0
Page 8-The Michigan Daily- Thursday, October 31, 1991
To you, Club Heidelberg, we
bid a solemn and humble adieu
who
what
where
by Scott Sterling
0 ne of the last bastions of live
music in Ann Arbor, Club
Heidelberg, is shutting it's doors
for the last time tonight. Local
heroes Frank Allison and the Odd
Sox will grace the stage for the
bar's swan-song showcase.
The reasons behind the Hei-
delberg's closing are so bizarre
they'd be funny, if they weren't
Stories about
Kochendorfer's manic
behavior is legendary.
He routinely
cancelled shows at
the last minute, threw
bands out of their
dressing rooms,
fought with the band
members themselves,
demanded more
money from the door
- the list is endless
true. Jim Gibbons, the Heidelberg's
manager, tells a grim tale of the
club's demise. "Basically, Fritz
Kochendorfer (the owner of the
building) chased us out, just like he
did to the Mainstreet Comedy
Showcase before us," Gibbons said.
"He would regularly assault my
partner, Roland Diaz-Perez, who
eventually quit. I was doing every-
thing - bookings, mixing sound,
lights, you name it. No one would
work for this guy."
Stories about Kochendorfer's
manic behavior is legendary. He rou-
tinely cancelled shows at the last
minute, threw bands out of their
dressing rooms, fought with the
band members themselves, de-
manded more money from the door
- the list is endless. Gibbons has
even filed assault charges against
Kochendorfer on two separate occa-
sions. "He's basically an alcoholic
whose main concern is protecting
his liquor license," fumed Gibbons
in a recent phone call.
Another reason for the end of the
Heidelberg is the lack of students
attending shows. "I get more re-
quests from bands wanting to play
in a day than the number of people
that attend the shows," Gibbons
said. "You do the math."
Gibbons explained that he sees
this lack of student interest as the
result of a disturbing trend he's seen
in young people in general. "Kids
aren't going out to rock shows any-
more. Nobody's partying like they
used to," he said. "I guess they're
all staying in their dorm rooms and
listening to Paula Abdul or some-
thing."
And so goes another of the few
places left in town to see live music.
In a city like Ann Arbor, which is
overflowing with talented bands
and musicians, this is a real loss. It's
shameful that bands like Big Chief
and Etch-a-Sketch have to go to
Detroit or other surrounding col-
The Smithereens is one of those
bands that cannot have a nickname.
"The 'Rines" would be stupid, and
"the Smiths" is taken. And yeah, the
group's fourth album, Blow Up, was
a bit of a disappointment after the
classic Smithereens 11, and singer
Pat DiNizio's goatee is now much
more clean-cut. But great tunes like
"Time and Time Again" and
"Yesterday Girl" will be at the
Power Center tonight, waiting for
you to rock along. Tickets are $18.50
in advance from TicketMaster (plus
evil service charge).
"Each one must arrange his outer
mask as best he can. For inside of it
there is then the inner mask, which
often fails to square with the outer.
And nothing is true!" wrote Luigi
Pirandello, a turn of the century
playwright who devoted his works
to the Italian school of the Theater
of the Grotesque. All of Piran-
dello's plays, which he collectively
called naked masks, deal with the
idea of humanity's struggle with
life and the putting on and shedding
off of different personality masks.
Appropriately, this disguise-rid-
den Halloween weekend, the
Basement Arts will be presenting
when
one of Pirandello's little knowtl
works, Man, Beast, and Virtue. t -
the play, Captain Perella has left his,
wife alone, while he has been away
at sea and with his mistress
Meanwhile, Mrs. Perella has taken a
lover and become pregnant. WhR
the Captain returns unexpectcedl?
Mrs. Perella must crtice her unin-z
terested husband to slce'p with he
in order to keep up the charade of her
fidelity. Performances are at 5
today, tomorrow and Saturday in
the Arena Theatre, located in the,
basement of the Frieze buildin
Admission is free.
and Primus. Do you ever think abut-
this? 'an.
KH: People do think of us like.:
that?
AP: Yeah. The average metal fw
lumps you with Queensryche ratheW,
than Primus or Faith No More, yoiu;
friends or whatever.0A
K H: I think the people who jt 9
found out about us within the last
year or so tend to think that way"
And I think the people that have
known about us for a while would,
tend to associate us with Faith No
Kahn
METAL
Continued from page 5
it's good that it's changing, and I
think a lot of bands like Godflesh,
which is, like, an industrial metal
band, and the other side of the spec-
trum is, like, Primus, which is, like,
a dance-psycho-R&B-funk-punk
metal band. You know, it's good
that it's opening itself up to, like,
different influences, but as a whole,
the word heavy metal is just diluted
and very loosely defined nowa-
days... But I definitely think it's
here to stay and it's not going any-
where, music of this caliber.
AP: Are you guys sick of being ac-
cused of selling out every time you
release an album?
KH: Well, I mean, we could've,
hike, made (an album) that had noth-
ing but a bunch of fast songs, music
that all our hardcore fans would
buy right off the bat. It would sell
at least a million right off the bat.
But what we wanted to do is, we
wanted to experiment, go out on a
limb. I mean, for us, to put out an
album of fast songs, that would be
selling out, you know, in Metallica
terms. Because we know our audi-
ence is there, and we know that we
could stick to a certain formula and
have a guaranteed sell. But, I mean,
we went out on a limb, we took cer-
tain risks and took certain chances
and made the album we did. And if
people think that's selling out, I
mean, come on, I mean, we took
some pretty heavy chances. And
then, after the album was done and
completed, only then did people
start to talk about radio songs and
videos, andwe were kind of taken
aback. We didn't know that
'We're not Guns N' Roses. They play just A.
whatever. There is a definite set list, but it's
structured so we can go off on different
variations of a theme, you know? I think in the'
first part of the tour, it's going to be changin
a lot, 'cause that's the way it always happens,
-Kirk Hammat,;
on Metallica's concert identiWy
sI
"Sandman" would be as successful
as it has been. And it's interesting.
AP: Are you doing anymore MTV
stuff?
KH: Yeah, we just did a video for
"The Unforgiven." And we did that
last month and that should be de-
buting on MTV, like, within the
next week or so. And it's a different
type of video. It's a conceptual video
with a plot. And it's going to be in-
teresting. It's something that we've
never done ever before, and we're
very curious to see how it's going to
Alternative Music
THURSDAYS IN THE UNDERGROUND
$3.00 Pitcherst
Drink Specials: bok
$1.75 shots of Ouzo #12 9 p.m. 1 a.m.
The Wesley Foundation at the University of Michigan
lege towns to get gigs. We need to'
support our music scene right here
in Ann Arbor. But, as Gibbons said,
"A music scene in Ann Arbor? I
didn't know that there was one."
FRANK ALLISON performs tonight
with BRENDA KAHN tonight at
Club Heidelberg. Cover is $4 and
doors open at 9:30 p.m.
ANA'
5TH AVE. AT LIBERTY 761.700
3 oDALY SHOWS BEFORE 8 PM
1T3-ENALLDAY TUESDAY* -exceptions
STUDENT WITH I.D. $350
CITY OF HOPE (R)
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO R
Combo Coupon!
Present this coupon
when purchasing a
large popcorn and
receive one
Expires 11 6, 1
Presents
i
O e
be received... It's not like MTV
Video Awards, like, really obvious
what's going on. You know, like
boy meets girl, they goof around on
train tracks and kiss each other un-
der a tree, and then, you know, girl
meets boy. It's nothing like that.
It's a bit more subtle, and a bit sub-
lime at the same time. And I really
don't want to talk too much about
it, but it should be interesting.
AP: In the past it seemed like you
avoided MTV. Why are you doing so
much with it now?
KH: Well, I think now's the time
for us. I mean, MTV is ready for us,
and we're ready for MTV. Let's fact
it, back in the Eighties, especially,
like, eighty-four, eighty-five, you're
typical hard rock video had a bunch
of dancing girls and concert footage,
and that's basically what it was.
Videos have come so far nowadays,
as far as creativity goes and as far as
technology goes. I mean there's a lot
more you can do now. The format
has a lot more integrity also. And I
think we're ready for that. We've
discovered that it's a genre we can
experiment more with now. We're
ready to work with it.
AP: You're from San Francisco.
And you're in Metallica, which a
lot of people associate in their
minds with Motley Crue and Judas
Priest, rather than Faith No More
More and Primus. I mean, that's'-
what I would think. I don't knowif
I'm wrong or not.
AP: What do you think of Motley,
Crue and bands like that?
KH: Well you know, they're goody
at what they do. It's not my cup pn1
tea.
AP: A lot of people accuse metal op
being sexist. Do you think that's
true?
KH: Certain bands are sexist. But I f
don't think heavy metal, overall, i
sexist. I think it's more the bands
than the music, obviously. I think
that's a situation that's similar to...
saying all men are sexist, when tht'e
truth of the matter is that certain-
men are sexist. I think they're"
stereotyping people when you sayv
things like that. r
AP: Are there Metallica groupies? a-
KH: Yeah, we have a certain numberZ
of avid fans. We get approached, bud #
you know, anyone that gets a certain
amount of spotlight or glamor at-
tracts that element. I mean, go6WeL
players get groupies. Bowlers get
groupies. Politicians get groupies.
It's something that just comes wi'6
the territory.
METALLICA jams at the Palace of
Auburn Hills Saturday and Sundat
nights at 8 p.m. Both shows are sold:0'
out.
....
November 1, 1991
.th 8pm
At the First United Methodist Church
On the Corner of State & Huron
Also
"Male Sexuality & Masculine
Spirituality: Where are we headed?"
Workshop Saturday, November 2nd
Friends of the Ann Arbor Public Library
B4 0
BOOK SHOP 0
RE-OPENS
Fri., Nov. 1
Preview Sa
(joinatthe
Sat., Nc
Sun., Nov
ANN
PUBLI
343
(iowl
G"/
1--5:30-8:30 pm
ale for Members
door for $5.00)
10am
At Canterbury House, 218 N. Division
Dr. James Nelson
ov. 2 -- 10-4
. 3 -- 1:30-4:30
I
i
i
*
for more information call 668-6881
Co-sponsored by: American Baptist Campus Foundation, Campus Chapel,
Canterbury House, Guild House, Office of Ethics & Religion, Lord of Light
Lutheran Church, & The Wesley Foundation
J ARBOR
C LIBRARY
3S. 5TH
ver level)
Henry M. Loud Lecture Series
THURSDAY--HALLOWEEN
PARTY
with ThN1Ap T'R16OL X SATURDAY-
*STEEL DRUM BAND* $ OPEN AT 11:30
HAPPY HOUR 12-5
NO COVER UNTIL 7:00
BIG SCREEN T.V.!!!
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61 CI'Grch 996 2747
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FRDY-AP HO $1PITHES.
-H>_ .
Say, I uh... hate for
interrupt you while you're C
reading and all, but I {
thought you might like to
pick up the next FREE
issue of the Gargoyle
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