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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1992)
Arts & Entertainment Robert Fensler and Perry Drake, co-owners of The Edge, show the "birthday drink,” a white concoction called a "Cheesy Discharge.” Entrepreneurs living on The Edge bar-, — By Chris Burchard Staff Reporter To avoid bars thatblast the same banal top 40 music all night long, get off the mainstream and head to the Edge. Lincoln’s newest bar. The Edge, is located in the basement level of 227 N. 9lh St., filling the space vacated by the Spinoza Italian res taurant. Just look for the neon razor blade above the front door. Not a place for a chronic claus trophobic, The Edge has low ceil ings and dim lighting, which al most give it a European pub feel. Almost. This club is definitely different, with louder, harsher music and a huge toxic-radiation symbol behind the bar. There’s another difference — the relative youth of the owners and managers. Robert Fcnsler III, president of Cutting Edge Inc. (parent company of The Edge) and manager of the bar, is 23. Perry Drake, The Edge’s assistant man ager and a pre-veterinarian student at UNL, is 26. The head bartender, Clay Nielson, a UNL actuarial science major, comes in as the youngest of the five employees at 21. His brother Shane, a UNL biol ogy major and head of security, is 24. The only employee who is even 30-something is Steve Schulz, the bar’s music and entertainment di rector. He’s 34. While these guys may be lack ing in years, they seem to know what they’re doing, especially when it comes to their reasons for open ing the bar. “There was a need for a good alternative dance bar and another place where people could go and see alternative bands,” Schulz said. The Edge has something differ ent to offer Lincoln, Edge associ ates say. Something the city lacks. “We have an all-alternative dance club compared to, say, the Under ground or the Precinct, which are pretty much top-40 dance clubs,” Schulz said. The Edge has had healthy busi ness since its opening last month, Drake said, partly due to the popu larity of the alternative music it ce-floor music features a variety of heavy, industrial- and techno-bcal music, from bands as mild as New Order and Depeche Mode to ones as hard as Nine Inch Nails, The Revolting Cocks and Ministry. “I really try to mix it up,” said Schulz, who is in charge of running the disc-jockey booth. “I try to do something a little bit different every night.” With more than 600 compact discs to choose from at any given time, diversity shouldn’t be a prob lem, Schulz said. In addition to playing alterna tive music on the dance floor and at the bar, The Edge crew said it was planning to stage alternative bands as well. “We’re going to focus on new bands that arc all original,” Drake said. “We’re going to slay away from cover bands.” They’re also thinking of putting on some all-ages shows, too, but have yet to work out the legal de tails. They’ve already started fishing for alternative bands and have had some catches, Schulz said. Kill Whitey, of Lawrence, Kan., will perform at The Edge in the middle of this month. Schulz said the group sounds like a high-en ergy version of Soundgarden with a female singer. EJ. Quit, a Sl Louis band Schulz calls “a cross between Miracle Legion and The Replacements,” will play in May. The Edge also is looking for local bands who w»u to play, Schulz said, and already has been con tacted by a number of interested groups. Lincoln’s Deus Ex Mach ina will play this weekend. Despite the differences, The Edge shares some things in common with most bars, like a pool room and limited munchies, including pop corn, peanuts, chips and Tomb stone pizza. The Edge offers daily drink specials, and a house-specialty drink called the “Toxic Waste” is on the way. Other activities planned for The Edge include Sunday Alternative Video Nightand showings of alter native movies and animated fea tures. Local artists are encouraged to bring their works to The Edge for possible display. And there are other activities in the works: fashion shows, local dance performances and plays, especially ones developed and performed by UNL students, Schulz said. “I think we’re going to do well,” Drake said. “Everybody likes the place.” Fensler added, “I think we’re doing good now. I just hope it’ll keep gelling better.” Anthology offers insight into women’s challenges The Writer on Her Work Volume II: New Essays in New Ter ritory Janet Sternburg, Editor W.W. Norton & Company By Mark Baldridge Senior Reporter “The Writer on Her Work” origi nally was published in 1980 End ed ited by Janet Sternburg. At the lime, no other anthology existed on the origins and struggles specifically of women writers. Sternburg said in her introduction to that volume that she began to work on it because she “needed to read it.” It turned out to be something a lot of women needed to read. In those days, the struggle for a “room of one’s own” was being hard-fought as more and more women found they had something to say. Literature was more exclusively male-dominated in those days and the essays reflected on how difficult it was for a woman writer to be taken seriously. Today, merely a decade later, the struggle of women writers has shifted to another front. Several of the writers whose works are collected in “The Writer on Her Work Volume II: New Essays in New Territory” express surprise that a writer’s gender is even taken into consideration anymore. It s true that the days are over when a critic would be ignorant enough to write off a work because it was made by a woman. And it seems the struggle to be a writer is more evenly distributed among ^ men and women; that is to say, it is almost impossibly difficult for every one. The writers in this collection seem to have shifted awareness from the fight for legitimacy in the world of letters to the more fundamental mat ter of why they feel compelled to write at all. Virtually all the authors claim to feel this compulsion. They believe they have something to say, or some thing they must say, regardless. The essays collected here come from a broad variety of writers, and an equally broad spectrum of view point and opinion. Included in the collection are such writers as Margaret Atwood, author of “The Handmaid’s Talc" and Luisa See BOOK on 10 Saxophonist returns with experience, fame conp^ By Dionn* Searcey OWIW COITOf Johnny Reno was back in town Tuesday night, singing out to a crowd at P.O. Pears as if tne concert was five years ago at the Drumstick. Reno and the four members of his band played to about 100 fans at P.O. Pears, 322 S. 9th St. The band stopped in Lincoln during a six-week tour that took them to Chicago and Minneapo lis, among other places. Reno’s smooth moves and saxo Johnny Reno’s concert mixes new, old tunes phone playing provoked fans to dance to the Texas-style R&B tunes from his latest album, “Third Degree.” “Here’s a couple from the old Drumstick days," he said as he started in on tunes from his oldest album, “Bom to Blow.” Reno’s no stranger to Lincoln. The 39-year-old Fort Worth, Texas, na tive played often at the Drumstick in 1986-87, he said. “I’ve been coming up here for quite a while actually. Great place. It’s always had a good music scene, espe cially in the mid 80s. The Drumstick brought a lot of bands,” he said. The Drumstick, which closed sev eral years ago, was the best place for Reno to play, he said. “I’m telling you it was a legendary place. All the bands that I know would go, ‘Are you playing Lincoln? Oh, man, the Drumstick, what a great place.’” Now Lincoln doesn’t have a club that’s as well-known, he said. This makes it tough for less popular bands to get noticed, Reno said. “In order to have a good music scene you’ve got to have a good place where bands can play and learn how to play,” he said. But Reno didn’t need the Drumstick to boost his popu larity this year. He has been busy playing with Chris Isaak. “It’s a good show with Chris. Musically, it’s a lot of fun. It’s good music.” Because he’s done stows with Isaak, he said he’s gotten noticed. “I’ve gotten a lot more exposure to people. I’ve had a real successful year. I’ve gotten a lot of attention out of that,” he said. Despite doing some new work with a different artist, and shifting gears to pursue T.V. and film projects, Reno said his goals haven’t changed. “My goals havealways been pretty much to play music and travel... and to play music to people that like our stuff,” he said. “It is the life. It is. I’ve been very fortunate in that sense. I’ve been very lucky to get to do what I want.”