The John Joseph spoken word just came through Albany this past Monday and after completely creeping up on me, I decided to check it out on a last minute reminder. Simply put, it was great. I've had the audio version of the book (or some sort of incarnation of the book) for awhile now and this event was just a reminder to get the physical copy - which I've been meaning to for a long time now.
I've been to maybe a handful of spoken word events in my entire life and I'd be willing to bet 4 out of the ballpark 5 were by ex-front men of some of the most influential bands in the history of hardcore/punk. With that said, I wouldn't know where to start in piecing together a logical or coherent review of this. It was very thorough, and mixed equal parts reality, humor, and inspiration. John did a loose recap of the major points in his autobiography and touched a bit on more current events like the election of Obama, foreign policy, and the state of the music industry.
The best parts for me personally were the stories of revisiting his childhood foster home and the areas surrounding, confronting his torturous former guardians just before a book reading to basically say "Fuck you , you didn't win - you didn't fuck me for life." And, on a less serious note, his anecdote about Dave Mustaine and playing with Megadeth after yoking the dude up years prior at a Bad Brains show.
I don't know what the schedule for these events is like. I know he did Albany, then Boston, and Philly before the two. If he's doing more and it's within reasonable driving distance to wherever you are, definitely check it out.
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