Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.
Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!
The downside of living in a city with a lively music scene is that I get to miss multiple cool shows every night of the week. And sometimes the performers outnumber the audience, which I think was the case at the excellent event I attended last night. But if you draw even one person, they chose you over everything else and that’s a win. These bands deserve more than one audience member each on the strength of their names alone:
Three distinct words abbreviate to a numeral followed by three STs in a row. (Five years ago when I saw a sign for a storage place with a burned-out O, I read it as Saint Rage and a new garage band and superhero were born. Others went immediately to Street Rage, which is also valid but they have to write their own book.)
Local flavor! If you don’t know the plant, just remember not to dosey-do too close unless you’re really into thorns.
Behind that false mustache … As a person who has trouble understanding sung lyrics, I appreciate this mis-hearing that seems straightforward in print but becomes clear when read aloud.
Although not on the same bill, they’re playing on the same night, which seems like commentary on our times. Will the former counter the latter?
Exciting announcement: my comic haunted house flash fiction story “Aunt Clara’s House” has been accepted as one of 100 stories by 100 authors in Itty Bitty Writing Spaces, a print and e-book anthology to be released in June 2019. The Kickstarter goes live next week and will offer cool premiums like a donation of a print copy to the library of the supporter’s choice. Learn all about it and get updates by signing up for the newsletter here.
One last thing: my new year’s resolution was to start a quarterly author newsletter, to include what I’m writing and reading, plus highlights from this blog and other goodies. It’s called The Storypunk Report and the first issue is out! Click the link to check it out and subscribe here for future issues.
Karen Eisenbrey 