Post-Halen Hagar touches down in Lincoln
By Gerry Beltz
Assignment Reporter
Even though Sammy Hagar can go way above 55 in
Nebraska, he’ll be slowing down long enough to stop in
Lincoln to rock the roof off Pershing Auditorium, 226
Centennial Mall South, at 8 tonight.
Supporting his latest solo release, “Marching To
Mars,” Hagar’s career spans more than two decades and
more than a dozen solo releases, including “V.O.A.,”
“Three Lock Box” and “Standing Hampton.” All
achieved platinum or multi-platinum status and brought
out two of Hagar’s signature, crowd-phasing hits “Your
Love is Driving Me Crazy” and “I Canrt Drive 55.”
Hagar also added his hard-edged vocal and instru
mental sound to several hit movie soundtracks, including
“Footloose,” “Vision Quest” and the title tracks to “Fast
Times at Ridgemont High” and “Heavy Metal.”
In 1985, Eddie Van Halen invited Hagar to take over
the front spot of Van Halen, formerly held by David Lee
Roth. With Hagar, Van Halen recorded its first No. 1
album “5150,” which featured such hits as “Why Can’t
This Be Love,” “Dreams” and “Best of Both Worlds.”
Over the 10-year tenure Hagar was with Van Halen,
all the band’s releases hit platinum or multi-platinum sta
tus, including “OU8I2,” the Grammy-winning “For
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” (featuring the smash hits
“Right Now” and “Poundcake”) and “Balance.”
Sammy Hagar left Van Halen in June 1996 and began
work on “Marching To Mars” two months after that.
Also, unlike his previous daysuf arena rock, he is lim
iting the earlier part of his current tour to smaller v^nups
that hold al>out 2,000 tof^OOO peopled r ~ : r\ > f
All seats are reserved, and tickets for the concert are
available through Pershing’s box office and all
Ticketmaster locations for $20.25. Call (402) 441-7500
for more information.
...... __ Photo courtesy ofTrack FactoryTMCA
ELEVEN YEARS AFTER his last solo album, Sammy Hagar again rocks it lone
style with his new album, “Marching To Mars.” Hagar performs tonight at
Pershing Auditorium in support of the release.
Escort services, rockers deliver goods
By Bret Schulte
Senior Reporter
Only in Nebraska does it make
perfect sense that Sammy Hagar
believes the color red is something to
sing about.
The “Red Rocker” (declared such
because of his affinity for the color)
may seem a little pink in the blood
red Husker state, which has nearly
created a civilian’s uniform from the
color.
Probably the best substitute for a
football game that can be found,
Hagar will bring his guitar and
adorably dirty hard-rock locks to
Pershing Auditorium tonight. In all
fairness, Hagar is an exceptional
good-time guy, and his show will
flash with all the glitter and fog that
ultimately defined heavy metal.
With Hagar absorbing most of the
community’s drinking population
(those who were old enough to own a
tape deck in the early ’80s), the rest of
the city is struggling for entertain
ment alternatives.
Cheerleaders Sports Bar, 5560 S.
48th St., is welcoming back sumo
wrestling after about a three-year hia
tus, said manager John Caporale.
Although it’s an ancient and respect
ed Japanese contest of weight, size
and stamina, Americans have added
their own little touches: inflatable
suits and, usually, beer. The sumo
wrestling will be offered between 4
p.m. and 7 p.m. and is sponsored by
Miller Lite. Four-dollar pitchers and
$1 “pounders” (16-ounce draughts)
are offered during the wrestling con
tests. The evening will continue with
classic rock cover band The
Wheezetones (not a reference to their
lead singer), which begins playing its
$3 show at 9 p.m. Cheerleaders is a
Lincoln hot spot for “all types of
dancing,” Caporale said. Moshing is
discouraged.
Monday’s Modem English show
at Knickerbockers, 901 O St-, may get
started a few days earlier with warm
up band Carolyn’s Mother. The
Denver alterna-pop crew has long
dodged Modem English comparisons
and instead opted for U2. (Oasis
already snatched up The Beatles).
This regionally acclaimed group
plays an entertaining and lively mix
of pop rock and headlines tonight for
local phoenix rock group Oil, resur
rected from the ashes of revered"
Lincoln group No Left Stone.
Inchoate local group China Digs will
be taking another shot at their coun
try-rock target on Saturday night,
opening for bob, who likes the
Jayhawks quite a bit and receives
quite a few comparisons to the roots
rockers. All shows this weekend are
$3 and begin at about 10 p.m.
If the prospect of dealing with
misplaced Husker fans or excited 21 -
year-olds - their fresh ID cards in tow
- isn’t enticing, there is plenty to keep
you entertained at home.
Although rarely employed by col
lege students (who usually can’t
afford to buy their dates bottled beer),
escort services are a guaranteed, but
costly, good time. However, getting
an escort can be just as difficult as
getting that snotty English major girl
in class - most calls sent to escort ser
vices went to either voice mail or
empty lines. Fortunately, a (brief)
response was received from A Class
Act: $155 an hour, and only females
are offered. Other inquiries were
ignored or rejected, but at $155 an
hour, you’d better get a lot of atten
tion. „
One false shot landed at A+
Nightlife Entertainment, which the
owner quickly clarified was not an
agency for “strippers or escorts.”
Although he gets those calls (usually
after midnight) more often than not,
owner Mike Kaiser is making a clean
living providing a disc jockey ser
vice. He says A+ Entertainment pro
vides music for house parties, recep
tions and fraternities. Although his
schedule his busy, Kaiser says He has
slots open this weekend for anybody
interested in having a party.
He says his equipment is all top of
the line, including several disco balls,
mirror balls, fog machines and,
recently, an aural (mispronounced
“oral”) exciter.
Although it sounds like an appli
ance, Kaiser says it is a complex elec
tronic system to control and tighten
the stereo’s subwoofers. Kaiser said
parties get violent sometimes - but
not because of the music.
“I’ve seen a groom punch out his
groomsman one time,” he said.
“(Friends of the couple) want every
body there to know ‘I’m their best
friend’ or ‘I put them together.’ They
all get jealous of that.”
By Patrick Miner
Music Critic
With Spice Girls, Hanson and
Metallica coming out with new
records and videos to catch the holi
day buck, it’s only logical Rage
Against The Machine would come
out with a video, “Rage Against The
Machine: Home Video,” of its own
Nov. 25, just before the Christmas
shopping season begins. Hey, we all
have to sell out a little.
But Rage Against The Machine,
as nonconformist as it is, proves to
stay away from the norm of compila
tion videos. There are no interview
or backstage fillers here, only non
stop live and music videos fill the
entire 78 minutes. A CD single fea
turing a studio version of “The Ghost
of Tom Joad” will be packaged with
the compilation video as well.
The video kicks of with “Joad,” a
remake of the Bruce Springsteen hit.
Filmed at the band’s September per
formance in Irvine, Calif., the song
is one of the more subtly inspiring
songs here. The verses are intensely
spoken by lead singer Zack De La
Rocha, and a jam session features
bassist Tim Bob and guitarist Tom
Morello.
The band then flows right into
“Vietnow,” from its second release,
“Evil Empire.” The concert footage
from then on blends songs from the
bands first two albums. “People of
the Sun,” “Bulls On Parade” and
“Bullet In The Head” and the slower
B-side “Zapata’s Blood” are filmed
in front of 50,000 people at the ’96
Rock Am Ring Festival in Germany.
The ever spectacular “Kitting In The
Name” is shown live from the ’94
Pink Pop Festival in the Netherlands.
The best portion of these live
songs is the triplet of “Know Your
Enemy,” “Bombtrack” and “Tire
Me.” Filmed at the ’96 Reading
Festival in England, Morello sported
a 102-degree fever, yet disguised the
problem by playing guitar with his
usual, but exceptional, dramatics in
front of 60,000 of his closest friends.
The crowd singing along to “Know
Your Enemy” and “Bombtrack”
instantly grabs your attention, and
De La Rocha’s schizophrenic vocals
in “Tire Me” are a sight to see.
The second half of the compila- ^
tion is video clips "Of six Rage
Against the Machinetracks. The seg
ment begins with the uncensored
version of “Killing In The Name,”
directed by Peter Gideon. Using
Please see RAGE on 14 ^
