If a bomb ever hit Greg Brenner's place during a party night, the entire Indianapolis alternative scene would be shot to hell. Brenner's legendary Pennsylvania Avenue house was literally built for parties back in the 1920s, and he keeps that tradition going today. The parties, whether under the Madhouse banner or his own gigs, are a who's who of the alternative scene in Indianapolis. In one evening, making a sweep around the circle of onlookers, one can see local band members, concert promoters and alternative political figures having their fill of music, dancing, engaging in deep philosophical discussions or just smacking each other with bamboo sticks. All the iron doors, security cameras and emergency lights do a lot for this effect as well.
Life seems good.
So do the parties. With Ransom Haile on guitar and synth, Will Devitt on bass and ebow and Rich Krupa doing eclectic percussion, the music doesn't so much accompany the poetry as push it, jazzing off on frequent occasions into a poetry of its own. But even a beat poetry band's effort puts the word first. Hastings' words, witnessed previously in nearly a dozen chapbooks, are some of the most humorously provocative this side of the New York poetry club scene. He's got to be the least qualified person ever to be nominated by a major party.