The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 18, 1986- Page 7 Arts cont'd Images Original Angst By Hobey Echlin GOD, here we are, ten years af- ter Johnny got the whole rotten ball a'rollin with his pistolish blokes, trying to mop up the last gobs of that fun-punk thang with the less-than- dulcet, do-you-own-thing, fuck-'em-if- they-can't-take-a-joke attitudes of America's new bad-boy breed, typified in the likes of the Replacements and Del Fuegos. But when the feedback stops ringing and that rock 'n roll hangover wears off, there's still some of that original angsty fun around, albeit all grown up, married, and off having kids. And so those Damned rockers who gave the world (o.k., maybe just England) the stomp 'n circus-thrash of "New Rose," on vinyl no less (a punk first), way back in '76, brought their phantasmagoric show to the sold-out St. Andrew's Hall Saturday night, touching greatness with un- derrated vengeance. The Damned launched into the first of their three sets with plenty of that stylin' energy that keeps them moving without too much sweat. Singer Dave Vanian, sporting the Dracula-meets-James Brown look of capes and frills, with his jet-black mid-back length hair and its lone platinum shock, was in top dramatic form. His silvery tenor cascaded through the keyboard soothed soaring sounds of "Shadow of Love," the stomping "Grimly Fiendish," the in, trospective "Shadow Boxing," and" the poppy elegance of "Is it a Dream?", all the new Phan- tasmagoria LP. The Damned's new string sections (following the departure of bassist and egotist Captain Sensible)proved themselves right at home with their new jobs, as the guitars shined in front of the spastic pulse of Rat Scabies' drum kit on the tour de force "Wait for the Blackout" from the Black album. Instrumental interludes] showed the musician side of the Dam-, ned as Rat put the guitars through their paces on a couple of three way solos, and on the pre-REM jangly guitar buildups of "Smash it Up." The Damned had their fun, too, paying homage to psychedelia with-a. romping cover of "Too Much to; Dream Last Night," and to Iggy Pop- with a trobbing version of "Lust for Life," spiced up a bit by Bat's in- tricate drum licks. Despite the St. Andrew's gestapo's' efforts to temper the show into "the' Darned" by subduing the enthusiastic crowd's hokum attempts at slam 'n dive audience participation, the' Damned proved that even Cap- tain-less, they're no sinking ship, but sailing right along, smoothing the course, and careful of their wake. Daily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY i Records Map of the World--Natural Disasters (Stigmata) On the heels of the recent raves they have earned with their impressive single and debut EP Hiroshima Girls, Ann Arbor natives Map of the World have followed up their success with a smashing new six-song EP, Natural Disasters. Map of the World have been considered to be ,among the forefront of the local music scene, and Natural Disasters,with its tight playing and excellent song-craftsmanship, provides good reasons for such at- tention. The record-opener "Big Business" begins with a jangly downbeat which bears just some of that southern guitar flavor (now immortalized by R.E.M. ). The rhythm is as crisp and tight as the sound - deliberate, clear, and well-defined; and vocalist Khalid Hanifi fills the song really nicely with his smooth, effortless singing. There's also some rather metallic sounding backing vocals which add a bit of spice to the mix. The next cut, "Defy Gravity," is an equally strong number musically - especially with the help of its powerful rhythm section of bassist Tim Delaney and drummer Tom Whitaker. However, it is somewhat marred by Sophia Hanifi's rather "flat" (in tone and range quality, not pitch) lead singing which is slightly nasal and makes the sound a little too harsh. She sounds considerably better on the next track, "Natural Disasters," which opens with chiming guitar harmonics before kicking off into some really hot licks. You're through you're through/ you're not treading water/ you're through you're through/ the waves are coming faster... sing the Hanifi siblings, wailing along in dual force while (Khalid) Hanifi tears into some searing guitar work at the song's climax. Earlier in the piece one can even hear a touch of Richard Thompson's influence in his lead guitar playing - and that can only be a good thing. On side two "Make Your Decision Now" once again finds MOTW in top form. (Khalid) Hanifi's vocals have a soft, resigned quality which is rather appealing, especially in context with his lyrics : I didn't have time to talk, so today I have to listen... The whole world feels like a tomb/ with nobody left to kill The rhythm is rock steady, and allows a touch of feedback to artfully creep through in the end before propelling into the explosive next cut,"Hiroshima- Girls" (the title cut of their last EP). This song is in- triguing and thoughtful ... some really fine rock and roll. It then springs into the pounding duet "Driving Through Storms," which closes the disc with its energetic, twining guitars. Map of the World are extremely powerful musicians, but could use a bit of emotive force in their vocals on some spots to balance their sound. However, this is not a' very significant detriment to the band. They're talented performers and could probably (and deservingly) go a long way. So look out for them because, to use the band's own lines, words of war are only warnings... -Beth Fertig Films House House is a low budget exploitation thriller that, typical to the habits of its breed, survives by scavaging ideas off the carcasses of previous films. House, predictably enough, feasts off the well-picked remains of films like Gremlins, Nightmare on Elm St., and Ghostbusters. It's solemn, somewhat dubious distinction being that it is the first horror film to date to plagarize the Rambo genre. House starts off as a pretty stan- dard retooling of the haunted house tale about a young man, in this case a pulp horror novelist named Roger Cobb-played by William Katt of the distantly remembered "Greatest American Hero" series, who inherits a Victorian manor from his flakey aunt with more than a few things that go bumping about in the night. The spooks are the typical loony, toothy variety who run about the house chuckling and creating havoc as they take swipes at Cobb, impersonate his estranged wife, and kidnap his little boy and steal away with him to another dimension a la "Twilight Zone" time warp. Eventally it turns out that the haun- ting is actually all the work of a G.I. buddy that Cobb left stranded in the a jungles of Viet Nam years ago. He shows up as a rather ill-preserved and nasty apparition who, machine gun in hand, decides to settle his grudge with Cobb with some hard Sylvester Stallone style justice. The film stumbles left and right over randomly tossed-in subplots and throwaway ideas that leave the narrative an inconsistent mess and shifts unconscientiously in tone from straight monster movie schtick to S comedy to, in the end shabby psychological melodrama. To a large extent the film tries to imitate the black campiness that Joe Dante used to excel in, though Director Steve Minor - has none of Dante's mischevious wit. Not that the audience for these films is very demanding to begin with, but House doesn't even serve up a few decent cheap chills. This is sur- prising, since Miner has the background--he started the Friday The 13th series-for lurid, crassly ef- fective filmmaking. But here he merely drops his cache of ghouls and goblins in front of the camera with all the mechanical redundancy of a cheap fairground ride-which is just where the film's cheesey, all to rub- bery creations look like they were lif- ted from. Hell, Miner can't even make the bright, gingerbread style house used in the film's locale look anything but charmingly homey. Special condolences go out to actor Katt, who, if not a bright actor seems always a most amiable and easily likeable fellow who is miscast. Katt shrugs and bumbles cloyingly through House, graciously serving as the butt of its crass humor, when someone more reckless-someone with the TUESDAY IMPORT NIGHT Specials on different imports every week Mystery six packs and 25c Tacos TUESDAYS 10:00p.m. -close 996-9191 338 S. STATE ST. leering, smartass disposition of a Tom Hanks-and unselfconscious would be far better suited for the part. One ends up empathising not with Cobb, the character haunted by spirits, but with Katt, the actor whose career will be haunted for some time by this beastly movie. -Byron Bull Hitcher Remember those stories you used to hear at summer camp that always ended with great lines like, "...and there was a bloody, severed hook hanging from the passenger-side door handle"? Well, it's that sort of pre- adolescent American folklore which The Hitcher succeeds in capturing. C. Thomas Howell plays an innocent young man who picks up a rambling sociopath (Rutger Hauer) on a rainy night in Texas, and spends the rest of the movie playing a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse with both him and the police (of course, he's unrighteously accused of the Hauer's random slaughters). Without the law to fall back on, Howell slips farther and far- ther into savagery, almost sinking to the hitcher's level in order to survive. The body count gets pretty high, and, sure, the major point of this film is to generate nail-biting fear in the audience. However, The Hitcher isn't just another mad-slasher movie anymore than Risky Business was just another teen sex comedy. This flick's got a lot more style than blood. The cinematography is awesome, of- ten evoking a powerful feeling of isolation and primordial fear as it sets tiny characters against the vastness of the Badlands. The killer's motives are vague, but they are there. He is undeniably a three-dimensional character driven by his own demen- ted set of values and needs, rather than some bloodthirsty zombie in a goalie's mask. In this sense, The Hit- cher is more a psychological study than a straight-ahead thriller, but that doesn't detract from the fun. Direc- tor Robert.Harmon generates some of the best suspense this side of Scar- face, and the unpredictability of the killer's actions maintains a thick un- dercurrent of tension right up to the climax. Howell does a convincing job in character development, moving from a naive semi-schmuck to a ruthless gunslinger who stalks confidently towards the final showdown to "end this thing." Hauer is even better. It's next to impossible to sympathize with someone who will gut an entire vacationing family with a switch- blade, but there is a genuine sense of pain just under the surface of this man wandering the highways of America in search of an adversary worthy enough to end his spree. Jen- nifer Jason Leigh, as "The Love In- terest," turns in a performance much more engaging than her character calls for; she isn't given much to do, but she does it with such a sultry beauty that it's hard to keep your mind on the action while she's on the screen. One major flaw: towards the mid- dle of the film, Harmon throws in a totally senseless and gratuitous chase scene with lots of crash and burn ex- plosions. This obvious bow to the box- office does much to undermine the sense of quiet menace that had been building so effectively, and Harmon never quite gets back to the same level. However, he does get close enough for rock and roll, and The Hit- cher remains head and shoulders above most schlock action flicks, and certainly above it's more pretentious thematic equivalent Runaway Train. -Kurt Serbus Ann Arbor Civic Theatre . Auditions ** * Chicago Director, Jim Posante, musical directors Dill Murrell, John Tartaglia and choreographer, TeDee Theofil, have announ- ced that auditions for the big musical, CHICAGO, will be held on March 16, 17, 18 at AACT. Production dates are May 7-10. Roles include: * 2 females (about 30) who can sing, dance, and act " 1 older female (prison matron) (sings and acts like Sophie Tucker) * 6 women (any age) who can act and move * 2 men (over 30) who can sing, dance, and act * * 1 man who plays Mary Sunshine, the gossip * columnist, who must be able to sing soprano * men's singing, moving chorus 46 6486444 66 6 6 6 6 666 6 6 6 68666446o 6 6 o 6 4 6 64bbd6666446 6 46a a oa ba ed o 6 o 6 . d d 6 COUNSELORS NEEDED Are you spending another boring summer in the Bahamas? Why not work at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute Protect your unb prenatal care. Ca, for a free bookletd rn baby with good your local chapter "Be Good To Your .1 ( ., - ..... ... _. .