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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1993)
Monday, March 1,1M3 Arts^Entertainment Contemporary quartet flaunts intensity f Sarah Duey iff Reporter Zeitgeist, which means spirit of ; times, performed a concert Satur y at Carson Theatre that proved its nitation for being on the cutting ge of contemporary music. In their 17th year of performing, :itgeist is committed to giving its dience a wide range of pieces. But e group performs only works whi rl by living composers. Bob Samarotto, woodwind player, id, “I’m more into communicating hng things than dead things.” Minneapolis-based Zeitgeist was iunded with a determination to esentthebestofcontemporary music fleeting the spirit of the end of the )th century. Joe Holmquist, marimba and per issionist, said, “We’re a traveling useum.. . curators of 20th century. usic.” Many of the composers who com issioned works for the group are awn to Zeitgeist’s unique instru entation. The quartet combines per ission, woodwinds, keyboards, pi 10, marimba and vibes to produce its road range of sounds. “We try to expand our library with lings that sound different than what -e already have,” Holmquist said. Members of the group expanded s instrumentation Saturday to per >rm a disquieting piece, ‘‘Poem, by a Monte Young. “Poem” started with Tom Linker, pianist,producing ‘screeching’ noises by slowly running a glass along the strings of a grand piano. The three other members of Zeit geist, Heather Barringer, Samarotto and Holmquist, accompanied Linker by pushing a table and a snow shovel and pulling a gong along the linoleum floor. The intense sounds produced by this combination were nerve-rack ing, chilling and haunting. Among the three pieces by Young which Zeitgeist performed Saturday, -a We’re a traveling mu seum. .. curators of 20th century music. — Joe Holmquist, Zeitgeist percussionist -99 - “Annod” was premiered by the group last week, Barringer said. “Annod,” a lyrical improvised jazz piece, con trasted immensely with “Poem.” “Salome’s Excellent Expansion,” by Terry Riley ended the concert The piece combined eastern and western themes, patterns, melodies and har monic progressions that may or may not have appeared in previous Riley compositions. Of the seven pieces performed by Zeitgeist, each produced a different mood and new sounds. Each piece could be described with different ad jectives. Although contemporary music can not be simply defined, the music pro duced by Zeitgeist was complex, in tense and anything but lifeless. Courtesy of Zeitgeist Zeitgeist performed Saturday in the Carson Theater. Members of the band Dogtooth Violet. Dogtooth Violet works on first release )y Heather Sinor >taff Reporter Nine months may not seem like a ang time for a music group to be 3gcther, but for the hot new band >ogtooth Violet, scheduled to per orm last night at the Zoo Bar at press >me, it has been long enough to gain he attention of contact representa ives at Arista and Geffin Records. The three-man band has appeared i Lincoln at Duffy’s Tavern, The dge and First Avenue, and plans to oniinue performing locally while tty wait to hear back from these ecording companies. They Tove to perform, but they are nxious to fulfill their dream “just to et the chance to do an album," said Kid guitarist Brad Buescher. And they are off to a good start, 'he band has spent the past two months t Startracker Studios recording their irst 16 songs, with the help of owner ndrecordingengineer Brett Hollihan. Buescher said they didn’t let iollihan’s help go unnoticed. The Toup asked him to accompany them >n the trumpet in their song, “Dollorus jladsome, which means sad happy. Buescher said Hollihan was a very ntcresting person. “The guy had a Jotato fetish,” he said, “Everything tt owned had something to do with Potatoes.” Although Buescher wasn’t iure where this unusual potato altach nent came from, he did say that a candidate title for the group’s first potential album is “Potatoes Every where,” after Hollihan. It is no surprise that Startracker Studios was impressed with their tal ent. What drummer Brock Beckman - We sound pretty full for a three-man band. — Curt Geren, bass guitarist and vocalist. -99 - describes as “alternative to the alter native,” Dogtooth Violet’s music is high energy, original entertainment. Buescher said they have been in fluenced by groups like Soul Asylunf, Jane’s Addiction and The Buck Pets, but their music is entirely original. . Bass guitar and vocalist Curt Geren writes most of the lyrics. He said the group spent a lot of time experiment ing with different sounds, but they are now getting to what they really want. “We sound pretty full for a three-man band," he said. But why do they sound so good together? Geren said it was because they put everything into their music and they love what they do. “We just go up there and have fun,” he said. And their audience does too. The band recalled several times when they played for crowds who found a way to express all of their best emotions “moshing” to their music. More commonly referred to as slam dancing, this high-contact form of expression involves a great deal of audience participation. “They just try to run into each other," Geren said. All three members are originally from Grand Island but weren’t always so serious about their music. Geren and Buescher, who played together in a band called “Typhoid Mary” during high school, got their chance to per form for the entire student body dur ing their senior year. They were a heavy-metal cover band, Buescher said, and they were asked to play the song “Free Falling,” by Tom Petty for the event — not exactly their style of music. When the curtains opened, the band began playing Peuy’s song, but then broke into “Sanitarium” by Metallica. Buescher said the student body was thrilled, but the faculty was so excited that they suspended Geren’s and Buescher’s diplomas for a week. But they were just doing then what they do best now — being them selves. And when you see Buescher on stage in his cut-off shorts, long underwear, mismatched socks, five year-old Nike’s, and guitar down at his knees, you’ll understand why this band’s pure, honest, original enter tainment is well worth seeing. Charismatic opera star charms Lied audience Courtesy of Jack Mrtchel Leontyne Price_ By George K. Stephan Staff Reporter Well, I guess some Nebraskans do like opera. After seeing three enthusiastic standing ovations at the Lied Center for an opera singer, I must say 1 was a little surprised. But then again perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised, for after all, the singer was the charismatic and talented Leontyne Price. Price’s career has spanned three glorious decades of critically ac claimed opera singing, and on Sunday night she showed just why she is so popular. In a conceit that featured a variety of opera numbers, other serious works and American songs, Price entertained from beginning to end. Ever the typified prima donna. Price’s love for her audience was always evident in her affectionate smiles and low elegant bows, while humbly placing her hands over her heart. Though she technically retired from the stage in 1985, Price has continued to perform in concerts since then. Accompanied by pianist David Garvey she showed the audience that, though she’s a little older, she still has her stuff. Price’s technical abilities were re ally quite remarkable. The Strength of a great singer is not only seen simply in an ability to hit all the right notes or in the amount of sheer volume, but how that singer can achieve a facile and expressive use of those abilities. If ever a singer had this facility, Price has. High and loud here, low and soft there; her interpretations were fresh and lively, performed splen didly throughout. But Price has earned her popular ity undoubtedly from her dramatic expressiveness. In every aria Price charmed the audience with her expressive inter pretations. Her face and body always corresponding to the situation of the song. The conceit included works by George Frideric Handel, Joeseph Marx and Francis Poulenc, as well songs by a variety of American composers. Highlights included the famous aria “Un bel di” from Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Lee Hoiby’s humorous song “The Serpent.” In response to the enthusiastic ova tions from the audience, Price sang the climatic aria from the final scene of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and the song “Summertime."
