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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 1990)
Arts & Entertainment Zydeco, blues, alternative dominate live music Band scene full for the next two weeks By Mick Dyer Senior Editor Zydcco, blues and alternative music dominates live music in Lincoln over the next two weeks. Alternative: Tonight and Saturday, the Grate ful Dudes will play at The Mountains, 311 S. 11th St. March 24, Flesh Petal. Red Max, Sawhorse and Sam the Butcher will play a benefit for the American Peace Test at the Common Place, 333 N. 14th St. Flesh Petal is a skinny band that plays solid guitar- oriented alterna tive rock with a full-figured sound. Red Max is a screaming, mad-all out, guitar grunge band. Sawhorse is a psycho-hillbilly mcets-thc-Stranglcrs-typc of band - specializing in perversion, intimida tion and the power of the spoken word. Rapidly becoming one of the best alternative-core bands in Lin coln, Sawhorse belongs in a petri dish. Good stuff. Sam the Butcher is a refreshing, new Lincoln, postapocalyptic tribal band. What this means is it plays hypnotic rhythms on tin cans, oil dnims. bongos and anything not securely fastened to a car -- with rakes, sticks and animal bones - while serenading the audience with cryptic tape-loop messages punctuated by live primal screams. Industrial primitive mod ernism at its finest. Sunday, Out of Habit will play at Duffy’s, 1412 0 St. April 1, the Neighborhood will at Duffy’s. April 3, Leafy Green Thing?, and the Millions will play at Duffy’s. Leafy Green Things is a hairy, release-thc-bats musical experience, and though 1 seem possessed by an evil demon and these words are just flowing out of me -- Lealy Green Things may be THE Lincoln band. The Millions is a sky-full-of-bnght stars-on-a-clcar- winter-night pop band. April 4, the Acorns and Caterwaul will play at Duffy’s. The Acoms is an upbeat, spangle guitar, warble gayly, power folk band from Omaha -- an exiravagan/a of clear, clean, ear-grabbing sounds. Caterwaul is a national act -* a twisted, post-psychedelic, throal-and guitar noise band. Jazz/Blues: Tonight Oliver Riley and the Blues Notions — voted best Kansas City, Mo., blues band in 1989 by the K.C. blues society - will play at the Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St. Tonight and Saturday, Kool Ray and the Polaroid/ will play at Bour bon Street, 200 N. 70th St. Saturday, Buddy Guy will play at the Zoo Bar. Buddy Guy practically qualifies for living blues legend status. He is an outstanding guitar player, a strong singer and a great performer. He has played with some of best in the busi ness, including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards. And he has earned the respect of many in his field. “Buddy Guy is by far and with out a doubt the best guitar player alive,” Eric Clapton, as quoted in Musician magazine. Monday, Mothers Big Band will play jazz at Bourbon Street. Monday, C. J. Chenier will play at the Zoo Bar. C. J. Chenier, son of the King ol Zydeco, the late Oil ton Chenier, carries on the grand Chenier tradi tion. A compelling performer, a mean accordion player and forceful singer, C. J. Chenier has w hat it takes to get audiences up on their feel. Tuesday, Night Heal will play at the Zoo Bar. Wednesday, the C Street Gypsies will play ’60s-stylc clcclrtc blue's at Bourbon Street. Wednesday, Chubby Carrier will play at the Zoo Bar. Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band plays a bodacious brand of zydeco. Thursday, the Wild Cards will play upbeat Latin pop at Bourbon Street. Thursday, Preston Love will play jazz at Julio’s, 132 S. 13th St. March 29-31, die W. C. Clark Blue> Review, as seen on Austin City Lim its, will play at the Zoo Bar. March 30 and 31, the Legendary Blues Band, Muddy Waters’ old band will play at Bourbon Street. March Jl, loo smootn win piay horn-fed R&B at 9th Street Blues, 421 S. 9th St. April 2, Mothers Big Band will play at Bourbon Street. April 2, the Tablerockers, featur ing Annette Murrell, will play at the Zoo Bar. April 3, Amethyst will play at the Zoo Bar. April 4, the C Street Gypsies will play at Bourbon Street. April 4, Chris Cain w ill play at the Zoo Bar. April 5, Luigi Inc. will play jazz at Julio’s. April 5, the Sir Douglas Quintet, the legendary R&B band that made the Farfisa organ famous, will play at the Zoo Bar. Rock: Tonight, The Shivers will play at Chesterfield’s, Lower Level 245 N. 13th St. Tonight and Saturday, Wrex will play at The Mountains. Tonight and Saturday, Bobby Curious will play at Oscar’s, 800 O St. March 29-31, High Heel and the Sneakers will play at Oscar’s. —i 1 Japan’s Kodo drummers bring frenzy of drumming, quiet beauty to Lied Center By Julie Naughton Senior Reporter For those not initiated into the art of Japanese drumming, the Kodo drummers’ Tuesday performance could have been a rude baptism - but such was not the case. Instead, the performance at the Lied Center for Performing Arts was a gentle introduction. For 95 minutes, the Kodo drum mers served up a show that, at times, was frenetic and almost frightening in its intensity. At other times, the show was quiet, somber and eerily beautiful. The program consisted of 11 drum/ dances: Chonlima, Miyake, Kariuta, Monochrome, Ryogen-No-Hi, Sha misen, Issen, Y u-Karak, Yamauta.O Daiko and Yatai Bayashi. One of the most spectacular parts of the show was the drummers’ per formance of “Miyake.” Based on a traditional festival on the Japanese island of Miyake, the performance combined a frenzy of drumming inter woven with slow, quiet movements. The drummers sang an eerily beauti ful fisherman’s song as a prelude to the drumming. Also very impressive was “Karuita,” a music sequence that began with a lone musician playing a shinobue flute under a dim blue light. Soon the haunting melody was joined by an off-stage shinobue flutist, and the two flutists sang back and forth to each other. This tunc is based upon a traditional Japanese harvesting song from the Akita Prefecture. The group finished up with Yalai Bayashi, a drum performance based upon an all-night festival in an Japa nese area known as Chichibu. In Japan, two-ton, two-story fixed axle carts (yatai), carrying drums, arc dragged from village to village. The people hauling the yatai are prodded on by the powerful rhythm and beat ing of the taiko, the drum that is concealed in the cramped first story of the yatai. The Tuesday performance featured one of the yatai, and Japanese men in loincloths playing the drums and performing. It was a strangely awe inspiring sight. The drummers received two stand ing ovations for their efforts and looked very pleased as they launched into their encores. The Lied Center performance was part of the group’s "One Earth Tour ’90." Other stops on the group’s agenda include Princeton University in New Jersey, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Stanford University in California. Kodo also will travel to Europe this spring, performing in Paris, London and Madrid. The Kodo drummers are based on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan. The members live communally, as they have since 1971, and each day train to develop the stamina required for the rigorous performances. The group’s name, Kodo, means "Heartbeat" and "Mother of the Drum ’ ’ in Japanese. According to the group, the name expresses "not only the sound of the mother ’ s heartbeat as heard and felt in the womb, but also the desire to play the drums purely with the heart of a child." The group says their desire is that "the One Earth Tours (will) bring the sounds of the taiko to the ears of people around the world, so that we all might be reminded of our mem bership in that much larger and more important village of the world." Andy Manhart/Daily Nebraskan | Entertainer feels for crowd's comfort line Floorwax stands out among Funny Bone comics By Robert Richardson Staff Reporter As the overhead lights flickered on and off with only the table candles remaining steady, the 250 guests, ranging in age from 21 to 60, readied CQTftMv themselves for a special night in good old downtown Lincoln. If this sounds like a night at a cheap bowling alley, you’re wrong. They were at the Funny Bone Com edy Club, awaiting what Dave Cam pagna, half owner of the club, touted as one of the biggest nights of the year. With all three comedians, the emcee, the feature act and the head liner coming from Denver, there was bound to be some camaraderie. But one comic clearly stood out above the rest with his poise, humor, experi ence and control of the audience. Michael Floorwax came on the stage wearing a pink blouse with black and white milk cows on it, short black pants, pink socks and tennis shoes. His long, blond hair gave way to the balding spot at the top of his head. Floorwax entertained the crowd for a little over an hour Wednesday night and said that about 15-20 min utes of that was improv, or done off the top of his head. “A lot of my natural gifts aren’t for making a wide ranging audience laugh with family-type material, but fam ily-type comedy people can come to my show, and they are entertained,” Floorwax said in an interview after i o >1 Floorwax his show Wednesday. Floorwax said he felt he was bom to be a comic. He also likes being on the radio, but it is the television thing he is working on. “I would like to do television, ’cause it gives you longevity in your career and it gives what you say, a little bit of legitimacy so you can help form where comedy’s going,” he said. In fact, Floorwax has been on tele vision. He has appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show and the Joan Rivers Show. Floorwax said that every one of his shows was different and that i! he was on television, he would have to change his material content. “I wouldn’tmind part of me being mainstream, but when I do my stand up that’s my opinion, that’s the way I really am,” Floorwax said. Floorwax said a good comic - when you go and sec them -- puls you in his frame of mind. Floorwax said he goes just a little bit further than that. ‘‘I feel where their comfort line is about certain subjects, and I try to cross over it a little bit, and we ex plore a little new territory, and that’s the fun of it,” he said. Floorwax also gave his opinion on the direction he thought comedy was taking. “I think it’s starting to be cen sored loo much. I think if you’re doing your humor from the heart and it’s funny, it’s funny,” he said. Floorwax has some innovative ideas. Some hit right here at home, whether we like it or not. “This is the only state capitol with a male dancer on the lop of it,” he said. Floorwax will perform at the Funn Bone at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 8:30 p.m. on Sun day.
