Thursday, October 31, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Thu rsdoy, October 31, 1 974 THE MICHIGAN DAiLY Page Five
Steve
By DOUG ZERNOW
Although the name Stephen
Stills has lost some of the magic
of the CSNY days, it was still
hard to believe that he was
playing at a local bar for a
practically unannounced bene-
fit concert. But it was true,
and Tuesday night he gave two
short, but powerful perform-
ances for the Reuther campaign
at Chances Are saloon.
Playing before crowd of
about 400, at the 8:30 show,:
most of whom had heard of the
concert by w o r d of mouth,
Stills appeared without his own.
band, simply accompanying
himself on the guitar for
four acoustic numbers and a,
short electric number with the
surprisingly good opening act,
Head East.
Todd
f
ttlls
rambles
eu ther
Although
rom a long
noticeably tired unfortunately louder crowd. He
plane flight from played the same songs as the
Denver, he still gave strong, first set (his vo
highly blues-tinged renditions hoarse from wha
of mostly older material, in- as "cheering for
eluding "4 and 20", "Change This set, however
Partners" and a unique ar- longer set of elec
rangement of Lennon-McCart- Head East, includ
ney's "Blackbird." version of "Black
Between shows Stills went to Stills triumphant]
Crisler Arena to see the Ali- guitar at the end
Foreman fight, while the Stills spoke
Chances Are management tried throughout the ev
to get the crowd from the 8:30 sically affirmed h
show to leave. Most felt cheat- things are "turni
ed by the fact that he wouldn't government. Late
come back for an encore. Stills although he didn
said later he simply "hadn't John Reuther on
had time to prepare anything points "we need
more". will ask question
Returning exuberant at the their mind if they
outcome of the fight, he went he's not afraid to
on at 11:30 to a larger and In his dressing
Rundgren
ice noticeably:
t he described'
my brother").
, did include a
tric tunes with
ding a raucous
k Queen" with
ly twirling his
of the song.
quite openly
vening and ba-
his feeling that'
ng around" inI
r he said that
n't agree with
quite a fewf
someone who
s and change{
're wrong, and
do it."
g room after
the show Stills was pensive and
quiet, feeling the effects of tra-
vel and liberal amounts of
Johnny Walker Black scotch.
He wasn't really interested in
talking music, caring more to
rant about Ali's knockout punch
or talk about college football.j
He did, however, want to talk
politics.
"Everything we've done is
starting to work, he said.
"We've definitely progressed. I
mean look at Watergate - it's
all a result of a lot of it."
I asked him how he's changed
since the days of "America's
Children/49 Bye-byes".
"Well, I've mellowed out a
lot since then. Me and Neil
(Young) both have families
now, and I want to make surej
my kid has a decent place to
live in. Right now I'm in the ered all his songs in that famili-
process of settling down." ar strained, blues style, each
A voracions reader, Stills is word rolling off the next as his
quite articulate (as rock stars voice slipped from a low growl
go), and said "the biggest prob- to an almost crying falsetto.
lem in this country is complac- His guitar work was particular-
ency. We've got to get out and ly.excellent, both on some in-
do something." spired open-tuned acoustic blues
As far as music is concerned and electric soloing with.Head
he has a solo (LP) almost fin- East.
ished and then he'll go into the Even though politics fre-
studio for a new album with quently creep into his songwrit-
Crosby, Nash and Young. ing, Stills is more a musician
There's also the possibility of than a campaigner. As he joked
another short West Coast tour earlier Tuesday afternoon: "I'm
with the group next year, but just a rock and roller who came
nothing really definite. to a college campus to make a
Although the audience at fool out of himself. But the raw
both shows might have been musical strength of his unique-
let down by the length of the musia. tr ofhsniue-
concert, they couldn't have ask- ly itimate performance Tues-
ed for a more sincerely enter- day night was anything but fool-
taining performer. Stills deliv- ish.
crowd-pleasing
By RON LANGDON ventiveness with which Rundgren and
Todd Rundgren, long time rock produ-
cer-turned-performer, came to Ann Arbor
with his band "Utopia" Tuesday night to
play for a near capacity crowd of young
admirers at Hill. Rundgren is a performer
who makes few bones about liking his
audience, and his audience likewise had
few complaints about him.
For his first tour since achieving near
stardom Rundgren has put together a
total experience for his audience, to the
point of printing out a program, incor-
porating a dazzling light show, and pre-
recorded taped backgrounds which, for
what it's worth, at some points kept the
music going when the band was no longer
even on stage.
While on record, Rundgren has most
often come across with gentleness and
melody, for his performance, he and the
group put on a concert that was electric
down to its toenails. Two electric key-
Daily Photo by PAULINE LUBENS
Stephen Stills
Unusual music
opens festival
Utopia" tackle their music and their
show.
Pausing to situate himself lotus style
on a little cushion, while the band took
a break, Rundgren said, "I'm going to try
a little experiment. I'm going to try some-
thing that I have never done before."
He then proceeded to deliver a startling
number a capella, while his naked vocal
lines warbled off into time lag repeats
and shimmering overtones. Rundgren
came to use the highly amplified micro-
phone through this number, as another
part of synthesizer, laying over his vocal
tones with gutteral groans and breath
sounds. The audience was totally cap-
tivated.
Likewise, throughout the performance
Rundgren and "Utopia" embraced their
electronic equipment as a tool for ex-
pression, rather than just a mode of
amplification.
Perched amidst the wires and plug-
boards, amplifiers and speaker consoles,
in their long white robes, Utopia was play-
delivers H Over for the 114th Straight Week!
display RFD BOE
ing out of a virtual laboratory of sound. FINEST IN BLUEGRASS MUSIC
But with the exception of their inattention at the
to volume, the band made the technology
their servant, where other groups have
simply hid behind it a lack of talent.
Rundgren is well known in the rock
world particularly in his affection for his THURSDAY-9:30
fans. Throughout the concert, as he sang FR DAY & SATURDAY-i0:00
along, he went out to the stage's edge to
receive gifts such as flowers, collages, and
a sequin-embroidered pillow. He deposited COMING SOON
each one on display amongst the neatly
arranged amplifiers and speakers.t
For his last number, Rundgren set down
his guitar and took the microphone in
hand. As if one cue, fans surged up toR B
his. feet, and hundreds of arms stretched 1
out all along the stage front.__
Like a politician on the stump, Rundgren
set to work grasping and shaking every
one of them, and did, before the number v 3 'ithns aae
was finished.
Massive applause called the group out
for three encores, and then the audience
and the group retired to a recording of r P-
Beeth6ven. ______.....____
I-
By JOHN HART
Outstanding artists perform-
ing unusual works highlight
the 1974 Contemporary Music
Festival.
David Burge, an internation-
ally known pianist and record-
ing artist, will open the four-
concert series Saturday at 8:00
p.m. in Rackham Auditorium.
Currently on his 19th Ameri-
can tour, Burge is "one of the
most remarkable pianists 'of.
our time," according to Paul
Hume of the Washington Star.
"He illuminates frequently
puzzling aspects of contem-
porary piano writing and has a
genius for finding new piano
music that rises above the pure-'
ly novel or 'stunt' level."
Burge's performance will fea-
ture George Crumb's Makrokos-:
mos Volume I. The work, writ-
ten for Burge, places an empha-
sis on subtle tone colorings,
which are achieved by drawing
sounds from inside the piano
and by amplifying the instru-
ment. Crumb is a University
graduate and wrote the score
for The Exorcist. .
Works by Lawrence Moss, C.
Curtis Smith and Mario David-
ovsky, winner of the 1971 Pulit-
zer Prize in music, will also
be on Burge's program. In these
pieces, audiences will hear elec-
tronically-generated s o u n d s,
Chinese temple blocks, a musi-
cal saw and Burge shouting into
the piano, as well as the more
traditional piano tones.
On November 25, Professor
Thomas Hilbish of the Music
School will conduct the Univer-
sity Symphony Orchestra and
Chamber Choir in Arnold Scho-
boards plus a moog and bass set the
enberg's masterpiece Die Ja- background for Rundgren's throaty, but
cobsleiter. The work has been extraordinarily well-controlled vocals. The
performed only once in this lights functioned almost as a seventh in-
country and is, according to Hil- strument, filling out the moods.
bish, "one of the greatest works This level of electric intensity often
of the century." came to run out of control, however. In its
"A four-track stereo with a heavier moments, the volume was just
separate orchestra coming out too much for Hill's cozy accoustics. In its
of each track augments the exuberance, the group would blur into a
symphony and choir," Hilbish deafening haze that sacrificed tone quality
added. for excess volume.
The concert, a tribute to the Unfortunately, Rundgren repeatedly
100th anniversary of Schoen- would abandon what he knows about guitar
berg's birth, includes two other at these moments to simply reach down
pieces by the German compos- for the highest notes on his G and B
er. strings and manipulate them blindly for
On November 11, School of measures on end.
Music faculty members Leslie What was distinctively good about the
Gunn, John McCollum and
Donald Sinta will be soloistsain
a world premiere performancek
of Edward Diemente's Mirrors
VI. The Contemporary Direc-
tions Ensemble, conducted by
Uri Mayer, will share this fac-
ulty concert and will unveil a
new work by Max Lifschitz.
Charles Owen will conduct the
Music School's Percussion En-1
semble in what he called "the
best percussion piece ever]
written" on November 13. The
work - Ionization by Varase -
uses sirens, stones, gongs and
other strange noise makers as
musical instruments.
Owen described the develop-
ment of percussion - orchestra
pieces as "the emancipation of
the percussion from the days of
playing oom-pah and keeping
time."
The Percussion Ensemble will
perform other pieces in the con-
cert, including a new work by
Xenakis. Also on the program
will be the Wind Ensemble per-
forming works by University
composers.
show, however, was the precision and
excitement with which Rundgren arranged
his tunes. At times, the group performed
his past hits singly, but more often he
incorporated familiar pieces as focal
points on longer, flowing medleys. For
instance, the concert included but two
lines of "We Got to Get You a Women,"
as a parcel in the arrangement of some-
thing much longer.
Rundgren's more popular hit "Hello, It's
Me" was bypassed altogether. Too
What was also a pleasure was the in-
It Pays to Advertise in
Daily Photo by PAULINE LUBENS
dd Rundgren
FAN 1 Ab[AV
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The Daily
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ANN ARBOR
WINTER ART FAIR
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Fs
O
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'Winegate' defendant
cautioned by judge
209 south state
(downstairs)
Ann Arbor
mnon.-sat. 10-6
fri. 10-9
0.
By PAUL MAJENDIE
BORDEAUX, France (Reu-
ter) - An expert who claims
the French wine industry is rid-
dIed with fraud was castigated;
yesterday by the judge at the
"Winegate" trial here for be-
ing arrogant and cynical.
Wine broker Pierre Bert caus-
ed a sensationhat the trial's
Sopening when he admitted his
guilt and claimed that he had
seen frauds everywhere during
30 years in the wine trade.
During today's hearing, Judge
Georges Lieff interrupted Mr.
Bert, who taised his hands and
said: "Let me have my say."
The judge replied: "Your ar-
rogance and your cynicism are
exaggerated. Your position
should dictate to' you a .more'
moderate attitude."
He also told Mr. Bert to
from wine merchants to the
director of a wine research
laboratory are also on trial, ac-
cused of doctoring or mislabel-
ling nearly three million liters
of cheap wine.
*'dr wcvn+Mt anrt+aee to me v aAC Macy
med'atrics
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