Wednesday, September 6, 2000 - The Michigan Daily - New. Student Edition - 3D ROCKIN' IN A FREE WORLD Wyclefs Harper and the 'Criminals' steal show 111us1Ca *Carnival grings Hill By Gautam Baksi Daily Arts WNriter - This review originally ran in *he Dail' on March 31, 2000. Singer Wyclef Jean and the Refugee Allstars brought The Car- nival to town last night. Didn't you hear the 5,000 screaming fans storming the stage at Hill? Didn't you hear The Product singin' "Maria, Maria"? Didn't you hear Wyclef proclaiming himself as the "black Dirk Diggler"? If not, he romises to return to the University simply because "The ladies in this school be bangin'!" What began the night as an ordi- nary rap/hip-hop show at Hill Audi- torium turned into a two hour marathon of sampling, simulated sex, spontaneous reggae and a cele- bration of youth. Shortly past 8:30 p.m., Jean entered the stage with a tribute to Bob Marley's slow, but immortal .renditions of "No Womnan, No Cry." The young Haitian wasted no time in energizing the crowd with his ghetto-meets-the-Bee-Gee's ver- sion of WYCLEF EAN "Stayin' HtLL AUDITORIUM A It v e." ConceDate: J a n .Ntarrclst/,20 ami xcd Tour Gaisspsuors .cotcJ his at- i irerelsircekWeek. dio vers- W es with freestylin' rhymes as the audience clapped their hands and waved them from side to side, mimicking moves of the Refugee Allstars onstage. Stripping down to a white tank top (which he eventually ripped off), Jean challenged the crowd's best to strut their stuff on-stage. A young man and woman climbed on- stage only to be quickly booed off. SJean's urging, the next couple gyrated their bodies as the Fred Durst lookalike tried to seduce the young, blonde girl who joined him. Finally, a third couple accepted Jean's challenge and nearly brought down the house. They proceeded to grind their bodies to the heavy beats of the DJ before lying down and proceeding to thrust their hips into each other. he audience erupted with applause as Jean smiled with approval. Mixing Fugee classics with D MX, House of Pain, Michael Jackson, Prince and even the '80s one-hit-wonder A-Ha, Jean spent else majority of the night acting as a JJto the hrihly charred crowd. In between songs, he blasted both Puff -'Paddy for his over-used sampling and his former friend Cannibas for his back-stabbing lyrics. * Mixing humor with political activisim and his passion for his green ftiend ganja, Jean reminded the crowd, This ain't MTV! Fuck See WYCLEF Page 4p By Christopher Cousino Daily Arts Editor --This review originally ran in the Daily on October 29, 1999. "This is close. We are close," mused the beautiful, soft-spoken frontman during the first pause between songs in Wednesday night's show, "I'm digging it." As for the audience - well, they dug it too. Before a packed, energetic crowd at Hill Auditorium, the genuine Ben H a r p e r BEN HARPER gave a definitive HtLL AUDITORIUM p e r fo r - Cocert Da te m a n c e October 27,1999 t h a t Tour:tIis t titheiratest s p o k e OpenerJosephArt loud and - - - - -- --se clear to those listening - Harper is one hell of a musician. Spanning over two hours and two encores, Harper played through countless instrument changes and styles, ranging from bluegrass, funk, blues and rock to Motown and even grunge. Treating the audience with a musi- cal whirl of lap guitar slides and the gentle care and intensity of his as the Innocent Criminals. Entering the darkened stage about 20 minutes after middle-of-the-road opener Joseph Arthur left with his guitar, beatbox and John Lennon looks in tow, Mr. Harper and the Irnocent Criminals, comprised of drummer Dean Butterworth, percus- sionist David Leach and bassist Juan Nelson, sat down to play. And play they did. After an excit- ing opening of the smooth, fresh groove of crowd favorite "Gold To Me," Harper melded right into the loud bass and funk guitar of another classic, "Fight For Your Mind." Mid- way through, Nelson began to shake and bop to the beat, which lead poet- ically into a five-minute fusion of various chromatic bass patterns. Nelson owned this song and the rhythms of the crowd as he sauntered from stage right to left, playing directly to the cheering students in the front rows. After briefly acknowledging the closeness of the crowd, the band eased into the first song of the show from their latest release, "Burn To Shine," with "Forgiven." Harper's quiet acoustic gave way to an explo- sion of the loud, abrasive guitar-dri- ven chorus. In slowing the opening of the con- cert, Harper took a moment to speak with the audience - yet it was sim- ply to give a generous, poignant recognition of all the people that made the show possible. He gave credit to everyone from the stage manager to the bus driver to the Innocent Criminals before getting back to business. Harper's genuine nature as a musician comes not just in his evi- dent urgency to play music rather than talk and bull shit about non- sense but in his intense, pained screams in such songs as "Please Bleed" or his slick twang of double guitar in the rock swing of"Burn To Shine." While much of the show focused on songs off their latest album, Harper and the Innocent Criminals couldn't let such favorites as "Burn One Down" and "Oppression" go unheard. With the light, whimsical acoustic guitar of"Down," cheers of recognition rang out at Leach's hip, rolling drum beats The excited, grooviIg crowd eventually joined Harper in singing the fun chorus. See HARPER, Page 4D FILE PHOTO,/Daiy The vibrant vocal stylings of singer/songwriter Ben Harper ring "Gold to Me." vocals, Harper sat atop his holy chair but a full fledged musician -- and center stage to perform as an artist, one who's backed by an outstanding not a rock star, not an entertainer, group of musicians otherwise known BOTTLES AND CANS, CLAP YOUR HANDS the ILEPHOO/Dilye. n t ldnie V ltu es'LEFT: Trippy hipster Beck and the 'Midnte ultures' tour swooies, and some of SA I . 4nt'ex guys, scream intoAnn 4rbo t t thwith his guitar skills By Gabe Fajuri and bathed in a barrage of high speed light- and Chris Kula . ing, Beck took the audience on a trip through Daily Arts Editors the depths of his often unintelligible mind, stopping at destinations that ineluded six This review eriginall' iert1 in the Daily additional tracks from "Vultures, with tare Febrnarr 4, 2000. upbeat numbers like "Milk & Honey,' Last night at Hill Auditorium, Beck turned "Peaches & Cream" and "Sexx Laws" the it up, and made "all the people scream." The album's current smigle, all making appear- seminal solo artist of our generation (so far), ances. Beck has been called loser, slacker and Though the first three songs of the evening genius. On Thursday, he proved himself a seemed a bit tentative, as soon as the now mastermind, both theatrically and musically. familiar opening sample of "New Pollution" For a solid hour and 40 minutes, Beck and rang through the loudspeakers, a triumphant Iis skin-tight backing band delivered a roes- cheer escaped the crowd's lips, and the Beck itg mix of funk, folk and rock - transcend- train was truly off and rolling. mg genre and warping labels. For a few moments, though, during a mid- From the open- set acoustic portion of the show, the train BECK ing groove of nearly ground to a halt, though Beck HILL AUDITORIUM "Mixed Bizness.' adding harmonica to his acoustic guitar Concertate: Beck and Co. strummi in - made every effort to keep F.e'rhary n3,: (made up of a things energetic. Highlights of this section off Ton:h rroithirnist three-piece horn the show included selections from last year's