Kid Congo book reading and signing at Writer's Block Bookstore, Saturday Oct 22, 2022

 

While I can't claim that I was ever close with Mr. Powers back in the day, I was always a fan of his work and we always struck up a cordial conversation whenever we would see each other, whether playing together or just ending up at the same show. Always friendly and personable, he is still a damn nice guy to this day and remains outgoing and sweet to his friends'n'fans alike.

I've had his book on my wish list for a while now, but when I saw that he was coming to Vegas for a reading (quite a shocker as Vegas rarely gets events like these), I decided to pick one up and have it signed while he was here. Luckily, we got there early enough as the event was jam packed (standing room only) and the books sold out well before he started. 

The Writer's Block folks were well organized and pleasant, prompt and grateful for the attention, I believe. The owner (I'm sorry - I did not write down his name) made the introduction and Kid gave a little opening monologue before doing several readings from the book, including meeting Jeffrey Lee Pierce for the first time, giving his first blow job, and getting arrested for shoplifting with other LA punk scene luminaries (of course, they weren't luminaries back then, they were simply the handful of punks that existed in LA). From these excerpts it seems that Kid is actually a fine writer, clever'n'witty, with a good sense of pacing'n'storytelling - I look forward to having the time to delve into the book. Local writer Lissa Townsend Rodgers came on to moderate a question'n'answer session as well as asking a few poignant inquiries herself.

Afterwards, we lined up and Kid was gracious enough to sign everything that everyone brought - be it books, records, posters and more - and made time to greet everyone and take pix with everyone. 

A well organized event that went extremely smoothly other than selling out of the books, but obviously, that's always a guessing game. Kudos to Writer's Block for hosting and thanks again to Kid for returning to Vegas! Here's hoping that at least one of his bands returns soon!