ARTS Monday, October 26, 1987 The Michigan Daily Page 7 Rhythm and By Mike Rubin Tonight and tomorrow night at the Power Center herald the return to Ann Arbor of America's most happening hep-cat, Tom Waits. One of the last true American originals, and certainly the most creative performer currently shopping his wares on a major label, Waits defies the usually saccharine limits of the "singer/songwriter" genre. Waits has transformed his career from being a lonely troubadour of the American road, an amusing but unimportant musical outcast carry- ing his piano on his back a n d bunions on his feet, to a critically acclaimed artiste and media darling, appearing or. the David Letterman show and it, several films, most recently in the bayou noir film Down By Law. Waits has achieved this new- found attention via a startling and stimulating musical evolution. Throughout the '70s he recorded several albums for Asylum Records, full of piano tinkling, stream-of- consciousness beatnik jazz. While entertaining, he seemed forever destined to wear the loser's fedora as he ranted and raved to anyone who cared to listen at the neighborhood speakeasy. He was a throwback to an earlier day, an obsessive but essen- tially retrogressive poet of the piss factories and pool rooms of America's stark white underbelly, the chain-smoking chatterer at the counter of an Edward Hopper diner, still waiting patiently for his coffee to arrive. In 1983 Waits jumped to Island Records and traded in his crown as bard of the Bowery for a more modern persona as the Captain Beefheart of the homeless shelter. He trimmed his song lengths in half, allowing for twice as many tunes per 'Blue' record and paving the way for some eclectic musical experimentation. Waits left the beret and piano far behind (probably at some truck stop) and moved into a realm beyond even accordion, toying with such bizarre noisemakers as pump organs and an optigon, musical flotsam and jetsam that was more at home in grand- father's attic than in a recording studio. The result was 1983's Swordfishtrombones and 1985's Rain Dogs, two of the most challenging records of the decade, and the recent Frank's Wild Years, a collection of songs from Waits' romantic opera of the same name. Waits' characters are still straight out of Picasso's blue period, but for the first time their sob stories and swan songs have instrumentation that is just as interesting. Waits spins yarns like a bad-karma Kerouac, creating a world of Cuban period jails and Hong Kong beds, two dollar pistols and small-time Napoleons, shadow boys and red bell dames, shiny Roosevelt dimes and donuts that have names that sound like prostitutes, all brought to life with his trademark voice. It's that voice that sets Waits apart from all others, leaving him alone at the bottom of the scrap heap as the Duke of Hard Knocks, keeping the daily diary of the AmericantNightmare.A deep, guttural growl that rises up from somewhere between the pancreas and duodenum. A black rabbit pulled from beneath the magician's belt. A serrated and sinewy column of smoke that rises up from an eternally burning Lucky Strike, to grab the listener by the ears, nose, and throat for a hell of a good head cold. Tom Waits will perform at the Power Center tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16.50. Tom Waits will return to Ann Arbor for the first time in seven years with two shows at the Power Center. Ubu' s smokestack rock By Mike Rubin Tonight at Alvin's in Detroit marks the return to the concert stage of legendary late '70s post-punk carbon monoxide rockers Pere Ubu. After an absence of over five years during which members pursued various solo projects, America's first and last "avant-garage" band has resumed operating under the Ubu banner. Pere Ubu in their prime were a brutal, brilliant, and bouyant beast, roaring with the dynamic discord and dadaism one might imagine of a group which takes their name from a character in an Alfred Jarry play. Join the Daily Arts Page Call: 763-0379 From their infancy in Cleveland, Ohio, an area known more for its factory spires than for musical pioneers (unless you consider Joe Walsh on the cutting edge of sonic experimentation), the band came across sounding like some strange fermentation of industrial grime and basement lint. Beginning their recording career as a straight-ahead but stripped-down rock band punctuated by synthesized steam returns belchings from Allen Ravenstine, kinetic assembly line guitar licks from Tom Herman and the late Peter Laughner, and loony lunch hour whelping from lead singer David See PERE UBU Page 9 IPi Delta Pi Delta Pi Delta Pi Delta Pi Delta Pi Del Ii A LOVES THEIR PLEDGES: Jodi Albert Dara Goldschmidt Lois Ranthun Diane Bajefsky Stephanie Corin Cindy Sanders Emily Bums Rebecca Jacobs Andrea Scampa Laura Davis Shari Korn Dawn Sievert Lori Feiner Lauren Lane Lisa Stegman Jackie Friedman Lisa Long Kelly Stock Linda Frye Kelly Machiorlatti Paige Tocco Becky Gaynier Merritt Massuch Jodi Wolff Shari Glassberg Kelly McLean Gayle Yourofsky Carrie McDonald Jennifer Meyers Mary Beth Moenssen Carrie Nelson Christina Pelletier Jennifer Piehl The Michigan Daily CLASSIFIED MAIL-IN FORM 1 1 I INThUCTIO$ _ __ __ _ __ __ 1. Form must be filled out completely. 2. 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