It’s hard to look cool when you’re a poet, but makes it look easy. Performing his cool poetry with cool Denver musicians in cool venues, Fasano is as close to rock-and-roll as poetry gets. But his writing is much more than cool. In his book, “Next Analog Broadcast” — published by Buffalo, New York’s — Fasano reveals the depths of despair behind the cool.
If you’re a regular Reverb reader, you’ll probably remember from last year, in which — with his distinctive word choices and eccentric perspective — he shared a love for Denver’s music and arts communities almost as profound as his love for its seedy Colfax underbelly. The 33 poems collected in “Next Analog Broadcast” echo those loves, and you can almost hear the poet’s wry, disaffected voice intoning the observations — sometimes pathetic, sometimes uplifting, often acerbic.
When Fasano is at his best — as he is in “AIDS Walk,” “Doorman Math,” “Valu Without an E” and “Man Scout” — he captures the world in a verbal mirror that reflects back all the filth, all the pain and all the beauty of a 21st-century urban existence. Avoiding haughty metaphors and oblique symbolism, the poet stares into the headlight of the oncoming light rail train, then into the eyes of its passengers and then straight into his own ambivalent soul. In plain-yet-deft language that finds its roots in Hunter S. Thompson and Allen Ginsberg, Fasano wrestles with whether his world is horribly beautiful or beautifully horrible.
In his weaker moments, Fasano reveals an addiction to the punchline — the tidy, laugh-getting ending that plays so well in performance poetry. For years, he has performed his poems live with musical accompaniment, and that particular setting frequently rewards the histrionic rabble rouser and the cool, winking clown. Since histrionics have never been the affable Fasano’s thing, he goes instead for the laugh. Poems like “Big Dumb Kid,” “Wallet” and “Inspiration Is” — all of which might draw cheers from a well-oiled crowd in a dank dive bar — lie flat on the page in a pool of their own cleverness.
Fortunately, the good moments far outweigh those that try too hard in “Next Analog Broadcast,” and the poems, on the whole, promise a writer whose work will get richer, truer and more powerful as he grows less and less cool.
Check out a recording of Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano performing “Hard On Everyone,” one of the poems collected in “Next Analog Broadcast.”
Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano will release “Next Analog Broadcast” with a performance and art opening at Fast Geek Boutique (321 W.11th Ave.) this Friday, August 5, from 6:30 to 9:30. For details, visit . You can also buy the book .
Eryc Eyl is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years. Check out for local music you can HEAR, and the for stories about Denver musicians doing extraordinary things. Against his mother’s advice, Eryc has also been known to . You can also follow Sorry, Mom.
