MUSIC REVIEW

SINCLAIR'S WORDS LESS RADICAL, STILL RELEVANT

CAMBRIDGE - Unlike most performers during the past week, spoken-word
artist John Sinclair did not mention the recent terrorist attacks on
America, because their aftermath is making him uncomfortable. "When
people are waving a lot of flags, it's best for me to keep my mouth
shut," he said following Sunday's show at the House of Blues.

With his goatee and wire-rimmed glasses, Sinclair looks like a symbol
of the 1960s. Suffice to say he's a legend from that era, having
founded the White Panther Party, managed Detroit punk band the MC5,
and been immortalized in John Lennon's song, "John Sinclair." The
song stemmed from Sinclair's 10-year prison term for selling two
marijuana joints to an undercover agent. He served two years, but that
was enough to make him a martyr, affirmed when he performed at the
pro-pot Freedom Rally on Boston Common on Saturday.

On Sunday, Sinclair, who turns 60 on Oct. 2, began a three-week series
of New England dates with the Devil Gods. They're a skilled Boston
rock act adept at improvising to his spoken-word poems, which
generally avoided politics at this House of Blues set and instead paid
homage to his musical idols such as Lennon, Thelonious Monk, and John
Coltrane.

Several pieces were in honor of Monk, including "Rhythm-a-ning" (a
funny imagining of Monk as a baseball pitcher facing the likes of
Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, and Charlie Parker, who tags him for a
three-run homer) and 'Monk in Orbit." The last is a true story about
how Timothy Leary turned Allen Ginsberg on to LSD in Cambridge in the
'60s, then Ginsberg turned Monk onto it in New York, where Monk
reportedly said, "It doesn't seem to be making too much of a
difference to me."

While the Devil Gods vamped behind him, and occasionally burst to life
with potent acid-blues solos from guitarists Ted Drozdowski and Mark
Sullivan, Sinclair and his baritone voice evoked the days when Beat
poets like Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac would recite verse to music. And
Sinclair did it well, wrenching the emotion out of poems like "Excuse
Me While I Kiss the Sky" (his homage to Jimi Hendrix) and a closing
piece dedicated to Lennon, in which he said, "Let us live life as
long as we can. And let there be men like Monk and John Lennon to show
us their hearts and light up our ways as long as we may live."

It was a long way from the harsher radicalism of Sinclair's past, but
was still a relevant message for all who heard this often inspired
performance.

Some future Sinclair dates: Friday at the Rhythm & Muse in Jamaica
Plain; Oct. 3 at the Press Room in Portsmouth, N.H.; Oct. 6 at the
Free St. Taverna in Portland, Maine; Oct. 7 at the Fishtown Art Space
in Gloucester; Oct. 10 at Johnny D's in Somerville; and Oct. 11 at the
Squawk Coffeehouse in Harvard Square. All are with the Devil Gods,
except for the Johnny D's gig, which is with drummer Bob Moses, whom
Sinclair met at this summer's Berkfest in Great Barrington.