Kid Congo Powers

If you were born in the late fifties or early sixties and fell into the punk or alternative scene, this book will be like a welcome home to a place you forgot that you left. Kid Congo Powers (born Brian Tristan) seemed to know everyone in that scene, West Coast or East, and he has stories about them all — nice ones, because he's a nice guy, and seems to have had a gift for friendship. And beyond the nostalgia trip, he provides a remarkably gentle memoir of what could be a rough milieu. The show more Kid bounced around between the Gun Club and the Cramps before winding up for a few years with Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, all bands with bigger-than-life personalities. There has to have been some conflict along the way, but the humble way he tells his story lets you imagine it must have been minor.

Not that the tale is without drama. There are deaths and drug addictions and dangerous situations aplenty, much of which Kid survived by pure chance. Still, part of me wants to believe that his apparent good luck is just the karma that comes to a person deeply inclined never to judge another person. A punk rock saint? Maybe. Enjoy the show! show less