Tuesday October 28, 2003 michigandaily.com artseditor@michigandaily.com ARTS 5 By Scott Serilla Daily Arts Editor.'t f SARAH PETERSON Mark Oliver Everett isn't a guy noto- rious for a sunny, carefree tempera- ment. Better know as the singularly monikered E, the mastermind behind the nothing-if-not dependable alt-song machine Eels, Everett is a songwriter best known for his bittersweet gloom- pop and jet black humor. The tear-jerking classics Beautiful Freak and Electro-shock Blues instantly hit your gut with their mile-high pro- duction values and the wrist-slitting candor of lines like "My name's Eliza- beth / My life is shit and piss." So I wouldn't have pegged E to be the kinda guy to put on a deeply life affirming, straight up rawkin' live show. Yet I stood jaw-agape correct- Eels ed Sunday night at Sunday, Oct.26 the Blind Pig when At the Blind Pig Mr. E's beautiful Clear Channel new lineup of Eels came to Ann Arbor. While the last two Eels' albums, the raw thumping Soulacker and this year's Shootenanny, suggested a grad- ual shift in perspective, the latest incar- nation of the band is built for speed. Plowing through most of the new album and a cross- S L I section of the less grim end of E's back catalogue, Eels EL revealed an affinity for amped-up early blues/rock, even tossing in the twang of country-western swing for good measure. Cathartically electric and oddly encouraging, Eels crammed a whole lot of steamy music into Ann Arbor's favorite little dive club, much to the delight of the packed crowd. The night got off to an Andy Kauf- man-esque start with opener MC Honky taking the stage to perform his "self-help" paste-and-cut sonic collages from his debut IAm The Messiah. Honky has been accused as being a fic- tional front for E to put out a tongue-in- cheek experimental side-project. E, of course, denies this. A Musical Masterpiece Courtesy of DreamWorks P.S. You rock my world. TPPERY WH-TCEN WET SECTRIC EELS ATTACK THE PIG This weekend I was informed that part of my Christmas pres- ent will be tickets to see "Les Miserables" at the Fisher Theatre on Oct. 26. I was overjoyed to hear this, as "Les Miserables" is my all-time favorite musical. In fact, it is actually my favorite stage production of any- thing I have ever seen, including plays, ballets, operas, orchestras, etc. Some might ask how it is possible to compare plays to musicals to ballets and so on because they are so differ- ent in nature. One could argue that it is like comparing apples to oranges. The characteristics are simply too varied to be looked at on the same level. I feel though that this is not true. Musicals are the apex of all live stage productions. In order to back up this claim, I ask you to look at the characteristics that make up a musical. First, you have the lighting, sets, props, cos- tumes and scenery. A musical is telling a story and in order for the audience to truly be pulled into the plot, a magical world of make believe is constructed and sewn into the very environment in which the players are acting. This in of itself does not set musicals apart from the rest of the stage production genre. This aspect though, does go a long way in creating a tale that audiences will be interested in seeing. Another aspect of musical theatre, that is self evident in the title, is the music. Unlike straight plays, much of the emphasis of the play resides in the beautiful scores created to inter- lace with the action. There are some things that cannot be expressed sim- ply through words and actions, and in this case, in musicals, the score picks up the thread of the story and weaves tapestries of emotion that explain how the actors are feeling. The music adds another dimension to the production's storytelling capabili- ty, setting it above straight, non- musical plays. Finally, what sets musicals above any other stage production are the words. Whether spoken or sung, words are the basis of all human interaction. In a musical, the dia- logue and lyrics serve to move the story along, while keeping the audi- ence enraptured by what is happen- ing. In this respect, the musical is innately better than ballet. Everyone can understand words, whereas not everyone understands the intricacies that go into dancing. The carefully crafted responses of the actors to one another set musicals above opera because the emphasis is on what is being said, not on how the words are said. For some audiences, a three-word sentence sung 50 times is simply too much. And while the dialogue of a musical is probably sub-par compared to that of a straight play, the fact that the words can be sung gives it the edge over non-musicals as well. All stage productions have their strengths, and some are definitely superior in certain areas than the musical, but overall, musicals are more accessible to more people because they utilize all techniques of the stage. Thus, if looking at a work's effectiveness, the musical is the paramount form of the stage. It touches the most hearts, and "Les Miserables" is, of musicals, one of the best. - Sarah is not afraid to admit her crush on Jean Valjean. She can be reached atpetesara@umich.edu Shockingly when the lights dimmed out walked the spitting portly image of the pipe smoking, bowtied caricature from the album's sleeve. Obviously not the wiry E, "Honky" spent his set puff- ing his pipe while close-replica mixes of his album tracks blared out from the speakers. By the end of the infectious "Sonnet 3: Like a Duck" the initally bewildered crowd was genuinely dig- ging the put-on. E, carried to the stage on his manag- er's shoulders, stuck mainly with guitar this night, ripping though "Grace Kelly Blues," "Last Stop: This Town" and "Novocaine for the Soul" with unheard energy. Likewise "I Like Birds" was reworked as deathpunk a la Andrew WK's "Party Till You Puke." Occasionally, E drifted to his organ for blues stomps and more tender moments like "Agony," one of few bleak moments of the night. The guys were egged on in to no fewer than three encores. E seemed touched and thrilled by the crowd's response to the rockin', joking about being ripped off by Badly Drawn Boy and being on a first name basis with our sleepy campus town, calling the crowd collectively by "Ann." Eels also paid tribute to their lost friend, neighbor and labelmate Elliott Smith with the touchingly warm "Sofia Honky cat. Writing In the Sky" from the sound- track to the recent film "Levity." "Maybe rock can't save everybody," E soapboxed in his trademark rasp dur- ing the climatic "Love of the Loveless." "Well at least, it saved at a least one life: mine." Everyone loves postcards from chimpanzees By Andrew Horowitz Daily Arts Writer MUSIC R EVI EW *** The Barenaked Ladies have it all: fans, fortune and talent. But since their last album, 2000's near-commer- cial failure, Maroon, the Ladies have been in serious danger of becoming a worn-out novelty act. So what have BNL been up to and why do we care? On their sixth release, Everything to Everyone, the Barenaked Ladies answer with a maturity and musical sensibility that Barenaked surpasses that of any previous effort. Ladies Everything to Everyone captures Everything to the Barenaked Ladies surveying a Everyone large portion of the human experi- ence, from excess commercialism to Reprise Records relationship anxiety. Produced by Ron Aniello (Guster, Lifehouse), Everything to Every- one is best described as eclectic. There's tango, country, pop, techno and everything in-between. "Celebrity" kicks off with a simple piano riff that's complemented with rich vocals and lush arrangements. BNL take a stab at the concept of celebrity, wherein you "Leave your heart / Lay down your art," and are strictly "here for the party." The techno-influenced "Shopping" proposes that "Everything will always be all right / 'Five Shows' spotlights the fast-paced By Niamh Slevin Daily Arts Writer The Detroit Artists Market (DAM) has a long, rich history of fostering young artists. As the name suggests, local Detroit artists often have the opportunity to showcase their work space so the audience can enter off the street, view the entire body of work and exit easily. Because the shows span a workweek, they seek to facilitate the audience's busy sched- ules with this set-up. But the audience is also considered an integral part of each show. Aman- da Wiles, one of the featured artists, notes, "It's interesting in that (Five Shows) involves much participation from the audience. They almost need to go all of the nights to really get the full effect of the show." The artists chosen to participate in "Five Shows" draw from their diverse background to create their works, which seems to accentuate the differ- ences in each night's pairing. The shows, in general, focus on a theme of contrasts, "which creates a sense of discovery for both artist and view- er," the curators observe. The event is free to the public, and the casual atmosphere encour- ages everyone to attend. "Five Shows in Five Days" hopes to keep up with the fast-paced world and the audience's jam-packed schedules with its revolving spotlight accentu- ating a new artist and a new con- struction every night. in this forum as an experience away from the more traditional commercial gal- leries. This week, the DAM high- lights eleven artists' works over the course of Five Shows in Five Days Tuesday - Thursday 6 -9 p.m. Friday 6-11 p.m. Free of charge At the Detroit Artists Market When we go shopping." The Britney Spears-meets-the- tropics-sounding "Another Postcard" tells of a series of postcards from chimpanzees, and "Maybe Katie" is just funny, with its chorus of "What's so maybe about Katie?" But while at times silly, BNL have more on their minds than laughs and cheap shots. "Aluminum," with its introspective harmonies and gentle guitar treatments, is a heartfelt testimony of attraction to someone who only causes you pain. "War on Drugs" explores suicide and the guilt associahd with such. So to speak, there's something for everyone. It seems almost dangerous to create an album so eclectic, with so much joy and so much pain. Somehow though, the Barenaked Ladies pull it off. Everything to Everyone is honest from start to finish, and by the end we can't help but smile, for thanks to BNL, living is all the sweeter. five days in a new and continuous set of gallery openings, aptly named "Five Shows in Five Days." "Openings, by nature, are highly charged events," said Phillip Burke, co-curator and host of the "Five Shows" gallery. "So the gallery becomes the center of that excite- ment, which increases with having five consecutive openings." Together with Roe Peterhans, Burke developed the concept for the shows: A series of gallery openings, which begin and end the artists' exhibitions all in one night. The gallery is specifically designed as a rather small, intimate Distillers' gushy lyrics will cut your heart out SH ORT By Joel Hoard Daily Music Editor sREVEW With album art that features grotesque images of crucified women, razorblades, abortions and suicides, and such appeal- ing song titles as "Drain the Blood," "Die on a Rope" and "Death Sex," the Dis- tillers' Coral Fang is possibly the least The Distillers Wal-Mart-friendly _. i . ti 1110}151 mmm SOMETHING CORPORATE N ORT H GEEN/DimE-TH U Something Corporate inject the modern pop-punk formula of chugging guitars, aw-shuciks romanticism and bad high school poetry with enough affecting piano and melancholic lyrics to keep North, the band's third full- length album, from falling into oblivion. 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