Review - David Hernandez and The Red Dog Saloon
by David Gecic

Originally published in Letter eX (June 1993)

On April 25th, 1993, one of the finest venues in Chicago began. David Hernandez has gathered together his group Street Sounds for a show on the last Sunday of every month at the Red Dog Saloon, above the Borderline, at the corner of North, Damen, and Milwaukee Avenues. Street Sounds consists of Dean Karabatsos, Frank Gonzalez, John Kenna, on guitar and Alpha Stewart on percussion. Street Sounds has better timing than any poetry band I have ever seen. The music is strong but does not overbear the lyrical aspects of the performance like it does in so many other poetry bands. There is strong harmony between the guitarists, and David's voice becomes one of the instruments in this harmony. Anyone who is familiar with Street Sounds would have heard many familiar peices including: "Keeping Vigil on the Porch" (Spic in the Moonlight), "Chi-Town Brown" and "Fame". The first open-mic consisted of Mike Hammermeister, who read an excellent piece entitled "Wild Child," Gregorio Gomez, who read his poem "The City," Diana Solis who read "A Walrus of a Man," which is a peice about her mother in Mexico, and Roberto Cortez who read several poems. There was a later open mic which included Eduardo Arrocho, a poet I had seen previously at Random Worlds Cafe, who performed an excellent poem called "Only One Mom": "Nine months of pain/ only a mom can sustain." There was also a performance by Batya Goldman, the author of Feminists for Cleavage, who is also Street Sounds manager and one of the co-hosts with David, John Starrs and Tomas De Uttrera of the Friday Caberet at the Bop Shop. Street Sounds played two sets. There was a break between Street Sounds first set and the second open-mic, during which a guitarist performed. The guitarist was excellent, however, the audience did not pay attention to him. Since the thrust of Street Sounds is primarily musical, perhaps something else during the break would have been more appropriate. The quality of the open-mic was very good, although it was not very long. I do not know whether this was by design or because no one offered to read. The Red Dog is an excellent club to have this venue, and you cannot have a better evening than listening to a dozen poetic songs by Street Sounds. It gets over early enough to get some sleep before work on Monday. They start at 7:00 PM sharp.