Iowa’s
Band
Rock group hails
small-town roots
By Christopher Heine
Staff writer
Thirteen years ago, Barb Schilf of the House of
Large Sizes stood still and tight on stage with her
bass guitar.
People who have gone through the early
processes of learning bass understand looking and
feeling like an amateur surgeon trying hard not to
cut into the wrong notes or chords.
Schilf couldn’t even permit herself to watch
her husband, Dave Deibler, jumping on the tips of
his toes freely, looking like a blonde kangaroo.
“I had to concentrate pretty hard at first,” Schilf
said.
But it wasn’t long before she was po-going in
unison alongside Deibler. She created possibly the
most innocent and joyous performance visual in
die history of rock ’n’ roll.
Now, having long mastered the bass, her braid
ed pigtails rotate regularly as she bounces with the
band’s enthusiastic, pillar-strong rhythms.
The Cedar Falls, Iowa, group has been a staple
act of the Midwest rock scene since its inception
with its well-received shows.
To its credit, HOLS has always been willing to
work from the ground up, and is proud of its hum
ble success.
“We basically have the same attitude we’ve
always had,” Schilf said. “We just want to enjoy
what we’re doing.”
achili said the band has found enthusiastic
audiences in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, San
Francisco and Austin, Texas.
Having played in several of the nation’s largest
cities, both Schilf and Deibler iterated with emo
tion a particular pet peeve of playing in big towns.
People don’t understand why they stay in Iowa.
“I think it’s strange that we have to defend
where we live,” Deibler said. “Somehow everyone
believes New York and Los Angeles are these great
places. We’re perfectly fine in Cedar Falls.”
And the fact of the matter is the band wouldn’t
be what it is without its small-town existence.
HOLS new drummer Brent Hanson, who
commutes horn Minneapolis, said the proof is in
Courtesy Photo
IOWA PATRIOTS and state darlings House of Large Sizes has garnered an avid following across the Midwest. Wife Barb Schilf and husband Dave
Deibler replaced longtime drummer Marie Munn (left) wRh newcomer Brent Hanson last year.
the songs.
“Lots of the things that
inspire Dave to write songs
have happened around
here,” Hanson said.
The Minnesotan said he
became a fan of the band
when his former group,
Whoops Kitty, toured with
HOLS a few years ago.
“They’re such a great
live band that watching
them night after night made
them ray favorite band,” he 1
said. “I drink they’re likable because they are hum
ble, but at the same time know that they are good.”
Although HOLS takes on modem rock that is
too unique for commercial radio or MTY the band
has a sizable, national audience.
Its fanatic, grass-roots following has grown
year by year as the band has toured the country
continuously. Meanwhile, the band’s album sales
have climbed: HOLS’ 1998 W.A.R.? release
“Glass Cockpit” has sold more than 5,000 copies,
dwarfing the number of units sold on its first full
length release.This might sound like a decade’s
worth of little headway to people unfamiliar with
the record industry. But consid
er the thousands upon thou
sands of U.S. bands who have
yet to sell 20 compact discs out
side their own states.
Deibler said the band’s cur
rent audience is enough to keep
him happy. And members of
HOLS makes enough money
on the road to not need day
jobs, he said.
After all, Deibler once
washed Lear jets at Duncan
-1 Aviation while living in
Lincoln in 1982.
The 35-year-old said HOLS tours six months
out of the year, and he appreciates his more cre
ative new profession.
“You’d always like to do better financially,”
Deibler said. “But I’m getting to do what I’ve
wanted to do since the third or fourth grade.”
The singer-guitarist sometimes refers to his
band as a “small-business practice.”
Deibler’s choice of words could be misinter
preted as unromantic. Rather, his statement repre
sents much about the band and its reasonable,
Midwestern outlook.
Small business or not, the message has been
getting out that HOLS is a formidable group.
Longtime local musician Bemie McGinn said
the band puts on likable performances.
“They are really entertaining with lots of jump
ing up and down,” McGinn said. “They have a
stage presence that, like any good live band is
infectious/They’re like AC/DC on Prozac.”
The AC/DC comparison is merited in Deibler’s
guitar work, which is usually minimal while he
sings well-metered verses in a voice that is only
comparable to Jon Kimbrough of Walt Mink.
The choruses arrive with Deibler's guitar thun
dering to rock’s past, oddly reminiscent of both
classic rock and punk rock at the same time. Schilf
usually joins at this juncture with pretty, prairie-girl
yelps ofback-up melodies that nail down anything
her husband left over in the tenor-to-soprano range.
And at every reasonable opportunity, between
verse stanzas or at a bridge, die great display of
dual bouncing up and down is back in the house.
Schilf jokingly said the band’s most-used rock
move has a most basic origin.
“In the early days, a lot of the shows we played
didn’t have stages,” she said “So we wore probably
just trying to see who was in the back of the
crowd”
Conceit Preview
The Facts ’mm
What: House of Large Sizes
Where: Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 0 St
When: Tonight at 10 p.m.
Cost: $5
The Skinny: Entertaining performers bring
inventive Iowa rock to Nebraska
‘Monsters of Grace’ creates 3-D hypnotic visions
By Liza Holtmeier
Senior staff writer ^
A severed hand. A helicopter-carrying hawk. A 10-yard foot.
With images such as these, the aptly
named “Monsters of Grace” melds 3-D ani
mation with new-age minimalist music.
This Thursday, the 73-minute operatic
experience comes to the Lied Center for
a one-night only showing.
The brainchild of renowned mini
malist composer Philip Glass and
designer/director Robert
Wilson, “Monsters
latest computer ani
mation tecrmology with Glass’
hypnotic music to create a
musical theater experience
for the 21st century.
Paul Barnes, an
assistant professor of
music at
University
Nebraska-Lincoln,
said the work aban
dons traditional narra
tive plots for a circular
approach to time.
“There is not a logi<
said “Monsters of
Grace” strays from typi- |j All OAlttAI1
cal harmonic progres- ■yWjyyWW
sions. This allows the lis- TM FflCtS
tener to focus on pure
sound. What: Monsters of Grace
“It forces you to lis- Where: Lied Center for Performing Arts
ten to music in a radical- When: Thursday at 8 p.m.
ly new way. You’re much Cost; $32, $28 and $24, half-price for
more interested in creat- students
ing a meditative atmos- g^py. 3.Q computer animation
BamSlefast- "eets the minimalist music of Philip Glass
paced, frantic world had --
embraced Glass’ music because of its meditative qualities.
Glass is largely recognized as die most well-known minimalist
composer of our time. His eclectic body of work includes film
scores, symphonic works, and music for dance and theater.
This is his second collaboration with Wilson, one of the most
well-known designers in Europe.
The two first collaborated on “Einstein on the Beach,” a 4‘/2
hour opera with no plot and a sung text of numbers and syllables.
Many called it the event that changed the face 6f musical the
ater.
“Monsters of Grace” retains the hypnotic experience of
“Einstein on die Beach,” but shortens it to a more comfortable 73
minutes, Barnes said.
“Monsters of Grace” also breaks new ground by fusing high art
with the high tech.
“It’s an other-worldly experience,” Barnes said.
