The slam poetry scene too often comes to mind laden with stereotypes, fostered by bad slam scenes around the country, where partisan politics or recounting traumatic personal experiences trump the earnest creation of good art. While it would be inaccurate to claim the Twin Cities scene sees none of this hackery, it is accurate to say that we have one of the best scenes in the country—witness St. Paul's win this year at the world championships and the many poets who have recently published chapbooks or gone on national tours. With so many top-notch spoken-word artists in one scene, however, sometimes things can get a little...stuffy. That's where SlamMN's annual Erotic Slam comes into play. Here, it's rare to hear a poet earnestly striving to communicate deep emotion—unless that emotion is unbridled giddiness or uncomfortably titillated embarrassment. From frank discussion of a poet's bedroom romps to a tale of date rape involving Muppets, no line of indecency or offense remains uncrossed. Sometimes sexy, sometimes disturbing, mostly hilarious: This is a great show for bringing along folks new to the slam scene; it'll instantly blow away all those "seriousness" preconceptions in one fell swoop.