Friday, February 12, 1982
Page 14
Daily Nebraskan
Aits & Entertainment
i
Copycats leaving 'secure' Lincoln for the coast
By David Wood
The Copycats, a lively three-piece rockabilly band,
have pleased growing audiences in the six weeks since
their debut the first of the year, Orange Bowl night, at
the Zoo Bar. They now plan to emigrate to San Diego
to test that success.
Their short-order success with bar managers and clien
tele owes its thanks to kind connections and good, foot
tapping music: also, many remembered the dance band
from its former life as the Outcats. And having conquered
the Zoo, the Copycats said, their niche in the local music
scene was secure.
"We knew we could make it here when we tackled the
Zoo Bar," said Tom Rierden, who plays stand-up string
bass in the band. "But it took a few times."
"To tackle the Zoo is something else," guitarist Steve
Lamphere said. "To get in there and get them to even
attempt to like you, they have to really like you."
The acceptance was too easy; Rierden said Lincoln
provides good competition for a band, but not for their
band. We have so many connections," he said. "We have
away in here."
"There's too much security in Lincoln "the Copycats'
drummer, Don Hitz, said. "A foreign place, with nothing
to work off but our own resources, is going to make us
that much better."
"California is a little too far to fall back," Rierden
said.
"The time is ripe," said Lamphere, who has a relative
in San Diego. "If we didn't go, we'd always say, 'God,
what would have happened if we'd gone?' "
"You've got to grab for the guts," Hitz said.
The trio's members are all in their early 20s and were
all born in Lincoln; "a great town to be from" Rierden
said. The sons of middle-class parents on Sheridan Boule
vard, they have known one another most their lives, a
closeness they credit for much of the Copycats' success.
Best of friends
"It's the trust," Rierden said, assessing the band.
"We've never had a fight, because this is what we want to
do.
"The chemistry's real good," he said, "and the energy's
real great ."
"That's what I think makes our band fun," Ilitz
summed up. "We have a good time on stage. Ill probably
never have two better friends."
The Copycats have jammed together for most of their
musical lives. All were members in the former Outcats,
which broke up because of what they collectively termed
"a conflict of interests." Phil Bury, who now plays in
Bump Fuzz, was the band's fourth member.
The Outcats had a louder, faster sound than the
Copycats have. "We sounded like a punk band in the first
place," Lamphere said with a laugh. "That was right up
our alley. We were all terrible."
"But we've always played this music," Hitz said. "In
the Outcats it was real punky, 1-2-34, but it's always
been the same. We've always played Eddy Cochrane songs,
old Wanda Jackson, old Elvis stuff."
After the Outcats disbanded, Lamphere moved to
Tulsa and Rierden moved to Denver. Hitz jammed with
local musicians and periodically mailed Lamphere tapes
of songs he was working on; Lamphere learned them
quickly and would return to Lincoln to perform.
Rierden called it a "correspondence band."
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Photo by D. Eric Kircher
Steve Lamphere, Don Hitz and Tom Rierden - The Copycats.
The rockabilly trio was formed after Lamphere and
Rierden moved back. The story goes that Lamphere
was asked by his foreman if he could put together a band
to back up his wife in a country -western contest. "I
needed the brownie points," Lamphere said.
Played to packed house
"So we went to K-mart to buy ourselves black shirts
with flowers and some cowboy hats," Rierden said. He
said that in the week between the two jobs they were
contracted for, he found his upright bass at a pawn shop.
When they played the Roca Opera House, "it was
packed," Hitz said. "The norm age was maybe 45 or 50."
"And they just loved it," Rierden said. "At every
song, at every chorus of every song," the audience roared
with applause, he said.
"We learned a lot from that. We learned what we
hated," Hitz said. "But that was really the start of our
rockabilly band."
Rewed-up rockabilly has been re-popularized by re
vivalists called "cat bands," and from the term, the Copy
cats took their name; the Outcats' name had been by
chance.
'On Golden Pond' receives 14-karat review;
Fonda, Hepburn give magical performances
By Pat Higgins
Take your parents to see On Golden Pond This is a
rare contemporary movie that proves that being whole
some and entertaining aren't mutually exclusive. On
Golden Pond is an amusing and touching movie that
deserves all possible awards. Even the most jaded and
cynical person will walk out of On Golden Pond feeling
good. It is that heartwarming.
It is too bad that Henry Fonda and Katharine Hep
burn have never worked together in their long illustrious
careers because they are magic to watch together. Fonda
is especially delightful considering the real life family
circumstances which makes his performance that much
more enjoyable.
Fonda and Hepburn play a retired couple, Norman
Thayer Jr., and Ethel Thayer, who are spending the
summer at their New England lakeside retreat. Norman
is an irascible fellow understandably hung-up on aging
and dying as his 80th birthday approaches. Ethel, though,
is so cheerful and loving that she deflates Norman's
attempt to wallow in self-pity. They are awaiting the
arrival of their semi-estranged daughter Chelsea (Jane
Fonda) and her fiance Bill Ray (Dabney Coleman) and his
son Billy (Doug McKeon). Chelsea is bitter about what
she feels was a rotten childhood thanks to Norman's
barbs towards her. The verbal sparks begin to fly upon the
younger couple's arrival.
Appropriately enough, Norman has the best and wit
tiest lines - knocking the straight lines of the other
characters out of the ballpark. Norman is great at crot
chety vulgarities matching the younger generation's
attempt to shock him with complete ease. Particularly
droll is a discussion between Norman and Bill concerning
the sleeping arrangements during the vacation as Norman
unmercifully baits Bill, who is making a supreme effort
to get along with his prospave father-in-law.
Chelsea and Bill conveniently head for Europe, leaving
the towheaded youngster Billy behind under Norman
and Ethel's supervision.
Billy is a typical modern California kid who thinks
that he is in for an intense period of boredom with the
elderly couple. To no one's great surprise, however,
Norman's crusty exterior covers a proverbial heart of
gold and a friendship blossoms between the two. Billy
learns about the virtues of fishing, Robert Louis Steven
son and outdoor living. Chelsea then returns, has a recon
ciliation with her father, and everyone lives happily
ever after.
The foolish marketing plan held up On Golden Pond's
release until after the Christmas season when it would
have cleaned up at the box office. On Golden Pond is
easily better than any of the Christmas movies except for
the first half of Reds. Additionally in its favor, it is a
two-hour-long movie with no dead spots.
Give Jane Fonda credit for being so All American
to put this movie together for her father.
Besides Rierden, the other Copycats also have been
playing new instruments. Lamphere's guitar now has a
hollow body, and Hitz uses a snare in place of torn toms.
"Four-man is a hell of a lot easier, because there's
just more sound there," Lamphere said of the trio. "But
three-man makes you tight, real tight."
The Copycats will be playing as the opening act for
Charlie Burton and the Cut-Outs at Malcolm's Branched
Oak Inn tonight; with the recently regrouped Ripchords
and a "Val-c-ween" masquerade bash at Little Bo's
Center on Valentine's Eve; and at the end of the month
they will be appearing four nights at the Drumstick.
Then it is off to San Diego, where Rierden said they
plan to begin with small bars and fraternity parties.
"We don't want to be big," he said. "We just want to
grab a good following and have a good time."
Film leaves crowd
with warm feeling
By David Thompson
Acquire wisdom; and with all your
acquiring, get undemanding.
Proverbs 4: 7
These words ring down from the pulpit of the Presby
terian Ladies College in Melbourne, Australia. It is 1883
and Laura Rambotham, a student at the school is lis
tenine to the words Hr
maturity is chronicled in the sensitive film The Getting of
Wisdom, show in f nr rh c:i t-l . jt: TZ
through 15. wuu" riuu scaler reb. 13
The Getting of Wisdom is in the tradition of warm
mov.es that don't reach out and grab you but walk Z
asking you to enjoy them. Like The French i LZ!-:
Woman, the film is leisurely p77Sl
tonan era, and. concerns a young woman who trfcs to find
a place for herself amidst the stifling propriety and social
convention of that time. F'pny ana social
Laura's first efforts toward being socially roA
not successful. Her mother is a poSffiL
tralian town, and when there is finally enough monev for'
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