Mashed Poetics is a night of spoken word and music mashup.  Established in 2009 this will be the 50th edition of Mashed Poetics (a Verses Festival mainstay) and we’ll be featuring Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid.  9 different poets will create new works to perform at this event including the reunion of the 1996 Vancouver Poetry Slam Team.  It’s the 25th anniversary of their barrier breaking trip and performances at the National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon.  We’ll also have our Sabbath cover band Rat Salad shaking the rafters and rumbling some thunder for everyone who joins us.

Live on POETV

Side A
War Pigs–Justin McGrail
Paranoid–Deanna Smith
Planet Caravan–S.R. Duncan
Iron Man–Alexandra Oliver

Side B
Electric Funeral–David Geary
Hand of Doom–Brandon Wint
Rat Salad–Khodi Dill
Faeries Wear Boots–Cass King

Rat Salad, the band, the myth, the legend! The band first crawled forth from the primordial sludge of The Great Recession for the inaugural Mashed Poetics in May 2009 and lo and behold, the recession ended! Now, 12 years later they return for the 50th anniversary Mashed Sabbath show ready to crush the Global Pandemic under their heels. Spillious the ridiculous one, the only person present for all 50 Mashed shows, returns to lead the group with virus melting guitar wizardry and the voice of an angel or perhaps a shrieking crow. This time around they are joined by the rhythm section from Hazel Blackburn, Vancouver’s finest purveyors of Godzilla rock. Neil Homulos, a veteran of 28 Mashed Poetics shows, will beat your pandemic blues away on the drums and Shawn Penner provides the thumping bass line antidotes. No need to worry about when you’ll get the vaccine, Rat Salad has the cure, metal, metal and MORE METAL!