When Thurston Moore Reads Poetry to Me...

Now that we’re all very aware that Capitol Hill Block Party is in full swing (as if you can really ignore those throbbing beats coming from Pine St.), it’s time to geek out a little bit about the fact that Thurston Moore—the man most famous for his gig with Sonic Youth—had a poetry reading Friday night at Elliott Bay Book Co. I was among the throng of people crowded at the main stage while Moore performed from his new, Beck-produced solo album, Demolished Thoughts. The introspection of his latest music lends itself well to poetry, so it actually wasn’t too much of a stretch to scurry over to the bookstore after his performance for a reading of the poems in his CD liner.

Though we did decide to kill a little time before the reading with some wine over at Oddfellows (where strangely enough Moore and his band were hanging out)—we made it in plenty of time to…wait.

Elliott Bay was fairly packed with a variety of people, tatted-up youngsters, Croc-wearing older folks—everyone curious about some CD-liner poetry with Thurston Moore.
When he arrived about twenty minutes later, he announced that he was, in fact, not reading from the CD liner but reading some of his poetry from a recent writing stint in Colorado. Moore went on to read poem after poem in a very serious, yet dramatic fashion (oh, those performers), and the audience ate it up. The poetry was dynamic and well crafted, and seemed to be right at home with the noises of Block Party vibrating in the background. People seemed to really enjoy his poems, “A Number of Times” and “Novelist” (about the reader's interaction with the words on paper)—most people chuckling and nodding along as he read.

Moore also read from a book of poetry published by a tiny press in San Francisco—at which point I think we all started to get a little confused about what poetry was from where and what book and when...but it was entertaining never the less.
When he wrapped it up a mere fifteen minutes or so later and announced that he’d be signing and hanging out now, we bolted outside in order to catch the next Block Party show.

A pretty remarkable experience with a musician (and poet!) who has contributed so much to our culture—and a definite step up from Jewel’s book of painfully reflective poetry that I so loved in ninth grade…and maybe still love a little.