made the way
you like it
Big band group
invites audience
to join in during
shows at Runza
By Liza Holtmeier
Staff writer
If you’ve ever desired to play in a big jazz band,
now is your chance.
The Monday Night Big Band, which performs
every Monday evening above Rock ‘n Roll Runza,
invites local musicians to play with the band during
its performances.
“Lincoln doesn’t have a lot to offer jazz musi
cians, or even musicians in general,” said Cory
Biggerstaff, one of the Monday Night Big Band’s
bass players. “This allows people to learn who you
are and what you play.”
The Monday Night Big Band consists of 200
musicians, professional and amateur, who perform
on a rotating basis. Each week, 17 of the musicians
gather at the Top of the Rock Banquet Facility to
play an evening of mixed jazz.
“Since we started a year and a half ago, we’ve
never had the same band up there twice,” said Bob
Krueger, one of the founding members.
The constantly changing lineup creates an
atmosphere of experimentation and spontaneity
conducive to sit-in musicians.
Each Monday, the band plays three sets, allow
ing audience members to sit in during the second
and third sets.
Since the band does not rehearse outside of the
performances, the musicians rely completely on
their sight-reading skills. This allows audience
members to jump in on whatever the band is playing.
“There’s no sense of fear of messing up, because
we all will,” Biggerstaff said. “It actually promotes a
higher level of playing and makes us better musi
cians.”
Jarred Wilhelm, a Lincoln Southeast senior,
attended the Sept. 28 performance to sit in with the
band on trumpet.
He said playing with high-caliber musicians
helped him define which areas of his playing need
ed improvement.
Because Wilhelm plans to major in music at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln next fall, he said,
the performances also offered him the chance to
make valuable connections with other musicians in
Lincoln.
“It gives the musicians a chance to play ...
together,” said Dean Haist, another founding mem
ber. “It’s not necessarily geared to make the audi
ence happy, but we hope they enjoy it.”
Donna Hill, one of the band’s sponsors and a
regular audience member, said the mixture of faces
is the band’s greatest asset.
“What’s fun is that you’ll see the faces and think,
‘Oh, I don’t know about tonight.’ But they always
surprise you,” Hill said. “It’s always different. That’s
part of what we like about it.”
The Monday Night Big Band performed at the
Ramada Plaza Hotel, 141 N. Ninth St., before mov
ing its shows to the facility above Rock ‘n Roll
Runza, at the comer of 14th and P streets, this year.
“We hope to draw a different audience,” said
Jason Keagy, assistant director of Arts Incorporated,
which manages the Monday Night Big Band. “We
hope the proximity to campus will make it easier for
college students to attend.”
Not only is the location closer to campus, it also
has better acoustics, a better atmosphere and a view
of downtown Lincoln, Biggerstaff said.
“In the basement of the Ramada, it seemed like
we were playing in a cave,” he said.
So far, Haist said, audiences have responded
favorably to the new space. Average attendance for
the first three weeks hovered around 75 per night.
The Monday Night Big Band is actually the first
regularly performing version of an ensemble that
has existed in various forms over the last 10 years.
Musicians had attempted similar feats in the past,
but it wasn’t until Haist and Krueger joined forces
with Brad Obbink, Dave Sharp and Scott Vicroy in
1997 that a more permanent group was bom.
The five shared the responsibility of organizing
the weekly event until Sharp moved to Iowa. Now,
the four remaining founders arrange the lineup of
musicians and establish a rotating series of directors.
The Monday Night Big Band performs every
Monday night at the Top of the Rock Banquet
Facility from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is $4
for adults and $3 for students with valid ID. For
more information, call Arts Incorporated (402) 477
8008.
Nikki Fox/DN
GENE SMITH (left), a professor of saxophone and the Monday Night Big Band’s leader, plays “Out
of Nowhere” with David Pearson, a sax instructor at Dietze Music, on Monday evening on the sec
ond level of Rock ’n Roll Runza, 14th and P streets. Andy Garbacz (from top left), Andy Strain and
Chris Wigda are three of the four trombone players.
--—-------I
Plains paintings lead to new horizons
By Sarah Baker
Senior staff writer
A little piece of the open plains
is now indoors with the opening of
“River Roads” at the Burkholder
Project today.
“River Roads,” the newest
installment of oil and watercolor
paintings by local artist Ann
Burkholder, is an extension of her
collection of “Prairie Horizons”
paintings.
As the name of the show
implies, the paintings are all of
roads leading down to rivers.
She said all the roads are real,
and most weave through the
Nebraska plains.
“I have always been fascinated
with roads that run down along
rivers,” she said. “This show is
more focused on that theme, but
still an extension of my other show”
Burkholder said the main piece
is one that shows a portrayal of a
road near the Platte River in eastern
Nebraska.
Nebraskans will be able to relate
to this show because they are sur
rounded by images just like those in
the exhibit, Burkholder said.
“People who were raised with
wide-open land spaces are going to
relate to this,” she said.
“The wide-open landscapes and
big skies are what the paintings are
all about.”
Burkholder’s project is one of
two exhibits opening at the gallery;
the second being “A New Venue,”
which consists of hand-made jewel
ry sculpted by Nancy Childs.
The collection, which consists
mostly of necklaces,, bracelets and
earrings, encompasses a variety of
jewelry-making techniques, includ
ing opaque and transparent clays
and metal.
Art Courtesy of Burkholder Project
ANNE BURKHOLDER, designer and developer of the Burkholder Project in
the Haymarket, opens her new exhibit, “Prairie Horizons,” Thursday. The
exhibit captures the silent beauty of Nebraska’s thoroughfares and plains.
Both shows will run at the shows Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Burkholder Project, 719 P St., from For more information, call the
Oct. 1 through the end of the month. Burkholder Project at (402) 477
There is a reception for the 3305.
MUDHOp
Mudhoney
“Tomorrow Hit Today”
Reprise
Grade: B
It’s been three years since the
fuzzed-up grunge rock outfit
Mudhoney released an album of woes
and self pity, but it’s finally back.
Though you probably thought this
group was dead, Mudhoney has
climbed through the debris that was
once known as Seattle grunge and
offered up another wall of depression,
redemption and a whole bunch of wah
wah guitar leads.
The title of Mudhoney’s latest
release, “Tomorrow Hit Today,” is a
direct reference to “When Tomorrow
Hits,” a song off of its first self-titled
album. After six albums, and 10 years,
the band must have awoken and wham
mo, tomorrow hit, and it hit hard.
The music of “Tomorrow Hit
Today” proves it is possible for a band
to move on without losing its roots. The
sound is still grainy and rough, but there
are more intricate melodies at work,
and it sounds as though each musician
has matured. It’s a quality offering that
ranges from heavy, dragging bluesy
ballads to a few up-tempo rockers.
“Oblivion” and “Ghosf’ are proba
bly the album’s best tunes. “Oblivion”
combines some of drummer Dan
Peters’ best work with a catchy wah
wah chorus melody. The lyrics paint a
depressing picture of society, driving
home Mudhoney’s continuing message
that everything is not OK. The song’s
music works well with singer Mark
Arm’s zombie-like chanting chorus of
“Oblivion - Oblivion - Oblivion.”
“Ghost” is rife with traditional
1950s rock ’n’ roll elements and
includes a loud and steady bass line
with a catchy power chord chorus that
will stick with you until your next wel
fare check arrives.
Aside from “Ghost” and
“Oblivion,” there really aren’t many up
tempo tunes on “Tomorrow Hit Today.”
Many of the songs have a slow feel that
combines a lot of little guitar ditties and
vocals that spill out like a beer gut.
“Move With the Wind” is a hol
lowed and ominous love song that spins
with emotion before slowly marching
on through broken-up, reverbed guitar
parts.
As a whole, the album is a good
offering from a band with a sound as
unique as Mudhoney’s. The music is
definitely going in a new direction
while still retaining the elements that
have drawn people to Mudhoney in the
past. The only problem is that Mark
Arm’s vocals don’t seem to be evolving
in the same direction as the group’s
music, and at times they seem out of
place.
Arm doesn’t sound as natural as he
did on “Superfuzz Bigmuff” or “Every
Good Boy Deserves Fudge,” and the
album would have sounded better had
the vocals been softer and more inter
twined with the music rather than loud
and up-front.
Despite the vocal aspects of the
“Tomorrow Hit Today” and the lack of
anthems like “In ‘N’ Out of Grace,”
“Hate the Police” or “Suck You Dry,”
this album is still a very good offering,
and is much better than their 1995
release, “My Brother the Cow.”
- Jason Hardy