Arts & Entertainment
Success inevitable with band’s vibrant sound
By Micnaei ueeas
Senior Editor
Caterwaul’s mix was mono
Wednesday night at Duffy’s Tavern,
1412 0 St.
But it may as well have been ste
reo.
Not for a long, long time has a
band come across so crisply as this
cun ,
alternative quartet from Phoenix.
Fronted by moaning/wailing she-devil
Betsy Martin, Caterwaul pushed a
dreamy world of ethereal, but gutsy,
melodies onto a crowd of about 150
Lincolnites.
The eclectic, wispy Martin is a
Stevie Nicks on acid; a twirling, sigh
ing focal point for a band that special
izes in creating a wall of sonic bricks.
But Caterwaul doesn’t fade into a
zone of uncontrollable distortion.
Instead, they rely on money, technol
ogy and a talented Vancouver sound
man to keep their tones exceptionally
clean.
Guitarist Mark Schafer and bassist
Fred Cross slid through a stack of
midi effects and flashing LED lights
as drummer Kevin Pinnt pounded out
a reverberating attack of percussion
that simply rolled through Duffy’s.
Caterwaul played a few oldies,
most notably “The Sheep’s A Wolf,”
but stuck mostly to their latest and
perhaps most well-defined release,
‘‘Portent Hue.”
The band has compared their music
to artwork in the past, and the like
ness of splashing musical color cer
tainly is there.
Martin is what every female vo- •
calist wants to be -- her vocals are
about as odd as they come, yet her
sound falls into a mainstream style
somehow, a clique that is entirely
difficult to peg.
“Manna and Quail” best displayed
Martin’s talents, which fall into a
yodel ing mode at times. She also
displayed ability on the mandolin,
which she pulled out to accompany
her eerie sirening.
Schafer displayed a weakness for
the whammy on “Bulldosage,” which
added another drifting strangeness to
the evening’s performance.
Opening act The Acorns, from
Omaha, showed improvement and
some promise, generating more en
ergy live than was captured on their
album.
Overall, the night was an enjoy
able display of female-fronted bands,
a rarity and a treat that is tough to find
in what seems a male-dominated rock
world.
Stereo or mono, if Caterwaul
maintains such a vibrant and excep
tionally clear sound, larger scale
success is inevitable.
Nebraskan
A negative print of Caterwaul vocalist/lyricist Betsy Martin at Duffy’s on Wednesday night.
Bands fill Lincoln again
Timeless classics ensure great music this week
By Mick Dyer
Senior Editor
The three best songs in the world
arc: “Skip to my Lou,” “This Old
Man," and “The Farmer in the Dell.”
You can sit on your front porch and
play them on the five-string banjo all
morning long. You probably won’t
hear anybody on this list play these
timeless classics, but who knows? At
any rate, since all songs arc just vari
ations of these three great songs, all
the music on this list should be good
loo, get it?
Alternative:
Saturday, five Lincoln bands will
perform a benefit concert for the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln Art
League at The Commonplace, 14th
and R streets.
Sideshow, Sawhorse, 13 Night
mares, Leafy Green Things and Flesh
Petal will play.
Sunday, Sawhorse and The Cows
will play at Duffy’s, 1412 O St. See
accompanying story.
Wednesday, The Return will play
at Duffy’s.
The Return can be described best
as a pre-heroin, Beatlesquc pop band
with a sound as clear and clean and
wide-open as a Nebraska sky on a
cold spring morning. God, it’s whole
some stuff. Seriously, The Return is
another example of the level of excel
lence Lincoln bands are capable of
reaching. This will be a free show to
celebrate the release of the band’s
new tape, The Retum:To.
Country:
Tonight tiirough Sunday, the Sandy
Creek Band will play blucgrass at
The Prospector, 640 W. Van Dorn St.
Jazz/Blues:
Tonight, Mr. Peabody will play
’60s soul and Motown sounds at
Chesterfield’s, Lower Level 245 N.
13th Sl
Tonight, the Lightning Bugs, The
Tablcrockers and Clarence Fountain
and the 5 Blind Boys will play at the
Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St.
The Lightning Bugs is an a cap
pclla singing group from Lincoln.
The Tablcrockers is the Zoo Bar
house band and plays ’50s- and ’60s
style Chicago and Texas blues.
Clarence Fountain and the 5 Blind
Boys is the band you don’t want to
miss. The group was formed in the
early 1940s at the Talladega Institute
for the Deaf and Blind in Alabama
and has been singing some of the best
foot stomping, put-your-hands-to
gethcr-now, straight forward, praise -
the-lord, true gospel, ever since.
James Brown used to listen to
Clarence Fountain records when he
was a little kid. And comparing the
two men’s voices and singing styles,
it’s fair to say that Clarence Fountain
is James Brown’s primary vocal in
fluence.
When Clarence Fountain and the 5
Blind Boys was at the Zoo last Au
gust, the audience got all worked up
by the band’s inspirational messages.
Powerful stuff. Like Clarence Foun
tain said, you don’t have to be in
church, you can express your faith in
song anywhere.
Tonight and Saturday, Maurice John
Vaughn will play at Bourbon Street,
200 N. 70th St.
For a long lime, Maurice John
Vaughn, one of Chicago’s most sought
after blues session players, was in
demand for his guitar and saxophone
Elaying, as well as his vocal abilities.
[c has played with A.C. Reed, Son
Seals, Luther Allison and many oth
ers. Now he is stepping out on stage
with his own album’s-worth of new
material and his own band behind
him.
Tonight and Saturday, the C Street
Gypsies will play ’60s-stylc electric
blues at The Mountains, 311 S. 11th
St.
Saturday, Mojo Blues, the Blues
Notions minus Oliver Riley, will play
Kansas City blues at 9th Street Blues,
421 S. 9th St.
Saturday, The Tablerockcrs and
Night Heat will play at the Zoo Bar.
Night Heat is a fairly new Lincoln
band that specializes in playing ’60s
soul and Motown sounds.
Monday, Mothers Big Band will
play big band swing and ja/z. at Bour
bon Street.
Monday, The Tablerockcrs, fea
turing Annette Murrell, arguably one
of Lincoln’s best jazz, blues, and soul
singers, will play at the Zoo Bar.
Tuesday, The Johnny Reno Band
will play at the Zoo Bar.
Wednesday, the C Street Gypsies ,
will play at Bourbon Street.
Wednesday and Thursday, Little
Charlie and the Nightcats will play at
the Zoo Bar.
Little Charlie and the Nightcats
play a contemporary form of “jump"
blues -- a combination of swingtime
and blues elements that was popular
in dance halls across the country for a
few years after World War II. This
band gets audiences up on their feet
by combining gutsy, mad guitar play
ing, howling, brave horns and em
phatic vocals and by picking up the
tempo a bit toaccommodatc the tastes
of modem listeners and dancers.
Thursday, Urban Jazz will play at
Julio’s, 132 S. 13th St.
Rock:
Tonight, Bobby Curious will play
at the Brass Rail, 1436 O St.
Tonight, the Shivers will play at
Oscars, K00 O St.
Tonight and Saturday, On the Frit/,
will play at the Royal Grove, 340 W.
Comhusker Hwy.
Tonight and Saturday, Split Image
will play at Sweep Left, 815 O St.
Saturday, High Heel and the Sneak
ers will play at Oscars.
Radical reptiles hit the big screen
fighting ‘The Foot’in New York City
By John Payne
Senior Reporter
Television’s most radical reptiles
have taken to the big screen with
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’’ and
it’s pretty much cowabunga, dude.
Cowabunga, bitehin’, and gnarly. As
one of the young warriors says early
in the movie “Major-League, butt
kicking is back!’’
Did it ever leave?
But unlike the cartoon show, these
samurai snappers kick butt in “real
life,’’ fighting crime in the streets of
New York. For you mega-dweebs out
there who are unfamiliar with the
Turtle legend, a quick history: It seems
these four ordinary baby turtles are
crawling along through the sewers of
the Big Apple when they run into that
old comic nook staple — radioactive
waste.
The toxic goop turns them into
man-sized, talking mutant turtles with
a constant craving for Domino’s pizza.
They arc discovered by Splinter, a
big, hairy sewer rat, and mutant in his
own right. Splinter was once the pet
rat of Japanese Ninja, and so he be
moyfc
comes somewhat of a mentor to the
young turtles, teaching them the ways
of the ftinja.
Renowned Muppcteer Jim Hen
son was called on to design the Turtles
as well as Splinter, who looks more
like a big groundhog. The low-grade
special effects are so laughably bad
that one can only assume (or hope)
that it is all intentional. The best scene
in this kiddie-flick are flashbacks of
Splinter’s life in his master’s cage
and mimicking his Karate steps.
Luckily, the makers of “Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles” had enough
sense not to take this production too
seriously. The result is a surprising
number of humorous moments di
rected at, gasp, ADULTS.
At one point in the movie, when
one teen turtle gives chase to a bad
guy, a New Yorker asks his cabbie
“What the hell was that?” to which
the cab driver replies, “It kind of
looked like a big turtle in a trench
coat. You’re going to Laguardia,
right?”
Of course, much of the tongue-in
cheek humor centers on the probabil
ity that if mutant turtles did in fact
exist, they might not cause much of a
stir in New York City.
What plot there is concerns an
See TURTLES on 10
ente^ainmetU
The Cows ride the range at Duffy's
The Cows, a must-see rough and tumble outfit from Minneapolis,
will perform at Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O Sl Sunday night.
The band is being herded in through a collaborative effort by Duify s
and Project Import. Cover is S3. Show time is 10 p.m.
The Cows focus on spattering guitars and irresistible vocal catharsis,
creating a stampede that rolls over any Midwestern crowd with case.
Branding these Cows isn’t easy, though the word ‘‘8runge does
come to mind in a complimentary fashion. But forget Sub Pop, these
guys are Amphetamine Reptile boys.
Opening will be Lincoln’s own nightmarish Sawhorse.
Area bands to give benefit concert
Five Lincoln bands will play a benefit concert Saturday night for the
UNL Art League at Commonplace, 14th and R streets.
Sideshow is a robust, loud, wound-up blend of speed meta a d
reggae music beans. Sawhorse is a chaotic, completely unfastened band
of unmedicated madmen. 13 Nightmares is an explosive gmiars. throa
and drum corps. Leafy Green Things are that bunch ^killer musicians
and Nintendo kings who live down the sireet.Flesh Petal is a flo er of
effort in a Lincoln world gone mad. Catch them.