Tur Dim .„u. ... _ _ . . . . . . Photo courtesy op Zoo Bar
THE BUZZ will perfanB at the Zoo Bar taaiffct la a 21 -aad-aver slww.
encompasses more
By Ann Stack
Senior Reporter
There’s an alternative to everything these
days, and the blues don’t seem to be an excep
tion.
And while there is always something to be
said for tradition, injecting something new to
the blues genre can prove to be worthwhile.
That’s where The Buzz comes in.
The Buzz, a Chicago-based blues band with
a twist, will be at the Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St.,
tonight.
Frank Blinkal, singer and lead guitarist, de
scribes his band as “James Brown meets the
Black Crowes meets The Paladins with a David
Bowie twist.”
Come again?
“We’ll do some blues, then maybe an old
school rockabilly, then the Beatles,” he said.
The Buzz came together three years ago
when three of the members — Blinkal, bassist
Chris Bernhardt and drummer Jon Hanrahan—
started playing Monday jam nights at Buddy
Guy’s club, Legends, in Chicago. They started
backing a female blues singer, doing straight
ahead blues. They eventually became the Mon
day night host band, jamming with blues musi
cians like Guy and Otis Rush.
“They’d hear us play this straight-ahead
blues, and they’d tell us, ‘That’s great, but with
your youth and energy, you need to be doing
something else,”’ Blinkal said. “That’s some
thing we’d been wanting to do anyway.”
They added horn and keyboard player Jay
Moynihan, and gave up the Monday jam ses
sions, so “people wouldn’t think we were just a
blues band,” he said.
“Legends was always really cool about not
curtailing our music just to appease sane 50
year-old tourist.”
Blinkal can see the parallel one might draw
between today’s insurgent movements combin
ing rock music with other genres, like country
or R&B, to what The Buzz does.
“That’s kind of like what we’re about,” he
said. “They play traditional stuff that shows their
roots, that shows they’re students of the music,
but then they put a twist on it and make it differ
ent.”
The Buzz deGnitely know their music. As
well as getting their training in the blues clubs
of Chicago, two of the members received music
—~ - '
Please see BUZZ on 10
Vegas Vacation’
revisits old high jinks
Br Bret Schulte
Film Critic
Another breakthrough in food
preservatives leads to another va
cation get-away for America’s most
gleefully unfortunate family, the
Griswolds.
Once again Chevy Chase is the
overly zealous, mostly faithful fam
ily man, Clark Griswold, accompa
nied by his patient and loyal bomb
shell, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo).
Clark rallies the reluctant fam
- ily, who, in the Lampoon tradition,
feature a new (and improved) Rusty
and Audrey, played by Ethan Embry
(“Empire Records,” “That Tiling
You Do”) and Mari sol Nichols.
Any possible high jinks that may
have occurred on their minivan ex
cursion are glossed over and the
film abruptly begins in the sex-and
neon-illuminated downtown of Las
Vegas.
The Griswolds quickly become
ensnared by the trappings of Las
. .1 . ,i. ■. ^ .
Stars: Chevy Chase, Beverly
D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Ethan Embry,
Mari sol Nichols, Wayne Newton
Director: Stephan Kessler
Rating: PG (language)
Grade: B
Five words: Griswolds plus Vegas
equals gamble
Vegas: Clark loses a small fortune
to a particularly menacing near
midget blackjack dealer (Wallace
Shawn of “The Princess Bride”);
Ellen becomes enamored with the
ever-enticing Wayne Newton, who
attempts to win her affections
through plenty of chest hair and
pasta; Rusty turns into a major Ve
gas player while Audrey ends up
dancing in a cage.
Appearing again as Cousin
Eddie, Randy Quaid provided most
Please see VEGAS on 10
Photo courtesy op Warner Bros.
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Theatrix cast
opens season
in fine fashion
By Liza Holtmeier
Theatre Critic
Audiences to the opening of the
Theatrix season saw two features con
trasting in both tone and style.
The first feature, directed by
Heather Currie, consisted of three se
lections by David Ives. Though
flubbed lines slowed the pace of the
play, the chemistry of the cast held the
show together.
Patty Dillon vacillated humorously
between flirtation and indignation in
“Sure Thing.” But her counterpart,
Mike Zaller, seemed to pass over and
rush through lines, ignoring their comic
implications.
The couples in “Foreplay, or the Art
of the Fugue” were expertly matched.
Zaller heightened his energy level for
the role of the seducing Chuck, and
Please see THEATRIX on 10
