The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 12, 1984 --Page 7
Replacements,
eelies energize
Joe's
By Rob Weisberg
While Cruisin' Ann Arbor cruises
along at the U. Club, those with a taste
for imported things can try their luck at
Joe's Star Lounge. Joe's hosted the
original Cruisin' tapings two years ago
but was outbid this time around. Not tc
be outdone, Joe's has booked two of the
country's leading independent bands
for successive nights: Minneapolis'
Replacements and the darlings of
Hoboken, New Jersey, the Feelies.
The Replacements, who perform
tonight, at their best epitomize the high-
energy hard-edged sound that the whole
punk rock thing made possible, fueled
with wreckless verve. They're not
really a hardcore band, in that they're
not as purely political or tied to super
high speed three-chord onslaughts as
most hardcores. What they are is a
good-time rock and roll band dedicated
to the principles of that hallowed
tradition (They live the life).
A Replacements gig is sort of a hit or
miss thing, depending on whether
they're up to it or not. The first time
they played in Ann Arbor their elec-
trifying energy crammed into the tiny
upstairs room at the Heidelberg boun-
ced the patrons off the wall. On their
return engagement at Joe's, however,
nobody had any idea what they were
trying to do on stage. Then again, some
fans thrived on the band's apparent
ineptitude, so it's probably just a
question of taste.
The Feelies, on the other hand, are a
far cry from the rock and roll animal
sort of thing the Replacements
represent. Their success lies in having
created a thoroughly original sound,
simple yet energetic and invigorating.
The Feelies combine minimalistic
song structures with driving, layered
rhythms, using two clanging guitars as
much for rhythm as melody. The word
"percussive" invariably comes to mind
when discussing a Feelies tune, though
they generally use only a standard
drumkit and one extra percussionist.
They are a band dependent on texture
and on slowly building intensity. There
is an overriding sense of melancholy in
their music: Even as songs metamor-
phosize from intitial restrained states
to climactic wall-of-guitar barrages,
the band's somber minor-mode vocals
and quiet onstage demeanor is cer-
tainly a far cry from the Replacements'
jovial hysterics. There is plenty of
speed and energy, but the performers
themselves stand a bit apart from it.
Tomorrow night presents a rare chance
to see the Feelies, who have gotten
together only occassionally since their
first and only album "Crazy Rhythms"
came out in 1981. The bandmembers
have stayed active in numerous other
bands since then, however, including
the somewhat more song oriented
Trypes, who recently released an in-
teresting E.P. on Coyote Records. A
recent Feelies gig in Hoboken,
in which they relied heavily on material
from their album, however, showed
them very much in form.
Both the Feelies and Replacements
thrive on the emotional energy of rock
and roll, although they do it in very dif-
ferent ways. While the Replacements
embody it, the Feelies almost hide
behind it. Yet at their best, both bands
fill their audiences with that energy in a
way few others can.
The Replacements, (from 1. to r.) lead guitarist Bob Stinson, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Chris Mars and
rhythm guitarist and vocalist Paul Westerberg, return to Joe's Star Lounge tonight.
**
MUSKET Fall '84
*
Production Staff Positions Available:
*e
DIRECTOR SET DESIGNER
MUSICAL DIRECTOR COSTUME DESIGNER
CHOREOGRAPHER LIGHTING DESIGNER
STAGE MANAGER TECHNICAL DIRECTOR :
SOUND-DESIGNER
Pick up applications at UAC, 2105 Michigan Union
* or call 763-1107.
Reagan denounces Mond
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Reagan denounced Walter Mondale's
deficit-reduction program yesterday as
little more than a "tax increase plan,"
but Mondale renewed his challenge to
the president to come up with a
blueprint of his own to reduce the red
ink.
Artificial
pump keeps
heart attack
victim alive
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - The first
cardiac arrest victim to be kept alive
by, a partial artificial heart until a
donor heart was available for a tran-
splant was doing well yesterday, doc-
tors said.
Ronald Meehan, 47, of Sausalito,
Calif., was reported in serious condition
but gaining strength, and doctors said
his new heart was working well.
THE ARTIFICIAL blood pump offers
hope for some 50,000 to 75,000
Americans who, while otherwise
healthy, suffer a heart attack and will
die because a heart donor is not im-
mediately available for transplan-
tation, said Dr. J. Donald Hill, the
surgeon who performed the transplant.
"By allowing time for the body to be
sustained while the search is made for a
donor heart, these people have very
good chances of going on to live a
productive life," he said.
"Statistics now show that 50 percent
of heart recipients are living five years
after transplantation."
Meehan had been given the so-called
Left Ventricular Assist Device when his
own heart was hopelessly damaged by
a cardiac arrest Sept. 1.
Vice President George Bush, cain-
paigning in Charleston, S.C., said he
personally favors permitting rape vic-
tims to undergo abortions, despite
Reagan's support for a constitutional
amendment to ban all such operations.
ALL FOUR candidates campaigned
- even though the president never left
ale plan
the White House - as their aides
arranged the second negotiating
session in as many days on the subject
of debates. Officials in both camps have
said agreement seems near on a plan
for perhaps two Reagan-Mondale
debates, with one confrontation bet-
ween Bush and :Ferraro.
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JACQUELINE BISSET
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