ARTS I Page 8 Friday, November 21, 1980 GEORGE THOROGOOD Destroyers deliver the goods By DENNIS HARVEY The fraternity boys sitting right in front of the stage at Second Chan- ce-sitting?! ?-looked crushed at first when George Thorogood demanded that those who wanted to sit still could do it elsewhere, saying "This is the dancefloor!" Ten minutes later, no one seemed to care-everyone was too occupied with dancing and getting the damn chairs out of the way. Thorogood and his Destroyers probably could have asked the audience to stand on their collective head and gotten away with it. Their brand of basic bar-band blues is in- sanely likeable, plucked from the roots of the genre without rehashing-the sense of fun is as pure and timeless as the music. THOROGOOD himself may be no in- novator, but he has the best sense of humor about playing straight-ahead rock and roll this side of Springsteen-he's a good deal less exhilarating and adventurous than Bruce, to be sure, but there's a similar kind of stage presence. George likes his audience, and he can even brush them off with appeallingly jokey insouciance, saying, "You say, we play it... No! I don't like that one. OK, you all make up your minds while I play something I like." Rubbery-faced and bemused, tossing off "oh, YEAH?" after a par- ticularly wild audience response, he can make every dumb actibn seem naturally funny-doing the duckwalk, solemnly blessing heads with the tip of his guitar, blithely handing the in- strument to a dancer between numbers, ending each number with his head cocked up in a wide-eyed exhileration. The Destroyers remain the same-George on electric and slide, Jeff Simon on drums, Billy Blough on bass-with the addition of Hank Car- ter's sax. The saxophone sweetens the usual driving drone somewhat, though the final result is just another brand of sameness-not that monotony really matters anyway, not with this unit's energy. The tunes aren't all that distinguishable from each other, all with the same lonesome-George bluesy rap lyrics, grabbed from sources from Hank Williams to Chuck Berry, all somehow perfect for the Destroyer's aggressive assault and George's san- dpaper vocals. The band is fun enough on their records to date, but their natural habitat is a bar, where the playing gets louder and the singing even more gravelly than ever, without losing the thumping tension and clarity of their Daily photo by JIM KRUZ George Thorogood is shown here doing what he does best-rocking out in frontsof a jam-packed bar, in this case Ann Arbor's Second Chance this past Wednesday night. Son Seals bluesy bag of tricks By FRED SCHILL and matches that with a tinny, flexible familiarity that defies classification; i "You'll have to excuse me now while style of electric guitar that becomes it can be found the ageless blue I play the blues," Son Seals told the clay in the potter's hands. Seals totally tradition with the immediate roots jam-packed faithful at Rick's dominated the show; from his opening rock and roll as an unlikely bedfellow American Cafe Wednesday night. He rollicker "Don't Lie to Me" through the Seals could share the stage with Chu I1IEI ' then calmly proceeded to ispire encore following the frantic third set, Berry or the late Hound Dog Taylor a camyemassivenjubilation.s he had the audience in his palm cooing not be out of place with either. Halfway through the second set.I aban- like pigeons. The band has learned a few of hi doned all pretense of critical restraint. The exhilarating thing about Seals' tricks. Singer/guitarist Mike Gibbs an Seals is the consummate blues show was his unbelievable command of cohorts warmed the crowd up for Seal musician, that rare combination of the music. Seals can glide into searing, with everything from Muddy Waters overpowering vocal virtuosity and frenetic guitar solos and then stop on a "Got My Mojo Working" to the Stones musical mastery that graces the stage dime, change the pace entirely, and "Miss You" with an unabashed en 1:45 3:15 4:45 with dwindling frequendy these days. quietly pluck out soulful serenades in thusiasm that had even us deaf,-dtml 6:15 8:00 9:45 SEALSnSINGS WITH a gruffeloquen- the heavy silence while the audience and blind critics up and shaking oul ce that evokes any emotion he wants, tries to adjust to the lag. booties by the time Seals came on. He is always one step ahead of his Seals roared into the songs like 1__L _ _ ___ .3 - -- !_ - - 1 1 L. l - . . -_-.i - 7 ....._- . 1_- - _ _ - .- 4, Cinema II Presents THE LONG GOODBYE (Robert Altman, 1973) In Altman's version of the Raymond Chandler novel, Elliott Gould plays Philip Marlowe, adrift in the chaos and corruption of modern Los Angeles as he at- tempts to clear a dead friend's memory of the charge of murder. Gould is, in some ways, an antiBogart, bumbling and clumsy, but like Bogart, his inherent romanticism and moral code force him to search out the truth. (112 min.) Fri 11-21 Angell Hall, 7:00 & 9:15 $2.00 THERESA THE THIEF (1979) Theresa comes from the wrong side of the tracks, but instead of giving in to a life of poverty, she displays amazing resourcefulness and a modus operandi that keeps her fairly well-off and film audiences in stitches. This film received scant attention when it was first released, but is proudly presented at a time when we could all learn from Theresa's own brand of survival tactics. ANN AR- BOR PREMIER (113 min.) Sat 11-22 AngelI Hall, 7:00 & 9:00 $2.00 FOOLISH WIVES (Erich Von Stroheim, 1923) A young bride vacationing in Europe, is taken in by a phony count, Erich von Stroheim, and his two female accomplices. Will her husband discover her tran- sgression? Will he f rgive her? Will Irving Thalberg let Stroheim complete his next picture? Considered to be Stroheim's first mature work, FOOLISH WIVES still dazzles in its opulence and sexual frankness. (128 min.). 7:00 Only. A WOMAN OF PARIS (Charles Chaplain, 1923) Legendary drama of manners and mores made by Chaplain in the same period as his greatesl comedies, THE KID and THE GOLD RUSH. Edna Purviance stars as a naive country girl who comes to Paris and becomes a sophisticated courtesan. With short; SUNNYSIDE (1919) a delightful comedy (105 min.) 9:15 only. Comm 1 1 00 ni 0A & -- L-... t '4 L..aL..L......