Nebraskan
Thursday, April 7,1994
Arts(oEntertainment
Ordinary band produces extraordinary music
Concert
review
The plain blue bus, as inconspicu
ous as the band it carried, took up
three parking spaces in front of the
AftcrShock club Tuesday afternoon.
The Connells, six average, ordi
nary musicians, had come to town.
“We’re just a normal band,” George
Huntley, The Connells’ guitarist and
backup singer, said. “We finally got
that across to our record lablc. They
were worried because we didn’t really
have an image.”
Mike Connell, a guitarist from
Georgia who founded the band 10
years ago with his brother David,
agreed with Huntley.
“Our label wanted us to try to de
fine for them how we saw ourselves,
but we never obliged them, because
we don’t have a very clear idea about
that,” Mike Connell said. “We never
really thought about it.
“We were just a group of guys who
never saw any point in trying to dress
any differently than if we were going
over to our parents’ house.”
The result of remaining true to
themselves is a college image — en
tirely uncalculatcd, Connell said.
“A few of us look a little more
clean-cut and normal than others,”
Connell said. “But I wouldn’t say
Doug MacM illan looks normal by any
standards.”
Bespectacled lead singer
MacMillan, with a wild stand ofshort
hair, is fan-friendly and funny. On
stage, his soprano voice possesses a
dreamlike quality that contrasts with
his actions. When he’s not waving
and shaking a tambourine, one hand
grips the microphone stand as if shift
ing gears on a bus.
The drummer, Pecle Wimberley,
wears w ire-rimmed glasses, steel-toed
black boots, a flannel shirt and tom
jeans. He sports a close buzz cut and
remnants of a beard.
“Pcelc’s probably the coolest look
ing one in the band,” Connell said.
Most of the time, Wimberley was
hidden behind his drum set, dishing
out a strong yet unobtrusive beat.
Although the “ordinary look” has
always been a part of the band, quality
is something they had to strive for.
M ike Connel 1, who wrote the popu
lar song, “’74-’75,” remembered when
The Connells played in Lincoln ...
’86-’87.
“My only qualms about that night
was the way we played. We were
terrible,” he said.
The Connells have come a long
way, and not only in terms of mileage.
They’ve released five albums.
“The first time we played in Lin
coln, we ’ d onl y been togc t he r a year or
two. We needed to mature as a band,”
Connell said.
At AftcrShock during the 90
minutc set, which included “Doin’
You,” “Disappointed,” “Spiral” and
“Slackjawcd,” the now-mature band
whipped fans into an over-the-head
hand-clapping frenzy.
Huntley, the band’s token long
hair, impressed the crowd with his
harmonizing and singing, as well as
his above-average guitar-playing. In
the opening notes of the encore song,
the rich, ringing tone of Huntley’s
clcctic guitar unmistakably mimicked
a harmonica.
Keyboardist Steve Potak, a nor
mal-looking guy with short dark hair,
also proved outstanding. His key
boa rds sounded as big as the Hammond
Sandy Summers/DN
Doug MacMillan of The Connells autographs a band poster for Suzie York, a Twisters
employee. The band appeared at Twisters on 14th and O streets Tuesday afternoon
before their concert at the Aftershock club.
organ he usually plays on stage. Potak
excelled in conjuring sounds ranging
from an entire horn section to a soft
vocal hum of a chorus.
David Connell’s four-string Fender
bass was never silent, as his left hand
slid quickly, smoothly, up and down
the neck of his guitar.
Mike Connell played an assort
ment of Gibson guitars, including a
Chet Atkins Gibson, which relpicated
an acoustic sound, during the song
“,74 ,75 „
“Me and David are so damn ordi
nary looking,”Connell said. “It can’t
be helped. If I tried to be any different.
it would be a joke.”
It’s no joke, however, that The
Connells, touring in their ordinary
bus, covering nearly 10,000 miles this
month, will perform with 13 Engines
on April 12 at the Omaha Ranch
Bowl.
— Jill O'Brien
Brian Curtis, lead singer and guitarist for Straw Dog, jams with bassist Michael Wells
at their concert at Duffy’s on Easter.
Straw Dog has eclectic bark
By Joel Strauch
Senior Roporter
They might be made of straw, but
it would take some mighty huffing
and puffing to blow this band in.
The three-man band Straw Dog
opened for the Sissies Sunday night,
playing to a solid crowd at Duffy’s on
Easter.
Why only three?
Straw Dog bassist Michael Wells
said, “We started out with five and
then went down to four and then three.
“We’ve found that three works the
host for us.”
Three iscnough. Straw Dogplayed
with enough vigor and intensity to
match the performance of a much
larger band. To find a name that fit
their energetic style. Straw Dog turned
to history.
“In 16th-ccntury China, straw effi
gies known as straw dogs were thrown
into the river to appease the gods,”
Wells said.
“Straw Dog was also a really vio
lent and gory movie in the’70s, which
appealed to the other guys,”sa id Wei Is,
a senior seconda™ education major at
the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
The “other guys” are guitarist/vo
calist Brian Curtis and percussionist
Scott Halverson.
Curtis, a senior sociology major at
UNL, said the band just finished re
cording a 12-track album with Seri
ous Fish Studios. The album is in the
process ofbeing mastered. Recording
the album was a great experience, he
said.
“Wc cut it in a friend’s basement,’
Curtis said. “It was very relaxed.”
Halverson, a child counselor ir
Council Bluffs, said that while the)
recorded they “ate a lot of junk foot
and drank a lot of beer.”
The band is kicking around pos
sible names for the new album.
“We’re thinking about Perigrint
and Tequila for a title, but nothing is
solid yet,” Curtis said.
Wells said the album would be ou
in early June.
With Halverson in Council Bluffs
and at least one gig a week, the bant
has some difficulty finding time U
practice.
See DOGS on 11
Story of brothers’ rivalry
told through violence, toast
theater
review
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
A wasteland of typewriter corpses
laid abused and dented beyond recog
nition. After several vicious blows
with a 9-iron, their hallowed cavities
gathered alongside a few toasters in
what resembled an appliance grave.
They are all victims of Sam
Shepard’s play, “True West,” which
will be performed at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln’s Studio Theatre
this weekend.
“True West,” directed by theater
graduate student Randall Wheatley,
digs into America’s contemporary
values, sibling rivalry and a lot of
toast.
“It is an incredible story of a rela
tionship between two brothers, al mos t
a Cain and Abel story,” he said, “with
the antagonism and sibling rivalry
two brothers feel.”
One brother, Austin (Chris
W illiford), lives al his mother’s house
and dreams of making it big in Holly
wood scrcenwriting. He is visited one
day by his brother Lee (Devon
Schumacher). Lee is a drunken drift
ing “desert rat.”
When a Hollywood agent (Dave
Landis) comes to accept Austin’s
script, Lee uses a golf game and some
sweet talk to con the agent into accept
ing his “script” instead. The roles are
; reversed and reversed again in a diz
' zying display of intensity and violent
) rage in their mother’s (Sandy Fisher)
kitchen.
“In the process of the play, an
) amazing transformation takes place
between the two brothers, and they
metamorphose and change roles,” he
said. “Essentially they lose themselves,
and they become just one big jumbled
mess of a personality that explodes.
“The play climaxes in an incred
ible explosion on stage of toast and
violence and strangulation and type
writers,” he said. “It’s as if cars had
collided on stage after the play.”
Wheatley said the play had a deeper
meaning than just brotherly love,
though.
“The story deals with our values as
Americans, our romantic mythical
notion of the West, the truth of what
the West is — a Hollywood facade.”
he said. “We want our heroes, our
violence, our danger, but we want it
on our television sets and not in our
homes.
\ his play is a microcosm 01 wnai
goes on in the world,” he said. “It’s
also comic in a dark sense.”
Schumacher said his role as the
scroungingolderbrothcr added to this
dark comedy.
“He comes home searching for
something he wasn’t able to find out
in the desert,” he said. He said the
action was what made his role enjoy
able.
“You kind of expect in a movie to
see things get broken and things get
messy, but you don’ t sec that much on
stage,” he said. “Doing violence is
always a challenge, though, because
you want to make it look real, but you
want it to be safe.”
Wheatley promises the audience
will be safe and “in and out the door
and in a bar with a sense of redemp
tion by 10” for a “classic tale ofbroth
erly love and toast.”
“True West” premieres tonight at
8 at the Studio Theatre. Additional
showings are April 8 through 10 with
2 p.m. matinees being added to the
April 9 and 10 shows. Tickets are $2
at the door.