Jim Carroll at Great American Music Hall
San Francisco, CA, 11 September 1996
Review by Suzanne Howard
In lieu of bonafide editorial coverage, allow me to do a quickie review of what I can remember. Also let me preface this by saying that SOMEHOW my friend & I lucked out and got escorted to the first row of tables. My heart nearly stopped as the guy walked us closer and closer to the stage….
I didn’t think Jim would be as graceful as he is. He was also insightful, inspiring, funny and unaffected. He’d kneel down and give a piece a feeling of intimacy, like it was just me & him in the room. (Honey, don’t I know that every woman in the audience was thinking the same thing!) He did the amazing poem for Kurt Cobain. Loved it. He did the great cyst-popping piece from Forced Entries. He also read this fast-moving musing on the cosmic interaction between unrelated incidences. I think it was new…? And he finished w/ Coda, which has held a special spot in my heart for a long time. Which was a nice finish, although I was ready to go until dawn…. Afterward, I hung out like a groupie, waiting for my man. Sadly, Jim was sick and didn’t come out to chat w/ anyone. DAMN. Next time.