The New Haven Coliseum (October 2005)

The New Haven Coliseum October 2005
(It will be knocked down on Jan 20)

Brown concrete bricks
Tumbled and shoveled
Into massive piles
With twisted metal
And pieces of thick,
Red and blue
Once sturdy plastic seats
I wondered if I actually sat in
Any of those seats
I was at the New Haven Coliseum
For Zappa, The Kinks, The Police,
Dylan and Manson (my son dragged me to that one)
Patty Smith, the circus, the ice capades,
An anti-war rally with Ralph Nader,
Basketball and hockey games
And countless other concerts and events
Over the last 30 years
I’ve seen seas of people wearing flannel shirts and
bell bottoms
Stood with a pack of 6,000 "Goths"
And sat with thousands of kids holding up tiger
flashlights
And cheering for the circus
These bricks
And seats
Have seen a lot –
Like The Who in 1980, which
I couldn’t get tickets for
Now the coliseum sits in
What looks like
Unappreciated heaps of "coliseum mix"
(just add water – or concrete – or something)
The concerts, as well as the events,
Have been scattered about the state now
The victim of the partnership created by the
State’s sleazy, big business music industry,
Where the promoters, concert venues and commercial
radio stations
Try to dictate what we ant to hear

(example – it probably goes something like:
the promoter can get Elton John to play a gig
even though it seems out of place and
Elton John hasn’t been relevant for 27 years
But the promoter books one of the venues he has a
partnership with
And then the popular radio station – which also has a
partnership with the promoter - starts playing a lot
of Elton John
and the DJ tries to make him sound relevant
and they spoon feed this shit to us
while, a band like King Crimson
which has released some kick-ass music over the past
decade
cannot get airplay or a decent venue to play in this
state…)

Anyway, a once proud building
Which didn’t really have great sound
But stood as the landmark that greeted visitors
To New Haven
Will be pushed aside
For a new "gateway" to the city.
I guess this is progress
But I’ll miss the old coliseum.