Pearl Jam
“Live: On Two Legs”
Epic Records
Grade: B+
Before a version of “Daughter” on
Pearl Jam’s first official live album,
“Live: On Two Legs,” vocalist Eddie
Vedder explains, “We’re making up for
lost time here.” There probably isn’t a
better way to sum up 1998 for Pearl Jam.
Unfortunately for its fans, the act
rarely toured, leaving only the relatively
weak follow-up albums “Vitalogy” and
“No Code” to experience.
However, this year, Pearl Jam
released its best album since “Vs.” with
the new studio album “Yield.” The band
also conducted a thorough tour of the
United States, released a music video
for “Do the Evolution” and also
released a home video titled “Single
Video Theory.”
To cap off such a turnaround, Pearl
Jam is releasing “Live: On Two Legs,”
which captures some of the best
moments from the band’s summer tour.
The album also serves as a glance into
some of the band’s greatest hits, includ
ing such tracks as “Better Man,” “Even
Flow,” “Given to Fly” and the rather
uplifting “Black.”
Die-hard fans will flock to hear the
sound quality of the album, with its
stereo acoustics and subdued Crowd
noise. However, casual fans will note
that “No Code’s” three best songs,
“Hail, Hail,” “Red Mosquito” and “Of!
He Goes” are here, so owning that
" album is now not even necessary.
To give committed fans with time
on their hands something to do, the band
is leaving it up to its following to figure
out which shows the songs are from,
rather than just including the informa
tion in the liner notes.
That won’t be an easy task, though.
Other than “Daughter,” which changes
from show to show, Vedder’s vocals on
most songs are almost wail-for-wail
identical to the album versions.
Instead, much of the improvisation
. and the most captivated parts of die
record are courtesy of guitarists Mike
McCready and Stone Gossard, who
work wonders on “Corduroy,” “Black,”
“Even Flow,” and a cover of the Neil
Young song, “F**kin’ Up.”
The result of mixing the guitarists’
musicianship and Vedder’s throaty
voice bring forth a very rounded sound
that works well throughout, from the
lively anthems to the slow ballads.
-Patrick Miner
Fortishead
“PNYC”
GoBeat!
Grade: B+
As a rite of passage, the live album
is pretty standard fare for the traditional
rock’n’roll band.
After three albums - maybe four -
most bands feel obligated either by their
record label or their overinflated egos to
release a “chronicle” of their “leg
endary” live shows.
Portishead is no such band.
After two starkly beautiful albums
and a virtually nonexistent live reputa
tion, this straight-outta-Bristol group
has dropped “PNYC” on an unsuspect
ing record-buying public.
Its studio albums sound like the
aural equivalents of film noir, filled
with reverb guitars, spooky echoes and
the frail, passionate voice of vocalist
Beth Gibbons. Programmer Geoff
Barrow stands in the background, creat
ing the mixed rhythm and mood for
these songs.
And, along with Massive Attack,
Portishead is considered one of the fore
most practitioners of that ill-labeled
sub-genre of sub-genres - trip-hop.
Methodical, airy and electronic are the
adjectives that spring to mind.
So, as one might expect, studio
work would outweigh live performance
in Portishead’s repertoire.
Well, bite your tongue.
An atypical band with an atypical
sound, Portishead has released a live
album recorded under atypical circum
stances. t .
“PNYC” documents the first per
formance of last year’s world tour, a
one-night-only performance at the
Rose land Ballroom in New York.
Amid a crowd of close friends, fam
ily and selected fans, Portishead per
formed songs from both of its albums
with the assistance of orchestral
arrangements. The result is a beautiful
recording of songs that have never
sounded the same.
The addition of traditional instru
ments fleshes out songs such as
“Cowboys,” “Mysterons,” “Only You”
and “Glory Box” in amazing ways.
By the time the set ends with
“Strangers,” it’s obvious that throwing
Portishead into the pile of anti-musi
cians who often work in the electronic
music community is a great injustice.
In this setting, Barrow and Gibbons’
songs sound more like the modernist
experimentalism of Phillip Glass and
the Kronos Quartet than the beeps,
whistles aid bass of their genre peers.
And, on top of it all, they’ve never
sounded better.
—Jeff Randall
Folk singer makes hope-filled return to Lincoln
McCLAIN from page 9
One wore overalls every day - with no
shoes. .• A
McClain laughed about his lack of
shoes and his careful, backwoods
demeanor. She loved it The unrepen
tant hippie still remembers the hip-hug
ger jeans and leather fringe she wore to
school in seventh grade.
“Well, nobody did that - not in sev
enth grade,” she said. “The only kids
that dressed that way were the 10 really
bad kids in 10th grade. Within a couple
weeks, I was in the school office. The
principle asked me if I was on drugs or
selling drugs.”
She wasn’t. At that time, she had
owned her guitar for* a year, and she
played with the dream of being
Suzanne in the like-titled Judy Collins
tune or any other woman who sang on
record, stage or in film.
“The movie ‘Mary Popp ins,’ I
wanted to be Julie Andrews,” McClain
recalled with a soft smile.
In her teens, she was a loud and ner
vous kid who lived through the music
of Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel
and two brilliant singer/songwriters
who became mainstays of her inspira
tion: Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.
In accordance with the tormented
musician legend, McClain dropped out
of high school at age 16, immediately
got her G.E.D. and went to work. She
also played at open-mic nights in down
town Lincoln. Later, she got gigs at
what was the Town and Country
Hotel’s Freedom Lounge on
Cornhusker Highway. She waited
tables atTico’s on 16th Street.
Before she was old enough to get
in, she sneakedinto the Zoo Bar to lis
ten to the music. She and her third hus
band, a local guitarist, would later play
there often.
At 21, she entered the first of three
failed marriages, interlaced with failed
careers and personal tragedy.
At 38, Nashville was a beacon
offering a fresh start.
“I thought, life is short. What do
you really want to do with your life?
And I wanted to move there.”
So McClain left what she deemed
“26 years of failure” in Lincoln, and she
left for Nashville. A friend chucked
McClain’s belongings in a truck and
followed behind her; she carried the
precious cargo: her daughters.
“It’s given me a chance to be
myself,” McClain said. “I felt haunted
by a lot of memories here (in Lincoln).
I don’t think you really have to leave
places to get your life open. But it’s just
realty artistically satisfying to do this.”
Regardless of why she left and what
she survived in Lincoln, McClain
chose to return to Lincoln for her CD
release because she still considers it her
home. .
Sunday night, she flipped through
the square, glossy pages of her CD
booklet, and she pointed out an old pic
ture taken in Lincoln of her grandmoth
er, then a child sitting in a cart drawn
through the snow by a long-haired goat.
Before the concert Sunday,
McClain will take time to greet her
audience and thank those who support
ed her in Lincoln, including her parents
and family members who still live
here.
Then all of her music, even the sad
songs, will give the audience hope -
the same intense hope she felt the night
she clung to her daughter while her car
flipped into the dark Tennessee coun
tryside.
“A lot of songs you hear are kind of
hopeless. I didn’t want to express being
a victim or jaded unless there’s some
hope there. All my songs, I think, have
hope.
“People need hope right now.”
Tonight’s all-ages show begins at 8.
After 9 p.m., minors must be accompa
nied by parents or a legal guardian. All
ages at McClain’s concert are welcome
free of charge.
For a copy of the CD, send $16.50
to Kindred Voices Music, P.O. Box
23963, Nashville, Tenn., 37202-3963.
425 University Terrace
(Behind Pound Dorm)
436-7177
Be Impacted by God's Word
Worship with Live Music
• Develop Meaningful Friendships
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Admission Only
$10 per couple
Don & Polly will be your dance instructors
from 6:30 - 7:30.
Dance to the Big Band Sound from
7:30-10:30 pm .
Phase IV and More Swinging Gently
Sunday November 22nd Sunday, December 6
_SWING IS THE TH/NG!
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