Tuesday, October 28,1997_ Page 9
11
V
Power pop
trio plays
Lincoln
By Sean McCarthy
Assignment Reporter
When guitarist Jon Ginoli misheard
a newscast six years ago, a band name
was bom,,«. _ i£4
t Chriy^inaii,rieaa5#^r'ifai
bassist of the power pop band Pansy
Division, said Ginoli was watching
footage of the Gulf War when he heard
“Panzer Division.” The Panzer Division
was a German army unit in WWII.
“Jon misread it, but we thought it
would be a really cool name for a band,”
Freeman said.
Tonight, Pansy Division will play at
Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O St, along with
Fagatron and Chris Becerra.
Ginoli and Freeman met up in 1991
after Ginoli placed an ad in the San
Francisco Weekly looking for “queer
musicians into Ramones, Buzzcocks
and early Beatles.”
Pansy Division was signed to
Lookout! records and released its first
album, “Undressed,” in 1993. The band
quickly madeaname for itselfonLockout!
Within a year, it opened for Lookout! ’s
most famous band, Green Day.
“Opening for Green Day was a great
experience for us,” Freeman said. “We
thought we did a good job.”
However, not all was well during the
Green Day tour. Most of the people in
foe audience looked like Guns N’ Roses
fans with haircuts, Freeman said. Still,
Pansy Division managed to win some
fans over.
“We were watching a certain num
ber of people flip us off and a smaller
number of people flipping them off,”
Freeman said.
Playing in an arena was a childhood
dream for Freeman. However, foe lack
+ n ■
PANSY DIVISION (from left, Chris Freeman, Jon Ginoli and Luis) plays Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 0 St., tonight witliFagatron and^hSlecerra^ PANSY Bmsm
___. f fll-ljr I
of intimacy did affect the way the band
performed.
“The first person in font of you is
20 feet away,” Freeman said.
Ontheroad
Pansy Division has played more
than 500 shows and toured in 11 coun
tries since they formed in 1991.
Australia, Spain, Italy and England
were some of the more receptive coun
tries. Amsterdam was memorable just
because die band got to sample some of
die hash bars there, Freeman said.
Perhaps the strangest experiences
the band encountered were when it
toured die Czech Republic, he said. Just
outside of a small town in the republic,
the band was pulled over by the police
and ordered to pay a fine on the spot
The troubles didn’t stop there,
though. When they finally got to per
forming, they were surrounded by some
very intimidating Ians.
“We thought we were going to get
tom apart,” Freeman said.
By die time they played their fifth
song, the band wound up stripping.
Soon after; the audience members start
ed stripping to their skivvies. Freeman
said not to expect a repeat performance
of the one-time strip act for this tour. -
“I told our performance manager
that was soooo last year. We’re over that
gimmick,” Freeman said.
Aside from vowing to keep its
clothes on, Pansy Division underwent
some other changes earlier this year.
Patrick Goodwin was hired as a second
guitarist and the band also hired Luis,
the new drummer.
“It feels like a completely different
band,” Freeman said. “It feels like some
thing we can go forward with.”
Are you curious?
Pansy Division released “More Lovin’
From On-Oven” in August The album is
a semiretrospective look at the bandk six
year history. The album includes some rare
songs as well as new material.
Some of the songs were recorded
with producer Steve Albini, who pro
duced PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me” and
Nirvana’s “In Utero.”
“The guy’s a recording genius,”
Freeman said. “He’s great with micro
phones.”
The band is expected to record with
Albini and release a new album in
January.
Until then, the band plans to tour
through December. Tuesday marks the
second time the band has played at
- *
Duffy’s. The first time was in summer
1995.
“We got a decent turnout then; we’ll
see if it improves this time,” Freeman
said
Though Pansy Division sings about
homosexual experiences, Freeman said
he did not want the band to be known as
gay activists.
“We’re (for) human rights, not gay
rights,” Freeman said.
Freeman said that curiosity was an
element that brought in fans to see
Pansy Division’s live shows. Playing in
smaller venues does have setbacks
though, Freeman said.
“Some audiences in a bar are very
apathetic; they don’t move,” Freeman
said. “We want to get a rise out of peo
ple.”
Tonight’s show starts at 9:30 and
costs $4.
battaca lacks gene for entertainment
By Gerry Beltz
Film Critic
To call “Gattaca” boring would be
akin to calling the recent weather
“annoying”
In the tradition of films such as
“THX-1138” and “Logan’s Run,”
“Gattaca” sets up a futuristic society
where people can be genetically engi
neered, shaped and formed in any
way their parents desire. The choices
range from gender and eye color to
tfie ability to erase all feelings of
racism and inequality.
(Apparently, this also means that
perfect people have no emotion what
soever, because I’ve been served fish
dinners that had more personality
than these people did.)
But Vincent Freeman (Ethan
Hawke) wasn’t born through this
process, and it shows. His physique is
less than ideal, his vision is pathetic
and he has a heart condition; all add
up to his being labeled “In-Valid” -
these genetic letdowns are destined to
be stuck with jobs such as janitors,
police officers and student loan col
lectors.
However, Vincent has great spirit,
and he wants to achieve his dream of
traveling in the stars. He works
through less-than-legal channels and
obtains a partnership with Eugene
(Jude Law), a “Valid” who has been
crippled because of an accident, but is
willing to sell his genetic material to
Vincent to help him achieve his goal.
The ruse does work. Vincent pass
es his “interview” (i.e., a urine test) at
Gattaca, a space control cenfSr, and
thus comes closer and closer to flying
amid the stars. Along with this, he
starts a relationship with Irene (Uma
Thurman), whose minor heart defect
will keep her from space travel.
However, the requisite cinematic
monkey wrench is thrown in when a
brutal murder is committed at
Gattaca, and one of Vincent’s eye
lashes is picked up at the murder
scene.
Naturally, Vincent has nothing to
do with the crime, but as the eyelash
is identified as belonging to an “In
Valid,” the wheels of justice are swift
Please see GATTACA on 10