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."
