4
ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Sunday, November 18, 1984
Page 6,
# I I
Legendary Lou triumphs at Hill
By Dennis Harvey
(( What Becomes a Legend
Most" is a sob story song
about the stereotypical rigors of
celebrityhood-drinking, loneliness,
etc-that half-consciously parodies the
whole rock-star introspection thing on
Lou Reed's otherwise goodbye-to-self-
pity New Sensations LP.
Reed's concert Friday at Hill was the
flipside of what legends are all
about-not the floundering-about af-
termath of fame (which he's already
done to death), but the talent and vigor
that makes a legend in the first place. I
saw Reed last fall in Italy, and walked
out after the first few songs. He seemed
like just another (if there are many
left) remainder from the '60's bins
propped up on stage to indifferently
deliver Greatest Hits for a generic
audience of starry-eyed eternal hippies.
But that was Europe, where there
seems to be a deathless, pointless
floating population of post-youth still
Summer-of-Loving it, and where a guy
like Reed can (and did, for too long)
coast along making money and getting
jaded on the strength of tedious
adulation.
Reed's Hill set was a whole different
story. New Sensations, with its delight-
ful pop playfulness (not to deride the
songs at all, but "I Love You Suzanne"
and "Endlessly Jealous" would make
perfect sense as Shaun Cassidy
vehicles) and light introspection (as
opposed to the tortured self-appraisal if
of The Blue Mask, etc.) is a blatant and
completely successful shot as U.S.
chart re-entry. At Hill, Reed had the
blissed air (to the extent that he can
show, given his need to be at least a lit-
tle threatening) of a kid who has
rediscovered a forgotten favorite
toy-i.e. America.
The audience response was, even
given the usual quota of tongues-
hangin'-out swooning over touring retro
"legends," (especially those who've
been out of circulation for so long),
unusually ecstatic by the end. Hill
Auditorium tends to have a sedating in-
fluence on audiences-maybe it's just
the sobering thought that tonight's rock
show will soon be tomorrow's Hakan
Hagegard recital.
The show built slowly, getting some
of the nostalgic essentials out of the
way early ("Sweet Jane" and "Waiting
for the Man" kicked things off on a
rather formulaid note) and gradually
moving toward more recent material.
Lou himself reserved energy in the first
half of the set, limiting his guitar work
to basic strummin'-along and letting
Robert Quine do all the real work,
which of course Quine did quite well,
thanks. Despite high musical
value-especially during a punchy
"Sally Can't Dance" - stage ex-
citement was pretty minimal, limited
mostly to the hyperactive drummer.
The band had a bit of the biz-as-usual
professionalism of most stadium-sized
outfits, but Lou Himself began to loosen
up midway and soon seemed to be en-
joying the whole shebang a good deal.
Surprisingly, he hit a peak of genial
animation fairly early on with the
inevitable "Walk on the Wild Side,"
which was energized enough to justify
the hysteria it provoked.
The shift toward newer tunes really
got going with the agreeably cheesy
"My Red Joystick," which Reed in-
troduced by saying "I always wanted to
write a James Brown kind of song ..."
The ooh-ahh, jazzy-excellent "New
Sensations," possibly the best song off
the same-title LP, didn't work quite so
well live, despite a terrifically trum-
ped-up big beat and excellent dual
guitar work. The slinky bass line that
makes the song on record was buried in
the mix at Hill, and the wit of the album
version was lost. The slightly folksy,
anthemic "Doin' the Things That We
Want to Do" worked very well, though
- its big sound supplemented by an ac-
cordion turn by the otherwise super-
fluous keyboardist - as did several
other New Sensations songs: "Turn to
Me" (which enumerates blue-Monday
bummers with some great lines, like
"And some friend died of
See LOU, Page 7
Odean Pope and his saxophone will be in town tonight with a show at the Ark.
Tu-enor sax man Pope
to perform at Ark
By Marc S. Taras
This evening Eclipse Jazz is offering
its second major concert of the week.
Following up on the heels of the trium-
phant McCoy Tyner Trio engagement,
the student-run jazz organization will
be bringing a new fire music band to a
new venue. The group is the Odean
Pope Trio and the location is the new
Ark, comfortably situated just south of
Madison on Main Street stop the South
Main Market. Best known for his
saxophonic calesthenics as a part of
Max Roach's organization, the 46-year-
old Pope has a rich oackground of ex-
perience as a student, teacher, and
bandleader.
Odean Pope first appeared in this life
in a little South Carolina hamlet called
Ninetysix, on October 24, 1938. His
family remained there until Odean was
10, at which time they moved to
Philadelphia, then as now a first rate
jazz town. His father was a fine
baseball player who doubled on trom-
bone and drums. His mother was a
teacher and the organist and choir
director at the local church.
These roots vitalized Pope's early
years. He recalls, "When I was five, I
used to speak as well as sing in the
church, and from that experience I
believe 1 was drawn to the saxophone,
because I was looking for an instrument
that was more vocal, where I could put
across a piece of music the way the
vocalists used to... "
His parents were patient and en-
See POPE, Page 7
Daily Photo by STU WEIDENBACO
Rock 'n Roll legend Lou Reed mixed cuts off his latest album with Velvet
Underground favorites at his concert at Hill Auditorium on Friday.
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* Alan Bird is getting
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* From Bill Forsyth, the Director/
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SUN. 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00
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NTIRE AD GOOD FOR
TICKETS AT $3.00 EACH
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(
(PG) "
my Award Winner Giorgio Moroder
ts Fritz Lang's classic vision of the
, ow beautifully restored and with a
nporary music score.
Songs Preformed by
Pat Benatar " Billy Squier
Adam Ant 9 Lover Boy & More!
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Accordionist Queen Ida, seen here at an earlier Ann Arbor performance, and her band brought their zydeco sound to the
Michigan Union Ballroom Friday.
Ida ignites ballroom dancing
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MON. 1:00, 7:20, 9:20
SUN. 1:20, 3:20, 5:20, 7:20, 9:20
By Andy Weine
on temps ce soir"
(good times tonight)
was the phrase of the night on Friday
with Queen Ida at the Michigan Union
ballroom. She bidded the audience to
dance and wave their fingers high in the
air, and the overflowing, exhuberant
crowd joyously (or rather, rowdily)
complied.
* ANN ARBOR EXTRA SHOWS FRI. & SAT. NIGHT - REGULAR PRICE.
Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco
Band take the stage as the most popular
proponents of zydeco, a diverse,
Louisiana-born musical style with
elements of jazz, Calypso, Cajun, rock,
and other influences. The band played
belted out everything from waining
country love songs to bopping calypso
tunes to "Disco Zydeco."
The Queen and company packed the
large ballroom with dancers and with
loud zydeco created by two or three
guitars, electric fiddle, washboard,
drums, and accordion. There were
smashing guitar and electric fiddle
solos. Often the sound was too dense
and busy, though, and then each in-
strument's sound was too dense and
busy, though, and then each in-
strument's sound became like the
voices: fuzzy and undistinguishable.
blaring.
. As for the lyrics, it's a nobody's guess
how good they were, because the sound
system and large space completely
garbled the hoarsy vocals of the Queen
and her royal court. from a few lines
picked up-such as "Every night I pray
by my window..." "My baby don't
know, My baby don't care," and "Can't
you see, you're the one for me"-you
could surmise that the lyrics weren't
that breathtaking.
See QUEEN, Page 7
By Pete Williams
I t's almost Thanksgiving, and what
do you have to be thankful for? An
overheated dorm room? A
fascinatingly useless education? A ride
home for the puritan holiday?
Wrong. You have absolutely only one
thing to be thankful for. Your life, and
the fact that you are living it in Ann Ar-
bor. I am speaking of course of the
newest MUSKET (a ludicrous acronym
not worth dissecting) production, Kiss
Me Kate.
Kiss Me Kate is fun. It is amateur in
parts, which is expected, and
professional in others, which is ap-
preciated. For instance.n.
The choreography by Rebecca Weitz
is professional, the dancers are
amateur. The movements were
sophisticated, interesting, and 4~-
propriate for the musical. Sadly,
however, they seemed to be tuned to a
mixed-bag of highly skilled and merely
skilled dancers. Weitz used her talents
to make what could have been chorius
line mayhem into acceptable, and to a
certain extent even interesting, dan-
cing.
On to the singing. Vocals, good strong
vocals are the key to making a musical
work. It is hard to accept the fact that
people are breaking into song right and
left for the hell of it unless they can do
so with a certain level of confidence.
And confidence was what was missing
from many of the performers voices in
Kiss Me Kate.
In Act II, Hattie, Paula, and Mor'o
(Lesley Kranz, Andrea Langs, and
Chantel Westadale) sang a lovely trito
"Too Darn Hot." MUSKET must have
searched far and wide to find three ac-
tresses who had the same amount .of
difficulty hitting the same series of high
notes in the same song. But what
luck-they did it.
It seemed as though lead man Fred
Graham (Paul Winberg) couldn't
decide whether or not he could sing. He-
went from a brilliant performance' in
the finale of "Kiss Me Kate" to a
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"COMFORT AND JOY" (PG)
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