The Week
iiiiMiNi
Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O St
Wednesday: Gaunt
Thursday: Live karaoke with
Shithook
Duggan’s Pub,440 S. 11th St
Monday: open stage with
Dangerous Dan
Tuesday: ACE
Wednesday: Julius and the Eye
of the Storm
Thursday-Friday: Nine Live
Cats
Knickerbockers, 901 O St
Tuesday: (19 and over show)
Flick and Cadmium
Wednesday: (19 and over show)
China Digs and Brown Paper
Bags
Friday: (19 and over show) The
Bishops and Eighth Wave
Saturday: Floating Opera, Sara
Kavanda and Black Dahilias
Unitarian Church,6300A St
Saturday: Third Chair Chamber
Players present “Octet, Septet
Schleptet,” a performance fea
hiring the works of Schubert,
Glinka and P.D.Q. Bach
The Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St
Monday: C.A. Waller
Tuesday: open stage
Wednesday: Natty Nation
Thursday: Blue House (CD
release party )
Friday and Saturday: Little Ed
and the Blues Imperials
THEATER
Howell Theatre,
Temple Building,
12th and R streets
Thursday-Saturday: “Look
Back in Anger” opens Thursday
night with a student preview
and continues Friday, Saturday
and Feb. 26-28
Lied Center for
Performing Arts,
12th & R streets
Friday: Hubbard Street Dance
Chicago, modem dance
Lincoln Community
Playhouse,
2500 S. 56th St.
Thursday-Sunday:'The
Playhouse Children’s Theatre
presents “A Wrinkle in Time”
starting this week and continu
ing into March
The Week in Preview runs
Mondays in the Daily Nebraskan
and is compiled by members of the
arts and entertainment staff Send
all listings to The Week in Preview'
c/o Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska
Union 34, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE
68588-0448.
-pm ~|
‘Underwater’ surfaces in Omaha
■ The current tour is in
support of the album, ‘Life
in the So-Called Space Age.’
By Jason Hardy
Assignment Reporter
Tonight in Omaha, hardware
generated music fans will have the
chance to experience “Life In The
So-Called Space Age” as God Lives
Underwater surfaces for a perfor
mance on the Ranch Bowl’s stage.
The band is touring in support
of its upcoming release which is set
to hit the stores on March 24.
Jeff Turzo, musician for the
group, said “Life In The So-Called
Space Age” was recorded entirely
in his bedroom. To some that may
sound a bit unusual, but to Turzo
and the rest of the group, it was
nothing new.
“We’ve just always recorded at
home. It’s just the way we always
wanted to work,” Turzo said. “It’s
more comfortable that way.”
Turzo said recording at home
gave the group a unique “lo-fi”
sound that set it apart from other
studio-based groups.
“There are benefits to the sound
you get at home. It’s a little more
unique,” Turzo said. “Most bands
record in a studio, so doing it at
home automatically separates you
from that.”
While God Lives Underwater
has traditionally been associated
with the techno musical genre,
vocalist David Reilly said he saw
hardware-generated music as
“another level of music altogether.”
He said the new album further
blurred the lines between musical
genres with its unique sound.
“There are still guitars on this
record, but not like on our other
albums,” Reilly said.
Turzo said the album’s sound
was so unique that rather than try
ing to reproduce it on stage, God
Lives Underwater lets the music set
the tone of the performance.
“We don’t try to do the show
exactly like the album,” Turzo said.
“There’s a different energy than on
the record; it’s louder and harder.
That’s just the way we like to do it
live.”
He said the band usually
stripped down its sound a little for
live shows but that the context of
the music remained true.
“Some of the music actually
gains something by the way we do it
live,” Turzo said.
After a year without touring,
Turzo said he was anxious to get
back on the road and to get back to
Nebraska.
“We’re excited to play the
Ranch Bowl; it’s always been a
highlight,” Turzo said. “Omaha was
one of the first cities to sort of
embrace us, so it’s always been
really cool.”
The Ranch Bowl is located at
1600 S. 72 St., and the show starts
at 9 p.m. Tickets are $11.
Courtesy Photo
GOD LIVES UNDERWATER will make a stop in Omaha tonight at the Ranch
Bowl. The band’s lineup is Jeff Turzo (left) and David Reilly.
Sandler soulful in sentimental film
- —--- ‘•'J'1 •rJ"’ ‘ IJiMBMlTlrili'"i ' ""J"L‘ I ' r
By Jeff Randall
Film Critic
Ever since Adam Sandler first
graced America’s televisions on
“Saturday Night Live,” he has held a
dual place in his viewers’ hearts.
Scholars and critics have lambasted
him for his lowbrow approach to come
dy while masses of fans have applauded
him for the same.
Films such as “Billy Madison" and
“Happy Gilmore” furthered this theory,
simultaneously raking in big money and
bad reviews.
But with “The Wedding Singer,”
Sandler’s newest star vehicle, it appears
that the man-child is beginning to
mature into a comedy force.
The film stars Sandler as Robby
Hart, a wannabe rock star who makes a
living as a wedding singer in small-town
America, circa 1985. As the story
begins, he is the happy-go-lucky sort,
readying himself for an impending mar
riage and entertaining happy couples.
But when his would-be bride aban
dons him at the altar, his performances
lose their charismatic gleam and
become bile-filled rants on love.
Suffice to say, he soon loses his job.
He also finds himself falling in love
with Julia (Drew Barrymore), a wait
ress who enlists his help in planning her
wedding. The rest of the film follows
their relationship from co-workers to
much more.
Sandler shines, as usual. Watching
his character move from a puppy-eyed
fool for love to a man scorned and back
is not only fimny, but touching.
Barrymore complements Sandler
nicely, lending her own sense of humor
to many scenes.
But “The Wedding Singer”
becomes much more than a typical love
story, it becomes an homage to the ’80s.
Courtesy Photo
ADAM SANDLER plays a struggling musician who ekes out a living by per
forming at weddings in the new comedy “The Wedding Singer.”
The Facts
Title: “The Wedding Singer”
Stars: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore
Director: Frank Coraci
Rating: PG-13
Grade: B
Five Words: Sandler grows up... a little
Filled with obvious pop culture refer
ences, it works as a parody and an
appreciation of the decade that spawned
Sandler’s biggest fans.
“The Wedding Singer” still contains
many of the crotch jokes and obscenity
filled rants that made Sandler a star, but
it also contains enough heart and senti
ment to make him a critical success, too.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Various Artists
“The Wedding Singer” Motion
Picture Soundtrack
MaverickAVarner Bros.
Grade: B+
The decade may have ended only
eight years ago, and nostalgia for the
1980s is not only a well-established
phenomenon, but an increasingly
polished art form.
Dozens, nay, hundreds of
“Totally ’80s” compilations and their
ilk have flooded the music market,
and most of them feature the same
tired new wave hipsters and their
equally tired tunes. And most of the
producers of these compilations have
failed to realize that the ’80s were not
defined by “Tainted Love” alone.
Adam Sandler is no such produc
er.
For the soundtrack to his new
film “The Wedding Singer,” Sandler
and executive soundtrack producer
Guy Qseary have managed to make
an ’SOs-saturated soundtrack that
touches on only the occasional tried
and-true hit.
As only two music lovers who
were reared in the ’80s could,
Sandler and Oseary scavenge that
decade’s music for all it’s worth.
They grab relatively obscure
tracks such as The Smiths’ “How
Soon is Now?” and New Order’s
“Blue Monday” and place them
alongside bigger-name hits such as
“Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”
and “White Wedding” by compila
tion staples Culture Club and Billy
Idol.
Tossing in “Everyday I Write the
Book” by Elvis Costello and David
Bowie’s “China Girl” didn’t hurt,
either.
The soundtrack’s original - using
that term’s loosest definition - mate
rial includes a cover of “Video Killed
the Radio Star” by now-defunct joke
band The Presidents of the United
States of America and a karaoke
type mix of the Sugar Hill Gang's
“Rapper’s Delight” by senior citizen
extraordinaire Ellen Dow.
Adam Sandler’s only audible
contribution to the soundtrack comes
in the form of “Somebody Kill Me,”
a mildly amusing angst-filled tune
that would have sounded more fitting
on one of Sandler’s comedy albums.
Overall, the soundtrack to “The
Wedding Singer” proves that ’80s
nostalgia may be tired, but it doesn’t
have to be redundant. And in a few
years, we can all get ready for ’90s
nostalgia. Woo-hoo.
- Jeff Randall
