guitar, Cantrell struggled to keep up with the drummers stampede-pace and casually leaned over to tell him “Slow it down.”  He got the message and the rest of the song moved at a more leisurely pace.

None the less, it was an energetic performance from a band whose sound is both loud and likable.  I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.

Sun Spots play with The Caste on September 25^th at New Earth Music Hall.