Review from The National Underground show

Hey! The evening (9/6) I played in New York (you all remember - there was a hurricane that night!) at The National Underground was reviewed by the host, Ekayani Chamberlin. She wrote a great article about all the music that night and the entire weekend - leaving a sentence for me! This wouldn't be exciting to everyone, but for me, being called "direct and affecting" was a great thing to read. Read below for the rest of the article.

HOWL FEST at NATIONAL UNDERGROUND

www.212city.net
Written by Ekayani Chamberlin

“I’ve heard of that. What is the Howl festival?"

I was sporting one of my Howl! tee shirts. I’ve been involved as a community coordinator since 2004. Before I give a clin d’oeil, it is probably wise to say what Howl! Festival is not. It is not particularly organized. Seen from the outside, it is hard to discern just what it is. If you happened to be walking past Tompkins Square park in the east village on September 5th you saw what appeared to be an endless canvas wrapped around the periphery put up by Art Around the Park. Is it a painting fest? Or maybe you strolled by the Bowery Poetry Club and thought it was a poetry fest. The Theatre at 45 Bleecker street screened films by The Cockettes, the gender bending performance hippies from San Francisco. Is it a film fest? There was dance at Saint Marks Church on the Bowery. Is it a music, performance art, community garden or burlesque fest? The answer is yes to all of those.

Eclectic, down home, underground and a bit grungy at times, the week long event, named after neighborhood poet Allen Ginsberg’s iconic work, was originally started as a preservation movement. Founded by Phil Hartman in 2003, the point was to make a turf claim in the loudest most expressive way possible: the East Village belonged to the artists and residents that lived there and they were not going to roll over and die to higher rents, the malling of New York, or bullying tactics of unscrupulous developers (sic CHARAS) in an area considered hallowed ground by many. At least not without a fight. This locale gave birth to punk, riot grrls, beat poetry. Charlie Parker and his wife Chan lived on east 9th street. The hood has seen more artists than you can shake a stick at many of them now household names. Let’s mention a few: Charles Mingus, Blondie, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, Television, Bad Brains, The Ramones, Iggy Pop, David Amram, Kerouac, John Cage, The LunaChicks, Phil Ochs, Karen Finley, Moby and the institutions of LaMama, and the Anthology Film archives. Until recently the fest had accounted for only 1500 artists living and working in the area!

This years fifth edition ran from September 5 – 11th. The National Underground, Joey and Gavin DeGraws place hosted “Survival in the 21st Century” created by one of the many presenters New Century booking. As CBGB’s and other venues have fallen under the axe of relentless development it was a fitting theme. Curated by Mike McHugh, longtime advocate of downtown talent, these artists howled hurricane Gustav be damned. Present were provocative rock poetess Lauren O'Brien, McHugh with Roger Blanc presented a jam style series of ecologically conscious songs, Kristen Graves direct and affecting accompanied herself on piano and guitar, rocker Lisa Bianco previewed songs from her upcoming release, Faux Star and the Japanese fronted electric gypsy band Kagero closed the night reading Allen’s poetry and inciting the crowd to dance and sing. There were so many events I could have attended and in the past have nearly dropped from exhaustion trying to do so but this small event exemplified the spirit of the fest: We shall not be moved. At least not without a fight.

http://www.myspace.com/laurenobrien123
http://www.myspace.com/mcqandthedude
http://www.myspace.com/kristengravesmusic
http://www.myspace.com/lisabianco
http://www.myspace.com/fauxstar11215
http://www.myspace.com/kagero