Page Two

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Friday, October 23, 197f?0

THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, October 23, 1970

I

. IV

music
Steve Miller:
A musical holocaust

READ
-JAMES WECHSLER-
1 4
in
C A4 attmty

OCTOBER 22-24
A Fresh Idea
In Communication
CHAUTAUQUA
ARRIVES
Residential College Aud.
8 P.M.

By DANIEL ZWERDLING
It was a musical holocaust.
There were the Steve Miller
Blues Band frozen in great blue
spotlights descending from the
Crisler dome, six t h o u s a n d
people standing transfixed, all
of us shivering as four banks of
speakers screeched 'and whined
and slithered and echoed, Mil-
ler's guitar shooting from speak-
er to speaker in' the best tradi-
tion of the dead Jimi Hendrix,
all while one man with wispish
blond hair stood above the crowd
on a table top, flailing his arms,
and a tall zombie figure stood
motionless in his muscles and
sleeveless undershirt, twirling
a great metal chain riveted to a
collar around his neck, in never
ending circles above his head.
Th e entire arena was going to
explode, or was poised for tak-
ing off -,but the crowd didn't
care. The music, , the electrical
explosions, hurt Steve Miller,
pounding out the Jackson-Kent
blues, was lord and master with
his medium. What he's singing
about is one thing - a nation
shooting down the hope of its
future in the falling bodies of
students - but we loved it,
More groovy Arts - Page 6
screamed for it, and stomped
and danced as the sounds, the
words were couched in lept from
the speakers. We'll all be danc-
ing when the bombs or bullets
come. That's the way, maybe,
it should be.
It wasn't what you would call
a typical Homecoming concert.
The show began with a group
called Bread, which just arrived
to the big concert second act
circuit from the teen club trail.
Nothing to make you want to
jump, but they deserve strong,
solid respect. It's a pleasant
group, a very tight sounding
quartet with admirable lyrics,
plain but pretty melodies, and
two p e r f e c t l y matched lead
voices which sound born out of
the early Sixties and Chad and
Jeremy. They're so simple that
they're nice to hear.
This group -David Gates on
lead guitar, Jimmy Griffin on
rhythm guitar and lead vocal,
Rob Royer on bass and Mick
Botz on drums-takes its music
seriously. They almost never
'miss a note, a rhythmic em-
phasis, a nuance in dynamics
or the slightest vocal inflection.
For two seconds one of the gui-
tars slipped over a syncopated
drum break, and Gates shook
his head sadly like a serious
physics student might when he
knows he has just missed an
exam question which he should
have answered.
. Steve Miller's Blues band
opened rambling with three ac-
coustic guitar numbers, very
mellow with soft, close har-
monies which sounded a lot like

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The crowd shouldn't have clap-
ped; the numbers sounded like
quiet musical offerings before a
sacred slaughter. Dropping the
acoustics, the band slung on
their electric gear; drummer
Jack King ripped into a fine
drum lead-off, and Miller came
out stomping his feet, jerking
his head, and launched with all
his marvelous electric wonders
into cosmic warbles and echoes.
Miller's band sounds on rec-
ord like too much butterscotch
pudding. E v e r y instrument,
every voice is perfectly smooth
and blended. The music flows
but never leaps or plunges and
leaves its plateau.
In concert, they're resurrect-

TONIGHT AT 8:00!
Fresh, True-Lyrical-A Gem!
DET NEWS

p'1


DIAL 662-6264
At State & liberty Sts.

SAVAGE,°
,EE EU E

*
*

rI

ed: Miller knows how to use
dynamics and rhythmic drive,
lifting the numbers high and
then breaking into soft, almost
lullaby refrains. In "Children of
the Future," the band chanted
in unison in an innocent, school-
boy tenor, then broke into a
musical assault which lasted 30
minutes, climaxing with "Liv-
ing in the U.S.A.." one of their
most popular hits. "Going to
The Country" featured a good,
simple country base line: sound-
ed all apple wine and barn
,raisings.
Then the holocaust, like a
vicious retribution and anni-
hilation: for the Band first left

lISTORTI *
"Candice Bergen embodies Liberated
woman" -N.Y. TIMES
"An Indian massacre that makes the
Cossacks look like a bunch of brown-
ies gathering buttercups"
-N EWSWEEK
"Must be numbered among the most
significant brutal liberating, and, hon-
est American films ever made."
-N.Y. TIMES
"Her carefully disintegrating gingham
dress flashing a rriake-love-not-war
signal that would melt the ramrod in
any soldier's spine..
-NEWSWEEK

.

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TRUFI
"STOLEN
Fri. & Sat.-T
"400 B
Sat. & Sun.-
"LA VACHE

the stage, then returned onlyV
after the audience screamed
and stomped for five minutes.
When Miller's band finished at
11:30, after a solid hour and a
half of playing, four frenzied
musicians had played them-
selves out. But it was a magni-
ficent destruction to hear.
Photos by
Jim Judkis
VIA 11II"
FAUT
KISSES"
& 9:30 P.M.
LOWS"
1 & 3:00 P.M. }
QUI RIT"
-ANDREW SARRIS

SLAVIC FILM SERIES presents


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SNEAK PREVIEW at 9:05
Come at 7 or 9 to see both


"GREAT
ART.
-N.Y.
Times.
like,
notes
from an
SDS
meeting"
-News-
week

AUD. A-ANGELL HALL
75c Come Toujours

',,


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OPENS TUESDAY!

For the student body:

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A' Genuine
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