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Peeping Tor
Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" is considered one of his best films,
ranking up there with "Psycho" and "North By Northwest" and other
thrilling classics. Jimmy Stewart plays an apartment-bound man who
becomes somewhat addicted to looking into the windows of his neigh-
bors, And, oh,he wild things he sees ...! The landmark movie is
showing tonight and Thursday only at the Michigan Theater. Tonight's
show is at 7 o'clock. On Thursday, you may go at 5 p.m.
Tuesday
September 24, 1996
5
Machine rages at sold-out concert
By Coln Bartos
Daily Arts Writer
Something was in the air as the crowd entered sold-
out Cobo Arena for the Rage Against the Machine
show. Maybe it was the weed smoke from the thou-
sands of blunted kids. Maybe it was the mace that the
cops were spraying on us. It might have been those
ings, but I think it was something more.
Something told us this concert was going to be
totally out of hand.
When leadoff hitters Stanford Prison Experiment
took the stage just about at 7:30
p.m., less than half the crowd
had been let in. S.PE. thrashed
through their seven-song, 36-
mjnute set, including four new
trAcks from their eagerly antici-
ted third album. The crowd
Weemed a little more enthusias-
tic when S.P.E. played stuff they recognized, like
"Take It; from their self-titled debut, and "Cansado,"
from "The Gato Hunch." Despite a few people danc-
ing and slamming, the crowd seemed pretty unenthu-
siastic.
Between songs, lead singer Mario Jimenez would
state, "Stanford Prison Experiment," desperately try-
ing to drill home the name in each and every one that
was there, because, obviously, a lot of people are unfa-
miliar with their work. A couple of boos ensued when
.P.E., on the last song of their set, "You're the
ilgarian," went into a five-minute feedback session
which seemed like hours: The crowd really got antsy
and immediately went nuts when Jimenez and Co.
finally returned to the actual song. The finish was
anti-climactic, though, as guitarist Mike Starkey blew
his amp. S.P.E. has learned how to play a crowd, how-
E
a
#h
ever, and they could see a big turnout next time they
roll through Detroit.
After a long pause, Girls Against Boys took the
stage, and the now full-capacity crowd took to them
with a roar. Their set was tight, much like S.P E.'s,
including songs from all their albums, like "Super-
Fire," and "Kill The Sexplayer." The music only
served as a backdrop to what was going on in the
crowd, though. As GVSB played, we on the main floor
decided to start taunting the kids in the seats to come
join us. Big mistake. A near riot ensued as waves of
kids started jumping down from
E V I E W the seven-to-10-foot high barri-
ers and onto the floor. Security
ge Against was not near enough to contain
e Wachine hardly any of the kids, and the
Cobo Arena main floor started to get packed.
Sept. 19, 1996 Fifteen minutes later, cops
started spraying mace at some
of the kids who thought they could make it down to
our floor, which cleared out some of them. However,
most of the kids just wanted more and continued to
come down to the floor, even with the arena lights on
between sets. The blatant disobedience just hyped the
entire crowd even more.
When the lights went down in Cobo, and Rage took
the stage, complete with an upside-down American
flag with "Anarchy 666 FAILED" written on it, all hell
broke loose. From the opening riff of their latest sin-
gle, "People of the Sun," off the platinum "Evil
Empire," the packed pit thrashed and bounced along
with vocalist Zack de La Rocha, and hundreds of
weak souls waiting to hear that now insidious frat
anthem "Killing In the Name" ran for cover.
The band didn't converse with the crowd all that
much; Rage let their music speak for them for the
most part, which it does loud and clear. It seemed
like the songs off of "Evil Empire" hit the crowd the
hardest, including the awesome "Vietnow," the
intense "Without A Face," and "Tire Me," during
which I hit the ground hard. This was no concert for
the young ones. When de La Rocha sang: "So now
I'm rolling down Rodeo with a shotgun. These peo-
ple ain't seen a brown skin man since they grandpar-
ents bought one," from "Down Rodeo," the crowd
sang along as they proceeded to jump and thrash
with delight.
Rage did not slow it down much at all, except for a "
couple of songs, including "Revolver," which was
really mellow until the psycho chorus kicked in. The
sound was good, with Tom Morello recreating a lot of
the wacky guitar sounds he makes very well, pretty
clear vocals from De La Rocha, and tight playing
altogether. Some of the older songs like "Bullet In the
Head" and "Know Your Enemy" sounded very slow
and draggy. You can't blame Rage, though; they've
been playing those songs for almost five years now.
"Killing In The Name" of course got a huge rise out of
the crowd, and all those "rebel" kids just went nuts
when de La Rocha screamed, "Fuck you, I won't do
what ya tell me!"
After taking a couple minute break, de La Rocha
asked, "Are there any Public Enemy fans in the
house?" and Rage decided to cover P E.'s "Black Steel
in the Hour of Chaos." It was a really cool moment.
Rage left the stage after "Freedom," and when the
lights came on, the crowd was physically exhausted
and mentally drained.
When all was said and done, the crowd had been
pummeled and it was out of hand for a while, but I
think people are going to remember this concert as a
great one for a long time. I know I will.
Rage Against the Machine played a sold-out show at Cobo on Sept. 19.
.Actresses
survive in
mediocre
0'Club'
Ryn Posly
Ar Writer
Men are pigs. They are selfish,
unfeeling bastards - at least when they
reach a certain age. Women seem to
have known this for ages, and the new
film "The First Wives Club" draws
from this supposition for much of its
REVIEW
The First
Wives Club
At Briarwood and Showcase
humor. All at the expense, of course, of
men.
But honestly, who cares how much
hale-bashing goes on when such a
comedy dream team as Bette Midler,
Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton is
assembled, right? Right. Three of the
lest comedic (and dramatic) actresses
of their generation, Midler, Hawn and
Keaton have such chemistry together
that one would think they've really been
best friends all their lives.
Melvins enrapture listener with
third major-label release, 'Stag'
Melvins
Stag
Atlantic/Mammoth
The Melvins have been a musical
force to be reckoned with for years,
ever since their underground
hit "Ozma." But "Stag,"
their third major label
album, is the first
album they've made
that is consistently
brilliant and varied
enough to enrapture
the listener into the
album as a whole.
The opening track,
"The Bit;' opens with some
hokey sitar strains, followed hard
by some wicked guitar and bass that
hammer home the Melvins' well-
deserved reputation for being heavy hit-
ters. Singer and guitarist King Buzzo's
lyrics are just as indecipherable, enig-
matic and satisfying as ever. The first
line in the album is "This is for cows."
Just think of all that could mean. The
album title itself can be interpreted var-
ious ways. If this is for cows, then
should it exclude the stags? Then of
course, there's all the porno references
that stag can tie into. Title and lyrics are
interpretable all around.
"Bar-X-The Rocing M" features
Fishbone trombonist Walt Kibby toot-
ing his own horn through some mean
distortion layered in amongst some
organ and the classic Melvins crunch.
(Not the Malachi Crunch, that was in
"Happy Days.") Tight and mean and
moderately fast, this is the stuff singles
are made of. It is buffered on either
side by instrumentals, one
written by bassist Mark
* Deutrom, the other by
Buzz. The pacing
these slower pieces
give the album make
it an extremely'
enjoyable experi-
ence, and it continues
through the rest of the
album as well.
"The Bloat" is a stripped
down song, featuring minimal
instruments and illustrates just how
effective Buzz's grainy screech can be.
This is followed by the playful "Tipping
the Lion." Beginning with some trickily
high strained guitar notes, whispery
vocals and mellow bass, it changes
directions mid song to moderately
more aggressive bass and significantly
more aggressive vocals. The effect is an
impressior of ferocity welded to an
almost psychedelic sensibility, making
for an amazingly successful song.
It is, however, eclipsed by the next
song, "Black Bock." The music and the
vocals are drippingly light and poppy,
beginning with some child-like pluck-
ing of guitar strings. At the same time,
this is totally undercut by the lyrics. "I
cut the throat of a billy goat and let it
bleed / His frozen eyes will fall more
than I It's kinda nice to know the
things that make you happy / Just real-
ize, keep the dog away from me." All
this and whistling. The song is an expe-
rience in and of itself and would be
worth the cost of the CD.
The rest of the album is anti-climac-
tic compared to "Black Bock." Several
passable songs come up and pass, not
measuring up to the standard set until
"Skin Horse." Its slowly paced intro-
ductory verse (but there is no other
verse) leading up to its stinging chorus
(which isn't repeated) of nearly cliche
phrases thrown together is good, and
the ultimate pingy piano and distorted-
to-Chipmunk-heights vocals return to
the playfulness that makes this such a
See RECORDS, Page 8
The three-headed monsteri
Midler, Hawn and Keaton play
Brenda, Elise and Annie, respectively,
three women who are left by their hus-
bands for younger girls. Although they
were friends in college, they have drift-
ed apart since. Brenda and Annie mar-
ried wealthy men and became house-
wives, while Elise became a movie star
and married a director. The death of
another college friend (who killed her-
self after her husband left her) brings
Brenda, Elise and Annie together again,
where they discover that they are all
going through the same thing. So they
band together and begin to devise a way
to get revenge, or, as they put it, "jus-
tice."
What follows is frequently a riot of
physical comedy. Midler, Hawn and
Keaton are three masters of physical
comedy, but they rarely get a chance to
show their chops anymore. One
sequence has them trapped in Brenda's
See WIVES, Page 8
mow