RTS
D.C. bands sizzle brightly
O1y ANDY DOLAN
It's easy to see the similarities between Velocity Girl
and Tsunami; afterall, they both hail from Washington, D.
C. and they both offer guitar washes, beautiful chord
changes and extreme loudness. However, both bands use
their devices in a
drastically differ-
ent way, and these
Velocity Girl / differences could
not have been
more apparent
Blind Pig than at this show.
October 7, 1993 Tsunami took
the stage first,
opening with a brilliant instrumental that wasn't jangly,
ethereal or even sweetly melodic; it even defied the "pop"~
label. The abrupt tempo and volume changes were there,
of course, but it endearingly avoided the trap of turning
into a simple, three-chord tune. In fact, nearly all of
Tsunami's set stuck to this ideal; they could have easily
e tten away with falling back on a catchy riff pumped up
with some concert-level volume, but they just refused.
Instead, Tsunami gave us songs that burned with
wonderful energy and complexity. Even the quietest mo-
ments had so many elements to be discovered, such as a
background guitar wail, a feedback pseudo-melody or a
warped noise emerging out of nowhere. On stage, though,
the band seemed amazingly down-to-earth, and had com-
plete control every step of the way.
Closing their set with a song that started out as a
peaceful, melancholy groove and built up to a scorching
flood of sound, Tsunami proved that they will never be
satisfied with creating ear friendly bliss-pop; they need so
much more than that.
Velocity Girl, on the other hand, are jangly, ethereal
and sweetly melodic. They aren't particularly unique in
style, but when their magical but simple vocal and guitar
lines combined with the extreme noise level in just the
right way, it didn't seem to matter. When you hear them,
your mind wants to be critical because you know you've
heard their sugary-pop formula a hundred times before,
but the music is so addictive that the rest of you just
doesn't care.
At this show, Velocity Girl's bestmoments were songs
like the wonderful "Audrey's Eyes" and the set closer,
"Forgotten Favorite," when they discovered some beauti-
ful melodies that the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Lush
and the Pale Saints never quite got around to inventing.
The rest of the set consisted mainly of harsher versions of
tracks from the band's latest album, "Copacetic." Despite
this, there were many moments that left one wishing for
Velocity Girl to just stray a little bit from the beaten path
of guitar music and to complement their intensity with a
sense of adventure that their music sometimes lacks.
Judging from this show, Tsunami have a great deal to
offer due to their stubborn insistence on writing more than
just addictive pop songs. Velocity Girl's music could
offer so much more than it does, if they would just blend
their remarkable talent of catching a great tune with a style
that breaks out of the trappings of their over-used meth-
ods. Still, these bands put on a great concert, and showed
that they are both worth paying attention to in the future.
'Little Jo' stretches too far
By SARAH STEWART
Remember "Yehtil," that irritat-
ing musical with Barbara Streisand as
a woman pretending to be a man so
she can overcome the oppression of a
male dominated society and live to
sing about it?
The Ballad of Little Jo
Written and directed by Maggie
Greenwald; with Suzy Ais, David
Chung and Bo Hopkins
Well, remember it or not the tra-
dition of "Yentil" lives in the forget-
table new film, "The Ballad of Little
Jo."
The story is interesting enough.
After being scorned by her influential
Eastern family for giving birth to an
illegitinate oion, ftef6(S izy nis),
heads out West to seek the fortune
men dream about in the Gold Rush.
The catch is, she's not a man, and
e vicious abuse she suffers quickly
reminds her of this fact. With little or
no contemplation, she adopts the "if
you can't beat 'em, join 'em" ap-
proach and takes on a new male per-.
sona.
By symbolically stripping herself
of her womanhood, she becomes a
man. The cameraclosely follows Jo's
removal of her dress, the tragic cut-
.ting of her hair and ultimately the
self-infliction of a scar that allows her
to divert attention from her "clean-
shaven" male face. Each action is
skillfully accompanied by a flash-
back, revealing segments of her scan-
dalous past. This transformation from
woman to man is the defining point of
Little Jo's life, but it also marks a
premature climax in the evolution of
the film. From hereon, potential flaws
in characterization and substance are
deemed actual.
The beginning of the movie re-
lates the violent trials of the female Jo
and requires little verbal communica-
tion by Amis. But the "birth" of the
male Jo, a logically more complex
character, is poorly acted. Obviously
the change from male to female is
drastic and would require adjustments
to the behavior of even a real person
in the same situation but Amis exag-
gerates this fact. Her acting is stiff
and unnatural, making an already rare
situation even harder to accept, and
ultimately fails to win the sympathy
of the audience.
But Amis isn't all to blame. Little
Jo's supposed anguish is lessened by
Well, remember It or
not, the tradition of
"Yentil" lives in the
forgettable new film,
"The Ballad of Little
Jo."
the inadequacies and incompleteness
of the film itself. In one instance, she
boldly takes on a job as the winter
sheep herder, where she will live four
cold months in solitude, risking her
sanity to prove that she can do any job
a man can do. Except the audience
never realizes the extremity of her
hardships; she meets the sheep, learns
to take care of herself and returns to
the mining camp unscathed and seem-
ingly unchanged. Any evidence of
growth or a new sense of determina-
tion keeps itself even better hidden
than Little Jo's true identity.
On the other hand, the film's re-
curring theme of the "outcast" could
have benefited from a more discrete
presentation. Writer/director Maggie
Greenwald creates an unrealistically
large and unbelievably diverse group
of characters all suffering from the
same outcast hardships and in turn
makes each of these characters' pre-
dicaments so expected that the amount
of effort put forth in creating them
seems minimal. When Little Jo's
eventual lover Tinman Wong (David
Chung), the unfairly persecuted Asian,
reveals his chest and the scars that
adorn it, the parallel to Jo's scar
couldn't be easier to predict. And
who wouldn't have guessed that the
Euroenimmigrants' life on the fro-7
tier would ultimately fail to live up to
the paradise they had envisioned?
Character development is harmfully
and unnecessarily sacrificed for the
sake of tedious righteousness.
Taking "The Ballad of Little Jo"
seriously, as a film meant to portray
the Old West from the unique per-
spective of a woman on equal terms
with her male counterparts, is a diffi-
cult task. When Little Jo finally kills
a man, there is an opportunity to con-
clude with some of the glory of
"Thelma and Louise's" final scene,
but the film refuses to end.
There is such a thing as too much
of a good thing, an idea "The Ballad
of Little Jo" might have learned from.
THE BALLAD OF LII7LE O is
playing at the Michigan Theater.
Ani Kavafian had to struggle to overcome the acoustic obstacles at. Rackham. However, she certainly did it well.
Rackham acoustics plague
otherwise good performance
if..,
By VALERIE SHUMAN
Classical music should not be performed in Rackham.
The acoustics are simply not right. The performance
Saturday night by Andre Watts and others was consis-
tently undermined by this problem; as all the plush chairs
and carpeting'absorbedthesound,,robbing-itof the depth
and resonance it should have had. The artists, on the other
hand, were all impressive musicians, and each carried his
or her part with professional skill.
The first piece
' was the Debussy
An Evening with "Premiere,
rapsodie for
Andre Watts Clarinet and Pi-
Rackham Auditorium ano," performed
October 10, 1993 by David Shifrin,
clarinet, and
Andre Watts, pi-
ano. It was a gem. Shifrin's clarinet sound was exception-
ally smooth, and he demonstrated a tremendous range and
expressiveness. Watts, on his part, produced a marvel-
ously shimmery effect which was ideal for the impres-
sionistic music.
Next up were Gary Hoffman, cello, Ani Kavafian,
violin and Andre Watts with the "Trio in B flat Major for
Piano, Violin and Cello" by Franz Schubert. Here the hall
really caused problems, especially for the violin.
The sound simply wouldn't carry, and she was forced,
to pull hard to project at all, which led to occasionally
rough bowing. It is to the credit of both the violin and the
violinist, however, that the sound almost never seemed
forced.
On the bright side, the other instruments fared some-
what better, and the ensemble playing was mostly amaz-
ing. There were afew slightly shaky syncopated passages,
but by and large, the three instrumentalists were so attuned
to each other they might have been parts of a single person.
The second movement in particular was gorgeous.
Marcia Butler and Andre Watts performed the "Sonata
for Oboe and Piano" by Poulenc just after the intermis-
sion. Her playing can only be described as authoritative,
as she surefootedly handled the music.
The final two pieces were something of a disappoint-
ment, although here too the poor acoustics played a part.
The "Variations on a Theme by Beethoven for Two
Pianos" by Saint Saens was just not a very interesting
piece, often alternating the two pianos (played by Georg
Schenck and Andre Watts) in simple exchanges that were
decidedly not musically challenging. There were mo-
ments, here and there, where the music became more
demanding, and the interplay between musicians came
alive, but by and large the piece was just boring.
"Variations on a Theme by Paganini, for Two Pianos"
by Wiltold Lutoslawski, on the other hand, is a fantastic,
exuberant piece, full of surprises and humor, and requires
a deft touch and extremely good telepathy. The two
pianists did not have this. The difficult passages were not
always executed well, and this made the music clunky and
mechanical, as each performer waited for the other. The
hall contributed to the clunkiness, taking resonance out of
the dramatic crashes, and leaving them simply ... crashes.
Despite the difficulties, however, the concert as a
whole was a showcase of fine musicians. There were no
staid chamber groups there, but instead a collection of
talented individuals who all contributed energy and skill
to the performance.
'Feld B allets provide creative show
By JODY FRANK
One of Eliot Feld's major contri-
butions to the style of ballet is the
innovative use ofarms. The first dance
"Ion," a solo danced by Buffy Miller,
focused on the creative use of arms.
Instead of the traditional positions,
*he moved her arms in angled pat-
Feld Ballets/NY
Power Center
October 9, 1993
One aspect of the performance
that personalized the dancers, was
that during the intermissions a hand-
ful of dancers would come out on
stage in their sweats and warm-up to
practice moves from the dances ac-
companied by technicians walking
across the stage setting lights, in a
kind of performance that could never
be choreographed.
"Doo Dah Day" is a dance accom-
panied by sentimental music but is
anything but sentimental. Each sec-
tion was full of comic exaggerated
movements. The costumes were dif-
ferent colored unitards which added
energy to the dance. Feld used sexual
movements that molded the dancer's
bodies together even as they flipped
each other over and around.
In the duet danced to "Linger In
Blissful Repose," Katja Wirth was
like a rag doll that Clay Jackson was
plaving with. She began the dance
ing a different costume, but the light-
ing, music and style of dance were
also different. However, the dance
itself was much more exciting than
his first solo and really showed the
power of his muscular body.
Using an interesting mix of dance
styles, "Common Ground" was the
most traditional dance. The dancers
all wore black unitards that created a
thrilling unity making the piece work
together as they danced, not in synch,
but in a kind of "follow my lead."
This was one of the two dances (the
other was "Evoe") that incorporated
pointe - both very effectively. It
would have been nice to see more
pointe. The bright lighting, white
background and white floor were the
perfect setting.
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terns that were very exciting and sharp.
46'elighting was usedcreatively, shift-
ing its origin and alternating between
making a square then two rectangles
on the floor. Her costume was a com-
bination dress over baggy pants in
two shades ofred that was distracting.
In the next dance "Evoe: a
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