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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 1978)
Wednesday, October 4, 1978 page 12 daily nebraskan arts and entertainment Basement band wants to jam, but it lacks following By B. J. Huchtemann The sounds are like everything you've ever heard -and like nothing you've ever heard. Every analogy you use to describe the music of SurRealEstate ends up totally removed from the initial image you had in mind. "It's like we're taking a walk somewhere," explained flutist Mike Berg straesser, "and we find something and everybody jumps on it. We play with it for awhile and then we start wandering around again until somebody finds something else." music review Preston Koch plays the synthesizer, which he refers to as 'live electronics," and other percussion instruments. "It's like walking down a path," bass guitarist Mike Mansfield said, "or going to the moon." Simplest handle That seems to be the simplest way to get a handle on the music of this improvisa tional ensemble. SurRealEstate is a group in which everyone retains theii individuality, and that individuality becomes a part of the music. A meager audience showed up for Sur RealEstate's "first paid, public performance" Sunday night. The concert, held in a private residence, was advertised around campus with publicity flyers. The evening was informal in the extreme, although saxophonist Bob Riegle added a little visual interest by wearing a white jumpsuit held over from his days in a rock band. His costume accessories included a white hard hat and facial make up he patterned after a New Guinea tribes man he had seen in a National Geographic photo. Special blend The group uses an assortment of instru ments and vocalizations to achieve its special blend of sound and emotion in improvised music. SurRealEstate developed out of a uni versity group, the Lincoln Improvisational Ensemble. SurRealEstate has been together since the summer of 1977 and the group has an album coming out on Aardwoof Records in November. Magazines like Cadence and Jazz have agreed to list and perhaps review the album. T7 : --iL& -ill r w-- 2kk i' JM,. fHI-I "Syas, -AssS(f ! ' f 4 S m 'Hiw n iiinnii'-iiumjwM , , HM i 1 mi lir--1 T rf fflff' Ml ' Photo by Mark Billingsley This group calls itself SurRealEstate and they say they are trying to bring their kind of musk out of the basement and into the open. Riegle said he thinks SurRealEstate's music equals, or perhaps exceeds, the equality of similar groups throughout the country. Koch described the group's work as "generally, totally improvised, found and created in the moment, not necessarily with or witout rhythm, melody and harmony. "You really don't do anything but listen to it," Koch said. 'The listener has a lot to do with the music. He has to make the same connections intellectually and emotionally that we do." No handle Bergstraesser had a slightly different view, "It's kind of there and people can take it for what it's worth. It doesn't have a handle on it most people can grab." "I think there are two levels in music," Riegle added, 'Intellectual and emotional. You have to be very open-minded. It's easier to experience it intellectually if you're familiar with it." "We all have different personalities ," Koch explained during this verbal ping pong game, -"but we begin to relate to each other through the music we make." Mansfield was a music major for four years and he has performed with top 40, western swing and jazz bands. Bergstraesser has a degree in psychology with a music minor. Koch has a background in visual art. Riegle has a degree in business and is back at UNL working on a degree in music education. Riegle also has had a lot of experience performing in bands. Composers All four compose music. SurRealEstate has improvised music with and for other art forms such as dance, theatre and visual art. "Musically we've spent enough hours together that everyone feels comfortable with the group," Riegle said. "Some of us feel that the more we play together the better the music will be. Others of us feel that if we continue to play together regularly the music will become predictable and stagnant." Koch said the only major negative aspect of the group is the possibility oi disbanding if Riegle leaves Lincoln when he graduates in December. Though concerts of improvisational music take place in big cities, Riegle said it's been difficult to find public performance space here in Lincoln. Asked to leave They were asked to leave an arts festival last spring at Pershing. They were also asked to leave the Union, where they had been giving public performances, because they were told they were "hurting vending machine sales." If SurRealEstate can find a place to perform it would like to hold more public performances. If all else fails, the group will try another performance like Sunday night's next month. "We don't want to be a basement band forever," Koch said. Monty Python's Circus returns British madness, in the form of the popular Monty Python's Flying Circus, returns to the Nebraska Educational Tele vision Network on Sundays at 10 pm. beginning October 8. High school and college -age students in Nebraska have clamored for the return of this show, which combines a random series of skits, blackouts, sight gags, bizarre animated sequences and irreverent satire. Monty Python's Flying Circus was created in 1969 by graduates of Oxford and Cambridge and an American cartoonist. The first program in the rebroadcast of this series visits with top British Comic piano player jokes with audience, 'good9 music government officials the Ministers of Home Affairs and Silly Walks and the head of the Royal Air Force. The second half probes the careen of two gangsters, the Piranha Brothers. The shows are designed to explode Bri tish attitudes toward the world; the need for a concrete answer to every question, the fanatical attention to detail and the unwillingness to look disaster in the face. The group avoids the punchline, preferring the creation of images, erasing them and creating new ones. Monty Python's Frying Circus was pro duced by the British Broadcasting Corpora tion and distributed by Time-Life Films. By Alexander Germaine Taking a 'show on the road, especially if it is a one-man show, has always been a difficult undertaking. But years ago the great one-man show of Victor Borge made its way to Broadway. This Monday it made its way to Omaha. It is a joy to see a performer who is at home on the stage wherever he goes. This is the case with Borge in all countries where he performs the same material. Imagine a piece called "This and That" being done as "Diese und Das" or "Celuici et Celui4a". A remarkable versatility. concert review The fun begins as the master of comic timing starts a joke and after you think the punch line has been delivered, he hits you with another dimension that has the audience in hysterics. Things like; "I got this watch from my father on his death bed," pause, "I paid twenty dollars for it," pause, "plus tax". Piano comedy best Yet the best of what Victor Borge can do is comedy with the piano. "President Carter has asked us all to conserve energy, (pause), so Pm only going to play the endings." He then plays a chord and says that it is the ending to the Star Spangled Banner and aren't we glad we didn't have to get up for it? Borge still has a delicate touch on the keyboard, blending serious pieces with the comic and always knownig how to pull the desired response from the audience. He starts with a serious piece by Chopin and then "Claire de Lune," modulating to "Happy Birthday to You" to "Moon light Sonata," and finishing with "Night and Day" in a minor key. Remembers professionals Seeing a person like this makes one remember the meaning of the word professional and brings back a standard for performers of this generation. Borge is of a different time when the names of Bing Crosby and Edgar Bergan still were on the circuits of American enter tainment. This is a time that is passing much too quickly and has little foliage left. But the roots that have been so greatly nourished wiD serve the waves of new comics and entertainers that are yet to come. What a joie de vivre' to see the elastic face, the broad smile, the warmth, the sincerity, and the dignity that is personi fied by VictoT Borge. "You said you liked good music," he says to the audience. Then he hands a sheet of music to a lady in the front row and walks away. When he arrives at the piano lie turns around and starts back. "That 11 be 65 cents please." J. t 5 1 ; f Daily Nebradcan photo Dylan causes ticket commotion Students were in line at the Nebraska Union Ballroom as soon as the Union opened its doors Monday morning. Throngs jammed the doors at Lincoln's Brandeis store, some running up the down escalator in an attempt to be the first to reach the fourth floor ticket office. Few performers but Bob Dylan could cause such a commotion. The legendary anger makes his first Omaha perform ance November 4 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. It was the fastest over-the-xmnter sellout ever, according to Terry Forsberg. City Auditorium manager. The Omaha World-Herald reported Tuesday that b 11 45 a.m.. less thar two hours after tickets went on sale 9,808 seats had been sold in Omaha, Council Bluffs, Lincoln, and Grand Island. Other than the Civic Auditorium, 1 1 outlets had sold out before noon. Many of the hundreds of Dylan fans were turned back at the auditorium and several complaints were filed about the unlimited ticket policy that encourages illegal scalping. The most tickets sold to one person, according to the World Herald, was 37, while another person bought 33. Tickets went for S10. S8.50. and $7.00. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were still 1 1 7 tickets available at the Union South Desk. They are available between h 00 a.m. and 2 45 p.m.
