Arts & Entertainment
‘Private Life’ to open Van Halen concert
By Michael Deeds
Staff Reporter
A certain mystique surrounds a
band with the name “Private Life.”
It conjures up imagery of ques
tion and mystery. And according to
Danny Johnson, guitarist for the
band, Private Life’s audiences
have had to deal with a little mys
tery.
“It’s kind of been hard louring,”
he said. “A lot of people don’t quite
know who we are yet.”
Private Life is a recently
formed rock band currently touring
with the rock superstar group Van
Halcn.
Along with Johnson, the band
consists of vocalist Kelly Breznik,
bass player Jay Davis, keyboardist
Jennifer Blakeman and drummer
Lenny C'ampanaro.
The band formed about a 1 1/2
years ago, Johnson said, after
Eddie Van Halen’s wife Valerie
persuaded her husband to listen to
music Breznik and Johnson were
Halcn liked the sound, and
asked the hand if he could produce
their first album.
“It was really Kelly that in
spired all of this,” Johnson said.
“Her voice is great.”
Johnson, who has played with
big names like Alice Cooper, Rod
Stewart and Alcatraz, said all the
members of Private Life were in
volved in other music projects
before the band formed.
Johnson met Van Halcn about
ten years ago, but did not know him
personally, he said. After meeting
the band, Van Halcn encouraged
Private Life to skip the club scene
and focus on songwriting and re
cording, he said.
“This never would have hap
pened so easily without Eddie,” he
said. But it would have hap
pened.”
Johnson said Private Life plays
“melodic hard rock with a little
progressive edge to it.”
Members add their own talents
to the band, he said. The combina
tion of modern bass and tying
keyboards, along with powerful
drums and guitar, provides a solid
sound to back the powerful vocals
of Breznik, he said.
Private Life’s self-titled album,
which was released last week, has
made the band more secure on
stage, Johnson said, because more
people havfc started to recognize
the band.
“When we first started touring,
we were nervous as hell,” he said.
“We were worried about getting
booed off the stage, about people
yelling ‘Eddie’ or ‘Sammy.’”
But more than a month into the
tour, things are flowing smoothly,
he said.
“Everything has been great,” he
said. “Van Halcn has been great to
us.”
Johnson said the band has been
Courtesy of
Private Life
accepted by all its audiences, but
people who know the album was
produced by Eddie Van Halen are
especially easy to please.
“When they know Eddie did the
album, it’s kind of like a stamp of
approval,” he said.
The band just completed film
ing a video for the first single off
the album, “Put Out The Fire.” The
video was filmed in New York
City, and is due out in about a
month, he said.
Private Life is not an L. A.-bred
band, like many bands gaining
popularity today. With the excep
tion of Campanaro, all the mem
bers are from Louisiana, Johnson
said.
“I’m looking forward loplaying
in Lincoln,” he said. “I love earthy
towns and slates.”.
Private Life will open for Van
Halcn Saturday at the Bob Dcva
ncy Sports Center. Johnson said the
band will begin playing its 30
minutc set at 8 p.m.
New9 Van Halen to perform Saturday at Devaney
By Michael Deeds
Staff Reporter
The hard-rock superstar group
Van Halcn will be performing
Saturday at the University of Nc
braska-Lincoln’s Bob Dcvancy
Sports Center.
coru'<‘rt
Hailing from Pasadena, Calif.,
the band has grown into one of the
most popular musical acts of all
lime.
Van Halcn originally forsncd as
Mammoth in 1974 and was signed
in 1977. The quartet consisted of
vocalist David Lee Roth, brothers
Edward and Alex Van Halcn on
guitar and drums, and bassist Mi
chael Anthony.
A huge promotional push
launched the band on its way to
immense fame in the United States,
but a breakthrough in Europe on
such a large scale has escaped
them.
Songs like “Pretty Woman,”
“Panama" and “Hot For Teacher’
helped Van Halcn to remain on top
of the hard-rock scene.
The band’s success in the 1970s
and early ’80s can be attributed not
only to its basic musical style, but
to the members’ outrageous per
sonalities.
Athletic David Lee Roth’s stage
persona of wild clothes, complete
obnoxiousness and animal mag
netism appealed to most rock fans.
Eddie Van Halcn’s guitar prow
ess and “American boy” looks
clashed with Roth’s style, creating
an interesting effect.
But, as most Van Halen fans
know, this clash continued after
shows were over and developed
into a problem between the two
band members. Roth eventually
left the band.
Replacement vocalist Sammy
Hagar, whose vocal style is quite
different from Roth’s, disillu
sioned a lot of Van Halcn fans,
creating two sets of fans — many
people now like “old” Van Halcn
or “new” Van Halcn. Very few like
both.
But this lineup change has not
hindered the band’s huge popular
ity. Leading the “Monsters of
Rock” tour this summer, the band
enjoyed enthusiastic fans and de
voted groupies while playing with
other big names like Mctallica,
Dokken and the Scorpions.
Van Halcn has begun using
more keyboards and lately has tried
to appeal to a larger audience.
Opening for Van Halcn will be
Private Life, a new band produced
by Eddie Van Halcn. Show time is
8 p.m.
Tickets arc still available for
$18.25 at local ticket outlets and
can also be obtained starting Satur
day after 12 p.m. at the Dcvancy
Box Office.
Sheldon’s festival continues with Taiwanese film
By Micki Haller
Senior Editor
“A Time to Live and a Time to
Die” is one of the two films from
Taiwan in the New Chinese Cinema
festival playing at the Sheldon Film
Theater.
The movie follows the personal
experiences of director Hou Hsaio
Hsicn when he was growing up in
Taiwan.
The movie begins with a narration
of events. In 1947, Hou’s father went
loTaiwan.andin 1949, he sent for his
family.
Hou’s grandmother, mother, and
six siblings go to Taiwan, and start a
new life that begins to break away
from the traditions of mainland
China.
But even as the new generation
begins to emerge, traditions of the
past cling. The film is filled with
references to old superstitions, such
as if a cat jumps over a corpse, the
body will sit up. The superstition is
accepted as fact, but new reasons,
such as electric current, explain the
mysterious occurrence.
Still, westernization and progress
arc dominant throughout the film.
Young Hou steals from his mother,
then progresses to gambling, whoring
and gang warfare.
Particularly interesting is Hou’s
relationship with his grandmother.
She is eager to go back to the main
land and pay homage to the ancestors.
Grandmother also had Hou’s for
tunc told when he was born, and she
believes he will become a great offi
cial.
Hou seems indulgent of his grand
mother; he goes with her once on the
road to the mainland.
‘‘A Time to Live and a Time to
Die” will show Saturday at 12:15 and
9:15 p.m., and Sunday at 3 and 9:15
p.m.
‘Liquid Sky'features smutty aliens;
Movie packed with special techniques
Gay, Lesbian film festival
aims to educate students
From Staff Reports
The first ever Gay and Lesbian
Film Festival begins today and runs
through Sunday.
Sponsored in part by the Coalition
for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights, the
six features and nine shorts were
chosen to educate and entertain the
public.
The Common Woman Bookstore,
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Gay and Lesbian Student Group and
the University Program Council Gay/
Lesbian Programming Committee
and American Films dso sponsored
the event.
“The Virgin Machine” was a hit of
last spring's San Francisco Interna
tional Lesoian and Gay Film Festival.
German filmmaker Monika Treut
tells the story of Dorothy (Ina Blum),
a young German intellectual looking
for love among men while research
ing the nature of attraction. Dorothy
immigrates to America and meet
several remarkable women in Cali
fornia.
“Anita, Dances of Vice” is the
latest Him by Rosa Von Praunheim.
“Anita” resurrects Berlin’s once no
torious Anita Berber.
Berber personified Weimar de
pravity, and was a symbol of deca
dence, perversity, bisexuality and
drugs during her time.
In the film, an old woman (Lolti
Huber) claims to be Berber.
“A Death in the Family,” a widely
acclaimed film from New Zealand,
tells the story of Andrew Boyd, the
fourth person in New Zealand to die
of AIDS.
Directors Stewart Main and Peter
~ See FESTIVAL on 9
f
“Liquid Sky" a low-biKteet
smutty sci-fi cult classic, will be
showing tonight and Sunday at 1
and 9 p.tn. in the Nebraska Union.
The latest Him in the University
Program Council American Films
Series came out in the summer of
1983.
The plot, according to New
York magazine, has tiny aliens
landing on a Manhattan apartment
building and attaching themselves
to Margaret (AnneCarlisle), a New
Wave fashion model whose friends
use a lot of heroin.
The aliens are in search of
pleasure; they want smack, and
fhey want a euphoria-inducing
chemical produced by the brain
during orgasm.
Margaret, a decadent regular on
the club scene, is constantly be
sieged by lovers and rapists of both
sexes. Her pursuers begin to die off
as the unseen aliens suck the
chemicals from their brains.
She becomes an avenger, and
after she has killed off all her lovers
and tormentors, she ascends to
heaven in a Hying saucer.
Director SlavaTsukerman. who
immigrated from the Soviet Union
in 1973, delivers the outrageous
ness of an on-the-edge youth
counterculture on an extremely
low budget of $400,000, but man
ages to pack the film with special
techniques.
Tsukerman, his wife Nina
Kerova and Anne Carlisle wrote
the script, basing some of the inci
dents on Carlisle’s experience in
seme of New York’s hedonistic
clubs.
Carlisle plays a double role in
the movie as Margaret and as
Jimmy, a junkie who snarls a lot.
Despite the sad, nasty lives of
the main characters, “Liquid Sky’’
manages to retain a dry humor
throughout. Several reviews say
this is not a belly-laugh movie, but
contains wry situations.
Tickets are $1 for students with
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
identification, and $2 for the gen
eral public.