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Daily Ncbraskan
Friday, April G, 1C34
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ll I I i I f ' J ! I II i I i I I I I l I i i I i I I
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I I M
By I.likc Frost
The Midwest often conjures up
images of small towns, agriculture and
county fairs. But now, a growing cadre
of musicians is proving that the Mid
west should also be associated with
some of the purest rock 'n' roll music
around.
One such group is Boys With Toys, a
lively trio from Iowa City, Iowa. They
are proud to come from the same geo
graphic region as Mitch Ryder, John
Cougar, Dwight Twilley and the Mo
town sound. "The Midwest is a lot less
trendy, a lot less expectant," said Brad
ley Jones, the band's lead guitarist.
Jones, a University of Iowa gradu
ate, said he had always been interested
in starting a band ("What else can you
do with an English degree?" he said),
but he wanted to find the right people
to play with. "It was kind of a waiting
game, really," he said.
About a year and a half ago, Jones
found the right people. Now he, bassist
Joel Carey and drummer Tommy
Meyer, both from Ames, Iowa, are con
centrating on perfecting their sound. .
"If you had to define it, it's just kind
of American rock 'n' roll with a lot of
radio pop thrown in," Jones said. He
said there is nothing better-than a
simple trio for playing that brand of
pure rock 'n' roll.
"If you're listening to a dashboard
radio, the best sound you can get is a
big electric guitar, just strumming," he
said. Jones prefers this simple approach
to the multi-layered sounds which cur
rently dominate the pop charts. "I'd
like to start a revolution that would
bring that sound back," he said.
Clearly, Jones has lofty goals for the
band. He said his commitment to the
trio is a permanent one. "Everything's
for the band," he said. "You have to be a
team. And I'm really proud to be on the
same stage as these guys."
The group has done some recording,
but so far, no examples of their studio
work are available commercially. Jones
said the band will release recorded
material once they feel more comfor
table in the studio. "We need to transfer
that stage spirit onto vinyl," he said?
Just as their recorded work needs
time to develop, Jones said the band's
live sound also needs the same chance
to evolve.
"We started out doing rockabilly
material," he said. As the band began
to introduce more original material,
the rockabilly sound fell by the way
side. "The great rockabilly songs have
already been written," he said.
The band still includes healthy doses
of rockabilly in its stage shows, along
with its provocative amalgam of Amer
ican musical genres. The band's sound
lends itself best to live performances.
"When we're on stage, we like to
sweat "Jones said. The best crowds, he
added, are the ones who are ready to
sweat along with them. "The audience
at the Drumstick is really good," Jones
said. In fact, he said, college audiences
as a whole seem more receptive to the
Boys With Toys sound.
"We played in St. Louis Tuesday
night. It seemed like everyone there
was trying to pick up members of the
opposite sex," he said. "No one wanted
to sweat. College kids want to sweat.
They want to have fun."
Lincoln college students will have
plenty of chances to perspire this week
end. The band is appearing at the
Drumstick, 547 N. 48th St., through
Saturday. The cover charge is $3.
" Not only will the audience sweat, but
they'll be able to see firsthand how
Boys With Toys got its name. "For us,
the stage experience is everything,"
Jones said. "The name comes from how
we feel when we're on stage. I feel just
like a boy with a big electric toy," Jones
said.
... i hi i.i ... i i. i j i in i. ii. in ii nil i... i i i i i. i n 3 -
Coys V.'iih Toys
EcysYTithTcs-a
Review by Eric Peterson
This weekend's Nebraska Directors'
Theatre production of Samuel Beck
ett's Waiting for Godot is very effective
in bringing out both the slapstick ele
ments of the play and its darker side.
William Schutz, who plays Estragon
(Gogo), and Lynette Welter, who plays
Vladimir (Didi), can carry on a vaude
villian exchange with a great deal of
wry charm, but something as simple as
the two disturbing chimes beginning
each act prepare the audience to be
wary of the abyss; and when Welter
screams "A enamel house!"
at the sight of the audience (and all
human beings), the abyss opens a
little.
The NDT production of Waiting for
Godot, directed by Michael McAlister,
shows tonight, Friday and Saturday at
8 p.m. at the Nebraska Directors' Thea
tre, 421 S. Ninth St., Suite 112.
Gogo and Didi are the great comic
pair of the play, and Schutz and Wel
ter's characterizations are very nice.
Schutz's expressive face is grand at
some moments, like when he smiles
beatifically at Pozzo's poetic efforts.
"Tray bong. Tray tray bong!" Schutz
says with forced admiration. Gogo is
fully aware of his own suffering and
compares himself to Christ. "All my
life, I've compared myself to him,"
Schutz says matter-of-factly.
This undercutting of the inevitable
Christ symbolism is an example of the
easy and unpretentious wit of Waiting
for Godot The rapid answer exchanges,
which Welter and Schutz play with the
game archness traditional to vaude
ville, mask the boredom and fear of
loneliness which are so prominent in a
world where God is expected but never
appears.
Welter plays Didi with vigor. She can
react with convincing sympathy to
Gogo's hurt leg. She can also be mor:
bidly curious and mocking, as when
she mercilessly and expertly
mimics Luckys miserable panting or
prances around singing a macabre
song, pausing in mid-stride when she
forgets the words. She sings with spe
cial relish the part of a cook who found
a dog and "beat him 'til he was dead."
The setting is a little plain of crumpled
newspaper with a coat rack bravely
imitating a tree, putting forth hats in
the spring. This becomes especially
effective at moments like the one when
the four major characters lie sprawled
inert in the newspaper and lose all
human shape, looking as transient and
lifeless as everything else.
Diane Pitzel plays a messenger boy
with naivete, hands in pockets and a
lock of hair sullenly hanging over one
eye. It might have been good to see
slight fear or uncertainty at points.
The NDT production uses four women
in a play which has five male parts.
Llc&ncn crA English Dogs
Having women play some of the men in
Waiting for Godot works successfully.
The gender change is particularly inter
esting in Pozzo's case.
Played by Cassie Moore, Pozzo
becomes a character whose bluster
and' forced confidence become more
obvious than in many traditional inter
pretations of Pozzo. There is no way to
make a pencilled-on mustache, with
curled ends, look real. As melodrama
villain Moore plays a Pozzo who is gen
erally more pretentious than threaten
ing. After Pozzo has gone blind and
reappears in the second act, Moore's
hair, freed and entangling, becomes
curiously affecting as a sign of Pozzo's
helplessness. Moore is very strong in
her final cursing of time and its hate
fulness. She looks to one side of Didi
and blindly rages at her destiny, the
one moment of the play when there's
no distance between the character
Pozzo and the audience. "
Cil Stengel plays Lucky, a savagely
ironic name for the character whose
undeniable misery gives the lie to the
masking comedy. Pozzo drags him by
the neck on a rope, ponders whether
to kill the burdened creature or sell
him and Lucky seems unaware of
anything but suffering.
Stengel's incessant panting, her numb
and ghastly look, are haunting. Her
monologue becomes a powerful scene.
The mute Lucky starts, in a shaky
voice, to babble about God and eso
teric philosophers. Lucky grows ecstat
ic, and Stengel for the first time
addresses the listeners and the
audience. At first entertained by the
freak show, Gogo and Didi become
afraid it's gotten out of hand; Pozzo
hides his head. They pull Lucky's think
ing cap off and all collapses after the
strain. Thinking does h.ive conse
quences, after all, and avoiding change
and irrevocable decision is the only
real action of Waiting for Godot.
y u x .
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By Dan Y7ondra
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