East Quad kids are nuts!
Come to the East Quad auditorium
tonight at 8 p.m. or tomorrow at 2 and
pi.m. for "Return to the Forbidden
anet," a Shakespearean robot-musical
featuring guitar solos by John Wyatt.
michigandaily.com/arts
xARTS 39
0
FRID.Y
MARCH 16, 2001
Dynamic G-Men get down .
and charitable this weekend
The "kissable" Donnas play the Magic Stick Sunday night.
Irreverent grrrl band Turns 21,
slings guitar, demands respect
By Jamie Schey
Daily Arts Writer
They can sing. They can dance. They're cute, and
they're all male. No, it's not 'N Sync - they're the
Gentlemen, more commonly known as the G-Men -
and quite frankly, these guys are capable of running 'N
Sync right off of the stage. The G-Men are among the
best of the University's all-male a cappella groups, and
tomorrow night marks their seventh annual perfor-
mance here.
The G-men began in 1995 with a
few dynamic male voices and a
G-Men Spring dteam: To be "truly entertaining."
According to group member Corey
Concert Sluisky, "[the C-men] are a perfor-
Angel Aud A mance group ... not just people
singing onstage."
Sturday at s p m. With a repertoire of sonugs rang-
ing from Queen's "This Thing
Called Love" to Everclear's hit
song "AM Radio," the G-men have
all-around excellent sound and
spirited style. "[We will be per-
forming] lots of new stuff and lots
of old stuff," says group member
Bob Humbracht. "We try to vary our repertoire as
much as possible."
Just returning from a tour in North Carolina and Vir-
ginia, and in the process of creating a CD that will be
released in May, these men are quite busy. Future plans
also include a performance at the University Students
against Cancer benefit, to be held on March 19th.
The G-Men work hard to bring fun a cappella to the
University campus, to get the audience involved, and
to just have a good time. They will be holding audi-
tions at the end of the semester for new members, and
urge interested participants and fans alike to check out
their website: http://wiririi.umich.ecdu/~giiten.
Another a cappella group, the University of Pitts
burgh Pendulums, will be opening for the Gentleman,
and the show should provide members of the Ann
Arbor community with a fun night filied with music
and laughs.
Their concert begins at 8 p.m. tomorrow and will b
held in Angell Hall, Auditorium A. Tickets are S
apiece, and will be available at the door. Come out and
join the G-Men for an evening of musical entertain
ment - and be sure to stay around after the show in'
order to purchase their CD, which will be made avail-
By Gabe Fajuri
Wily Arts Writer
Twenty-one years old, and frequently
Iissed. At least that's what the Donnas
would like to have their fans believe.
The Donnas Tuwn 2! is the name of
their latest
record, and the
furiously femi-
nine foursome
The from California
Donnas is taking it on the
The Magic Stick road.
Sunday at 7 p.m. Combine two
parts Ramones
with one part
Joan Jett, toss in
a liberal dose of
sexual innuendo
for good measure
and stir. You've
got a Donnas
record like 1999's Get Skintight, plain
and simple.
The band's latest release, its third for
Lookout! Records, is chock-full of sar-
donic smiles and appropriately aged
lyrics. "Midnight Snack" has less to do
with food than it has in common with
"40 Boys in 40 Nights."
But the girls have never made out
with 40 boys in 40 nights; most of the
songs aren't true-to-life. "They're kind
of exaggerated," said Donna F. in an
interview with The Michigan Daily.
"'Hot Boxing' is a true story, though.
Me and my drummer had a make-out
contest. I made out with five boys. But I
only made out with five boys on the
entire tour. So five boys in 40 nights.
But now we all have boyfriends. So
now it's one boy in 40 nights."
The Donnas (Donna A., Donna C.,
Donna R. and Donna F. - no relation)
have been rocking together since their
time as eighth graders in Palo Alto,
Calif. But the sound they've cultivated
today is a far cry from the lunchroom
antics of the Ragedy Ants or the Elec-
trolutes, the first two banners they
marched underneath. The Donnas
I I
moniker didn't come along until later.
It hit when Darin Raffaelli, another
Palo Alto musician, stepped in and
taught the girls a few songs he'd writ-
ten. That was in 1995.
He helped the girls put together their
second long-player American Teenage
Rock 'n Roll Machine, which was
released in 1998, writing most of the
material on it.
Flash forward to 2001. These little
girls are, to quote Vince Vaughn "all
grownz up," and Raffaelli is no longer
in the picture. The Donnas have been
writing their own material and sharing
production credits on their records. "We
... wanted to start doing it all by our-
selves," Donna F. said. A Lou Perlman
girl band this is not.
Even though the girls will do an
occasional Mitley Crie or Judas Priest
cover, all the material on the Donnas'
latest releases has been self-authored.
And it smokes.
"A lot of people think we're just a
novelty act and that we're young, dumb
and full of gum," Donna F. said. Which
is not the way the band wants to be
known. They're happy when compar-
isons are drawn not to the Ramones, as
many critics have, but when people say
AC/DC it's cool, she said.
Which is exactly the way the girls
like it. And the ultimate goal? Not love
and adoration from thousands of
screaming boys. "I'd like people to
respect us. As a- band. As good musi-
cians. We just want to be like any good
guy rock band," said Donna F.
After they're done with America, the
Donnas head off to Europe for nearly
two months. Detroit's own Magic Stick
is one of the last stops on the "Turn 21
Tour," and it happens this Sunday night.
Fellow femme-rockers Bratmobile open
the show. Attendance is required. That
is, if you're old enough to handle it.
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By Rob Brode
t)ailv Arts Writer
After seemingly peaking at two
(beer and bacon) there is now a third
to be added to the list of worthwhile
Canadian exports: Our Lady Peace.
Their continuous production of
poignant rock has yet to dominate
American airwaves but has created a
fervent fan base in Canada. The
excitement spilled over national bor-
ders into
Detroit, as the
band was in
"" town Tuesday
Our Lady night for a
Peace capacity show :.. ~;.,.
at St. Andrew's
St. Andrews Hall Hall. After sell-
March 13, 2001t ng out in ten
minutes, dis-
heartened fans
were presented
with a second :1
chance in the
form of an addi-
tional 200 tick-
ets released at the door.
At 6 p.m. there was a line 500 was 7:30, doors were not to open
people deep. The convoy of OLP until 8.
fans had wrapped around from the By 8:30 the fans were inside and
front of the building to the back into began to defrost within the cozy con-
the parking lot. At 7:00, the line had fines of St. Andrews. Unless a band
grown substantially and now over- books your basement there isn't a
flowed onto the sidewalk and more intimate location than St.
halfway around the block. Condi- Andrews. The 1,000-seat venue, a
tions outside were abominable. The former church, now eerily resembles
temperature was close to absolute an elementary school gym. Because
zero. Fingers were beginning to lock, of spatial constraints, the stage isn't
muscles began to cramp and there well suited for any large scale rock
was an audible chattering of teeth; it spectacles but this only lends to the
strong nuclear bond between fan and
artist. It was 9 and the service was
about to begin.
Those that planned to enjoy OLP's
bittersweet compositions in peace
were in for a change of plans. As
soon as the first rote rang out, the
-:crowd surged forth and a mosh pit
was born. The horde of fans shook
off the effects of the cold and by
third song, "Superman's Dead," the
show was in full effect. Raine
Maida, OLP's vocal Picasso, didn't
bother to sing the first verse of the
1998 hit; a myriad of voices from the
crowd provided a chorus of guest
vocals.
Throughout the night, Maida
pointed the microphone to the crowd,
al A who was all too eager to have their
voice heard as they belted out every
note to songs off of each of the
bands four albums. Standouts
included "Naveed" and the gem
"Right Behind You." As the band
Canadian exports give spiritual
pefformance at St. Andrews
tiRin the tun P Raind1o Florid~a lreadI>?
Come frolic with uR in
ri a warm iriteJ and
romiantic hideawa>!
d* *
Y T
La Ferichole
A light comic opera in a 1950s beach setting.
By Jacques Offenbach
Sung in English
Directed by Joshua Majors Conducted by Steven Byess
March 22 - 24 at 8 pm * March 25 at 2 pm
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
Tickets $20 & $15 * Students $7 w/ID
UM School of Music League Ticket Office (734) 764-0450
Opera Theatre
Courtesy ofsony/Columbia
ripped through "One Man Army,"
Maida perched himself atop a moun-
tain of speakers extending his hand
to the fans in the balcony.
Even the band's more mellow
songs such as "Are You Sad" and
"Clumsy" turned calm into chaos as
quiet verses expanded under the
pressure of pounding drums, eventu-
ally exploding into sonic tidal waves.
The waves were high and the surfers
took advantage, riding the cruwd
throughout the performance.
"Are you ready to give us your
souls?," Maida said. A deafening,
roar was the response. His face
expressed the 'gamut of emotions
between songs and throughout the
show painting him as a Shaman-like
figure, leading the crowd through.
two-hour spiritual journey, exorcis-
ing the audience's inner demons. The
band had created a symbiotic rela-
tionship in which both band and
crowd fed off each other, emitting a
continuous stream of rock 'n roll
electricity.
The band concluded the show with
a climactic two-song encore of
"4AM" and "Starseed." Not even a
particularly obvious blunder, courte*
ous of Maida in "4AM," or the
noticeable absence of popular single
"Thief" could take away from the
blissful atmosphere. Drenched in
sweat and decorated with bruises,
fans stood on the floor after the show
ended reveling in the afterglow.