Jim Carroll at Aladdin Theater
Portland, OR, 2 October 1999
Review by “ladytaz“
I was at the show Saturday night, Oct. 2, 1999, at the Aladdin Theater and it was a terrific show. In spite of the fact that there was almost no prior notice about the show (I wouldn’t have heard about it myself if it weren’t for a sharp eared friend) and a very small audience as a result, I thought the show was perfect. I was instantly transformed almost 20 years, to the days of following the Jim Carroll band around in L.A. The show started out with Jim reading from his book Forced Entries. I had seen Jim do a reading about 15 years ago and I believe it was the same thing he read Saturday night and it was still as fresh as the first time I heard him do it. He read a poem he had written about Kurt Cobain which went over very well with the audience. Then he began to rock…
The first song was “Wicked Gravity,” which brought a few people to their feet. By the time he started his next song, half the audience was dancing. I stood to the side watching the crowd and saw people who were my age, people like me who had followed his career from The Basketball Diaries on, and younger kids who must have gotten on to him after the movie came out. At one point a bleached blonde woman climbed onto the stage, and using a towel for a pillow, laid down. Then she got up and tried to put the towel around the guitar player, who looked to me to be too young to have even been born when the songs he was playing had been written. Then she moved on to Jim, who never missed a beat, even when the girl grabbed and groped him. He never lost his cool, or even acknowledged the interruption. A true professional.
His last song was, of course, “People Who Died” and he sang it with all the emotion and conviction he had in him. Everyone in the place was on their feet at that point. After the song, the band left the stage, only to come back for the encore, “City Drops Into the Night.” After the show was over, several fans (myself included) waited near the stage door for autographs. He didn’t disappoint. Although not equipped with a pen (I lent him my Sharpie) he patiently signed and answered questions. I thanked him for a great show and for letting me see something I thought I would never see again, the Jim Carroll band (such as it was) performing live.