Tuesday, November 5, 1985
Daily Nebraskan
Page 10
Aits
Is
.Lj lfil
mmemt
Femme
By Charles Lieurance
Staff Reporter
When UPC's wall of sweater boys
went up to keep the surging mass of
people four feet from the Centennial
Room's stage Sunday night, I thought
of my mother warning im to stay four
feet away from the television set
something about frying my retinas, I
think.
Concert Review
I suppose the MTV generation has to
put up with this kind of thing all the
time: "Stay a safe distance from the
band or you'll be able to tell they're just
holograms and stand-up cardboard
dolls."
"V
if
Ritchie
But man, this is the Violent Femmes!
"Start from the back and back up,
it's not that hard. Use your head!" A
UPC representative yelled. Of course
That's prime, taking a volatile situation
and making it worse. Nobody came to
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i in r i
Don task Chuck
For the next few days, from Nov. 8
through 12 you could be faced with the
awesome question of what to do if the
Prince and Princess of Wales stop at
your place?
The question may have never occurred
to you since their official itinerary has
them flying into Washington, D.C., then
ending the visit in Palm Springs, Cal.
Between these two places the royal
couple will probably have a chance to
speak to a chosen few Americans who
are lucky enough to have made it on the
invitation list.
Mike Grant
So far, the guest list is limited to
people like Ronald and Nancy Reagan,
millionaire Paul Mellon, and Clint East
wood, of course. So the thought of
meeting Britain's favorite couple prob
ably hasn't crossed your mind . . . yet.
But what if Charles and Di are
flying across mid-America and Charles
turns to his wife and says something
like "You know we really haven't met a
good cross-section of American culture
vet. At least I don't think D.C. and Palm
New music to be performed
A program of new music written by
UNL composers Robert Beadell, Ran
dall Snyder, and Harold Levin will be
presented free to the public tonight at
8 p.m. in the Kimball Recital Hall.
This concert of vocal and instrumen
tal music will offer a wide variety of
20th century styles, ranging from neo
classic to avant-garde and New-Romanticism.
Beadell's compositions will include
the premier performance of two set
tings for poems by Nebraska poet Ted
Kooser: "Just Now" and "The Fan in
the Window". These songs are from
Beadell's cycle "Evocations."
The second of Beadell's works will
6
use their heads. The eternal conflict
between popularity and intimacy rages
on. My thoughts: This isn't a video
move on up!
I asked one of the sweater boys why
they wanted the crowd so far back. He
said he was afraid people would leap
onto the stage. The way the front row
was packed up against the stage, if
they had tried to leap they would have
left their lower regions behind them.
It was a great crowd. They screamed,
they sang along, they chanted, they
loved every minute of everything. The
way everybody knew the words rein
forced that the Violent Femmes play at
least some kind of folk music no matter
how much they deny it.
All in one line at the front of the
stage, The Femmes are the epitome of
intimacy, absolutely in touch, looking
over the quivering wall or UPC muscle.
Gordon Gano, diminutive champion of
sustained adolescence, songwriter and
guitarist takes the stage in a prophet's
robe. Drummer Victor De Lorenzo mas
sages a trash can lid with his brushes
and Brian Ritchie's acoustic bass starts
in, the solid full-marrowed skeleton of
the band. The song is "Country Death
Song" off their second album, "Hallowed
Ground."
The Femmes are great, their songs
are great and just because some
"mechanic" producer neutered "Hal
lowed Ground" is no reason to fault the
songwriting or playing. Glad to know it
wasn't Gordon Gano's flagging inspira
tion. Gano, Ritchie and De Lorenzo pretty
much covered the Femmes' recorded
repertoire. They performed their tales
of pubescent angst and anomie ("Kiss
Off," "Blister in the Sun"), songs of
political rage ("Hallowed Ground,"
"Confessions""), the traditional gospel
Gano seemed so fond of on "Hallowed
Springs provide a very well-rounded
picture of our former colony. Pilot,
please land at the next airport, Lincoln,
Nebraska. How quaint, let's do it!"
He says all this in an English accent,
of course.
The idea is not inconceivable. After
all, Prince Charles' mother, Queen
Elizabeth, did land at Nebraska's own
Offut Air Force Base in Bellevue for
refueling once. So it could happen.
So what should you do when Charles
and Diana pull up to your place in a
limousine caravan?
For introductions Life magazine
suggests: "One does not touch their
highnesses, unless a handshake is
offered, . . . also one does not speak
first."
Remember, above all you should not
kiss their rings and address either of
them as "Your Holiness," that's strictly
for clerics who have a high rank in the
religious hierarchy, like Nebraska's
Rev. Sileven, for instance.
After the introductions are over and
you have sat down to tea and crumpets
(or beer and corn chips or whatever you
may have on hand), you must make
conversation. British royalty have a
historic mistrust of intellectuals, so
be a dramatic monologue from his
opera "Napoleon, " first performed here
in 1973.
Beadell, who has won annual ASCAP
awards for creativity and advancement
of American Music since 1967, also has
been awarded the Ford Foundation
grant for visiting composer at New York
City Center and NEA fellowships for
jazz composition in both 1972 and 1976.
The three pieces by Randall Snyder
will be "Sinfonietta", a short neo
classic composition designed for young
er players; the avant-garde "Nova Cygni"
written for the combination of string
bass and bass guitar; and finally,
excerpts from Snyder's "Of Here Being",
s best
close
r
Ground" and some teasing doses of the
new LP.
You can toss the Boss, as far as I'm
concerned. If you want American music
spin the Femmes. They cover the bases
from doo-wop to Bo Diddley, rural blues
to Los Angeles' donation to the Ameri
can musical vocabulary: hardcore punk.
Gano's thin adenoidal croon torched
ballads like "I Know it's True But I'm
Sorry to Say" and in a photoflash began
raging about borrowing Dad's car,
masturbation, sweaty palms, not getting
kissed enough and nuclear suicide liKe
andBi about Benny Hill
keep the talk down to earth. On the
other hand, you must remember that
these two people rarely have to deal
with everyday mundane things like
paying phone bills and waiting in line at
preregistration. So keep the talk light.
Here are some do's and don'ts in
conversation.
First do's for Prince Charles: "By
Jove, I live for polo! We must get
together sometime for some chukkers."
Or "God save your mother!" or "You are
obviously the greatest royalty since
Duke Ellington."
Don'ts: "Do you know Benny Hill?"
or, "I hear Prince Andrew has been
selected as the new James Bond, is that
true?" Or "Couldn't you think up any
names more original for your sons than
William and Henry? How about Clint or
Burt?"
Do's for Lady Diana: "I'm crazy about
Duran Duran, aren't you?" Or "You
have a better sense of clothes style
than Joan Collins."
Don'ts: "How come your mother-in-law
never smiles." Or "Why don't you
ditch this "Chuckles" guy, and me and
you can go out and paint the town red."
Or "Do you know Benny Hill?" .
After a half hour or so of light banter,
which are settings of Wallace Stevens
works.
Snyder, the recipient of many awards,
will premier his transcription of Franz
Schubert's "Deutsche Tanze" with the
Lincoln Symphony Orchestra later this
month.
"Seven Pieces" by Harold Levin, will
close the concert. This composition is a
chamber concerto for solo viola and 14
instruments. It will be conducted by
Snyder.
Levin is Professor of Viola at UNL
School of Music and ConductorDirec
tor of the Lincoln Youth Symphony
Orchestra.
d perso
an
Gano
a deranged Beaver Cleaver suddenly
awakened from his innocent black-and-white
sleep and wanting to trash the
suburbs.
What could be more American than
that?
The biggest accolades of the night
go to Ritchie, whose acoustic bass does
the job ordinarily reserved for a lead
guitar without sacrificing his share of
the rhythm. Hyperbole aside, Ritchie is
one of the finest and most daring bass
players I've ever seen. In his checkered
g00se hunting hat, he jumped around
the royal couple will want to Dick ud
some Big Red paraphernalia and some
Runzas and then it's off to Palm Springs
f: f I
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Tim Bachman, Randy Dachman, Garry Peterson and C.F.
Turner of Bachman Turner Overdrive.
BTO comes back with
their blue-collar rock
Because of a resurgence in popu
larity of the blue-collar rock they
play, Bachman Turner Overdrive is
back after a six-year hiatus.
Their meat-and-potatoes music,
hard rocking with working-people
lyrics, propelled B.T.O. to fame in
the mid-1970s. The Canadian group
sold more than 7 million records
from 1973-77, and cracked the hit
singles chart several times with hits
including "Taking Care of Business,"
"You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," and
"Let It Ride." The album Not
Fragile, went platinum.
Lead singerguitarist Randy Bach
man left the band in 1978 at the
height of its success, and two albums
i
David CreamerDaily Nebraskan
on stage in a mad jig, played the conch,
compensated masterfully for broken
strings and made the traditional country
music bass line sound as complex and
full of possibilities as a Bach fugue.
By the encore the wall of sweater
boys were crumbling and, of course,
since they had expected people to be
leaping up onto the stage, people were
skittering underneath like rats. The
UPC-ers didn't seem to mind all that
much, they were smiling and singing
along just like everybody else, jammed
against the stage.
where they can reminisce on their fond
memories of those witty, polite Nebra
skans. :i ,m J-,
Courtesy Entertainment Artists, Inc.
later the group broke up. Bachman,
a former member of the Guess Who
penned their hits "American Wo
man," and 'These Eyes," said !A lot
of bands took a break in 1978-79
The Who, The Doobie Brothers,
The Stones, The Moody Blues
disco was very strong and very few
real rock records were making the
charts back then. You either sold
out and went disco, or you waited it
out, like Z.Z. Top did."
B.T.O. is playing tonight at the
Royal Grove, 340 West Cornhusker.
Tickets are $8 in advance and avail
able at Dirt Cheap, Pickles, and the
Grove, or $10 at the door. Opening
act is the Doctors.
t'l .