ARTS
The Michigan Daily Sunday, January 16, 1983 Page 5

All ages thrash the Union

I. I

bret herfs

By Joe Hoppe
F RIDAY'S ALL ages hardcore show
(a lot of people don't like that
label, but what else would you call it? It
does call to mind approximately the
right image.) at the Union was all one
would expect it to be, and a real cool
time.
And there were pretty much all ages
there. A couple of probably-around-12-
year-old probably-little-brothers of one
of the bands were there in Black Flag t-
shirts; not out of place at all.
Then there were a couple of probably-
mothers-of-some-of-the-kids-in-one-of-
the-younger-bands. They seemed in-
terested, and if not actually having a
good time they were tolerating it well.
In between you could see pretty much
all types; the people you see around at
other now-music things, a few first
wtimers, the obligatory Ann Arbor hippy
or two.
The bands, as you probably know
from the many many black and
menacing flyers put up around town
were (in order of appearance) Ground
Zero, The State, Fate Unknown played
instead of Displaced, then SS Decon-
trol, and lastly the Necros.
'Before we go any further, some
errors in my preview article should be
cleared up:
* SS Decontrol has not played the
midwest before. They were supposed to
play Lansing last summer but got can-
celled. The only other show they're
going to play is one in Detroit on Satur-
day. SSD's members have to be back to

Boston and work on Monday.
" Ian, who was quoted in a remark
about the straight edge, is in Minor
Threat, not Negative Approach.
Negative Approach is not straight edge.
They don't agree with it at all, and their
singer was at the show and drank a beer
to prove it.
" Barry, Necros singer, is not disliked
by that many people, just a few I know.
Actually he appeared fairly nice.
Superficially, the bands sounded alike;
like rock and roll must have sounded to
the concerned citizens of the '50s. They
were loud, fast, thrashing - sometimes
dissonant - sometimes so fast you
wouldn't even think of dancting.
There are slower songs. The tunes
are short. Vocals are very fast too, of-
ten screamed. A lot of the time you
can't understand what's being said.
Lyric sheets for records reveal that
most of it is complaining about the
quality of personal or world situations.
One of the important things is the
energy of the music. They aren't really
all alike.
The sets were all fairly short. No one
played for a full hour. Things were
prolonged by various problems with the
sound system, broken strings, drum-
mers' cramped legs, etc. The P.A.
wasn't very good and already-hard-to-
understand vocals often got drowned
out.
Ground Zero is a high school band..
They had a lot of energy but the crowd
wasn't responsive. The P.A. problems
were fairly bad for the band, but they
made it through. The vocalist looks like
he shaves his head once a week, and as
the set went on and he got more keyed

up you could see veins standing out on
it. The band was fairly frenzied.
Imagine the bestiality of the book 1984's
"two minute hate" with drums and
guitars and you've got the basics of a
Ground Zero tune.
The State deserved a better audience
and should have played after Fate
Unknown. Again, it was the energy of
the performance that was most im-
pressive. The band, a little more inven-
tive with their instruments, is more
structured and musically complicated
than Ground Zero.
Preston, State's lead singer, is
powerful in both vocals and movemen-
ts. Pathos daggered out from him -in
light and sweat. Singing for an HC band
must be a lot like primal scream
therapy. Amidst the usually in-
distinguishable lyrics (but the medium
is the message, we are told) there was a
message to the Cult Heroes. It wasn't
positive. It got cheers.
Fate Unknown, like Ground Zero, is
another high school band, or at least
very young. They replaced the
Displaced, probably on short notice,
and it was very nice of them to play.
They had problems too, but while they
took care of the broken string, or
whatever it was, the singer tried to
establish a fairly sincere relationship
with the audience. Their closing theme
song, "Fate Unknown," had some good
drive behind it and was a nice idea.
Fate Unknown members were just
average looking guys - you don't have
to dress hardcore to play it. The people
danced..
SS Decontrol is from Boston and is
serious about gaining exposure. The

crowd really got going for SSD - a
couple fights started. The band didn't
like that much, and told us in no uncer-
tain terms.
SSD members were all over the
stage, leaping and bounding. The singer
was all over, back by the drums, into
the audience and trying to get us to sing
the chorus - nobody seemed to know
the song. Eventually he wrapped the
long mike cord around the lead guitar
player, moved too quick, and pulled the
neck of said-guitar into the back of his
head. He bled a lot but went on with the
song and on with the show. What a
trooper.
SSD had two guitars for the show.
They didn't for the album but will for
their next one. Two guitars made more
than a wall of sound - it was an all en-
compassing geodesic dome. They did
very few songs from their LP, a great
verson of "Police Bat" was an excep-
tion. They closed with "The End" -
original and far more apocalyptic than
anything a Door could imagine.
The Necros had a big following. Their
company, Touch & Go records, was
even there, selling shirts and Meatmen
EPs. A lot of the fans knew the songs, so
Barry usually just held the mike out for
them to sing the chorus.
Barry proved he was a nice guy when
he found a watch somebody lost during
one of the dances. Nobody claimed it, so
he generously threw it into the crowd.
The Necros were pretty heavy metal,
and did a fair amount of bigtime guitar
messing around. They did a few EP
songs, "Race Riot" and one of the anti-
school pieces. The band had to stop
when the drummer got a cramp in his
leg. Barry kept the ball rolling with
"Now's Your Time to Talk." The most
important contribution to the oppor-
tunity to voice your opinion was "LS&A
Isn't All Fags.'
Meanwhile, the guitar was doing real
"down home country" riffs and an oc-
casional air from some beautiful music
radio station staple - real generic but
you knew what it was.
The Necros were fun. Necros
followers were disappointed in the non-
performance of Toni Basil's "Mickey,"
however.
All of these guys are serious about
their music. Serious about the
lifestyles. Would you have shaved your
head when you were in high school?
Would you take a band to Boston for a
weekend if you had to make it back to
work by Monday and were grossing
maybe $300 for the whole trip? The
show was great, and so was seeing
people so dedicated.

Barks 'n' brothers
The Elvis Brothers, a Madison, Wisconsin-based fun-time band, open for
Bow Wow Wow's 9:30 p.m. appearance at Second Chance Tuesday night.
Bow Wow Wow features lead singer Annabella Lwin and ex-members from
Adam and the Ants. Together they form a controversial and highly energetic
band which is revered for its incessant rhythms and ease-to-dance-to. If this
show is anything like their one from last year, it should be mighty swell.

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The Necros defy gravitational principles at Friday's Union show.

Jazz opus premieres


By Jerry Braberec
RUCE DONDERO's symphonic
J work The Dancer will premiere at
a concert of jazz and classical music
presented by the Performance Network
January 20-24. The program for this
concert is unique in that it is mostly
original music by local composers, and
in the emphasis on both classical and
jazz idioms.
Masterminding the project are com-
poser/bassist Dondero and
pianist/conductor Stephanie Ozer.
Dondero is primarily known to local
audiences as co-leader of the Les
Bloom/Bruce Dondero Sextet, a jazz
group that has earned local acclaim,
particularly for performances at last
summer's Ann Arbor Art Fair and
Depottown Jazz Festival. Ozer holds a
performance degree in piano from the
University's School of Music. Since
graduating she has served as musical
director for Ann Arbor's' Common
Ground Theater Ensemble and
now keyboards in the local funk/fusion
band Pangaea.
The Dancer originated as a bass solo

which Dondero began expanding and
orchestrating in 1982. He enlisted
Ozer's aid a few months ago, and the
formidable task of finding and rehear-
sing a 20 piece orchestra had gone on
while details of the score are still being
worked out.
The piece runs about 15 minutes and
is loosely divided into 5 sections, in-
cluding an introductory bass duo per-
formed by Dondero and local jazz
veteran Ted Harley. The thematic
material and rhapsodic style suggest
folk music of a Spanish or Moorish
character, and the only overtly "jazzy"
characteristic of the work is the im-
provisatory bass duo near the begin-
ning.
The orchestra consists of several
members of the Ann Arbor Symphony,
the Ars Musica ensemble and an assor-
tment of other community musicians,
comprising 14 strings, woodwinds,
piano, and tympani.
Ozer and Dondero have written a trio
for sax, bass, and piano which will open
the program. Ozer will perform four
Bulgarian Dances from Bela Bartok's
piano omnibus "Mikrocosmos," and
the Les Bloom/Bruce Dondero sextet
will round out the first half, concen-

trating on their own original com-
positions. This group has changed per-
sonnel somewhat, and now features
trumpet, trombone, and sax, 'for a
sound reminiscent of the Art Blakey
and Max Roach groups of the 60s.
The second half of the concert will
open with piano improvisations by
Larry Manderville, who is also frequen-
tly heard on piano at the Earle, and
close with The Dancer. There will be
both evening and matinee performan-
ces, January 20-24.

AN £ :i

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