The Michigan Daily - Sunday, June 10, 1984 - Page 11
Collins keeps
bringing cool
blues to town
By Richard Campbell
T HEY WERE dancing in the streets
at Rick's Thursday night. Well, ac-
tually, they weren't, but Albert "Ice
Pickin' " Collins was.
In the middle of the second set,
Collins just sort of decided that he
needed some more room in which to
play his blues. So he stepped off the
stage and, thanks to an extremely long
extension cord, walked around the bar
and up the stairs to Church Street,
where he-continued to play guitar to an
astonished crowd of street folk.
Collins is a regular Ann Arbor per-
former. Though his band is based in Los
Angeles, Collins has made a strong ef-
fort to return to this town every six
months or so and remind students and
townies alike what your basic 12-bar
blues is supposed to sound like.
Backed up by a strong band, Collins'
final set got off to a tired and
lackadaisical start. But that was just an
illusion quickly shattered as Dale
Minus, a local Sears salesman, picked up
his hormonica, joined the band, and in-
jected some screaming blues into a few
tunes.
The band, however, is not that easily
overshadowed. Just as many
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DOUG McMAHON/Daily
Albert "Ice pickin' " Collins jazzes it up Thursday night performance at
Rick's. Collins dazzled the crowd with his cool blues on a warm June
evening.
customers were calling it a night,
Collins and Co.. played one last song
that nearly brought down the prover-
bial rafters. Collins played better than
ever, terrorizing his guitar with exten-
ded rhythm riffs. But when he left the
stage to get a quick drink in mid-song,
bassist Johnny B. Gayben took over all
all hell broke loose.
.For the next ten minutes, Gayben's
right hand was just a blur strumming
the guitar strings so fast that many in
the crowd simply gazed in awe. His left
hand moved over the guitar's neck as
though his life depended on it. But,
Collins and Locke calmly sipped their
beers as though this happened every
night.
After this dizzying solo performance,
the band regrouped for a finale that was
as full of emotion as it was masterful in
technique.
The onlything wrong with Collins and
his band is that we'll have to wait six
months before we hear him again. For
many in the audience at Rick's, the
wait will be difficult but worth it.
INDIVIDUAL THEATRES
DAILY 1:00 P.M. SHOWS $2.00
$1.75 TUESDAY ALL DAY
FROM THE DIRECTOR
OF "CHARIOTS OF FIRE"
GREYSTOKE
-THELEGENDOF -
TA RZAN
LORD OF THE APES
An epic
adventure of a
man caught
between two
different worlds.
(PG)
SUN. 1:00, 3:20, 7:10, 9:30
MON 1.00,7 10,930
"THE FUNNIEST FRENCH
FILM SINCE 'LA
CAGE AUX FOLLES'
-Newhouse Newspapers
PIERRE GERARD
RICHARD DEPARDIEU
AFlm by FRANCISVEBER
Siml Mind thinkloudly
imlp e dn h I Y
(CPtiedfr~age 7) themselves, and to appreciate the and ended up superceding the pain level.
audience's enthusiasm. . I was in the fifteenth row, and found my
energy coupled with a definite rapport But the bad . .. Kerr, whose voice mind wandering to questions like,
with the audience. By the time the sounded hoarse from touring, had an "How the hell can those people be stan-
spring had sprung - with "Up on the annoying penchant for slinging the ding up there in front of the PA
Catwalk -the happy ticket-buyers microphone over his right shoulder, speakers?" And it wasn't merely the
were in their hands. smiling like a charismatic Howdy loudness-the second half of the concert
The best thing about Simple Minds is Doody, and urging the audience to "use was so distorted that it was impossible
that they've come to recognize the their hands." Every song was a clap-a- to make out the words to the songs, and
direction their music is naturally thon! The first or second time thus to separate the instruments in the mud-
taking. Their tunes are imbibed with urged, the audience seemed to enjoy dy mix. It was like listening to white
moodiness and texture, not at all unlike the participation, but by the eighth or noise.
early Roxie Music, or current Echo and ninth, it seemed as if a big applause When the r rotund soundman was
the Bunnymen and New Order. To sign kept flashing on and off, and the asked, after the show, why it was so
them, the impression one gets from clapping had become a matter of loud, he put up a pretty convincing
listening is nearly as important as the obligation, and not choice. argument. "What? What? I can't hear
listening itself. With their last two Another problem was in the presen- you. Oh. Because I got me orders."
records-New Gold Dream, and the tation of the songs. It's nice to know A true story.
afore-mentioned Sparkle in the that you can go to a concert and hear
Rain-they have established a sound altered versions of your favorite tunes With the "acceptance" of rock music
and purpose (!!), with merely the (since, after all, a live show is different into society came a new risk of per-
wrinkles to be ironed out. than a recording), but the Simple Minds manent damage to the ears, both by the
And wrinkles there were in Friday's solution was a tad too simple: extend musicians and the audience. The main
show. Since the material spoke for itself every song three, for, even five minutes reason stereotypical old-timer's bad-
in terms of its strength and harmonic beyond their respective fringes, and mouth rock music is the loudness. A
gestalt, you had to take the good with you have instant concert material. Not great number of performers make a
the bad in Simple Minds' performance. true-the elongated songs just didn't point of being careful not to destroy
The good was that the players were all chance enough to prolong the interest. their ears (and it's permanent
unpretentious and energetic, flailing But the biggest problem-or should I damage), but what about the people
about the Michigan stage like good- say the LOUDEST problem-was the who come to see them? Don't expect the
natured Jack LaLanne's. There was no sound. The Michigan Theatre is a folks who shelled out $12.50 for Simple
hogging of the spotlight, and no solos; relatively intimate place for a concert. Minds to simply walk out when the
they all played together as a group, I've been to movies there when a sneeze volume gets too loud-their priorities,
with each member contributing his in the balcony sounded like a cannon and knowledge as to the extreme
indispensable part to the cornucopian shot. The acoustics aren't perfect, but danger involved with prolonged doses
sound. it's a comfortable size, and not a lot of of loud noise, aren't quite the same.
In fact, the closest thing to pretention volume is needed. It's up to the musicians and
was Kerr's continual genuflections, but The soundpersons for Simple Minds technicians who make rock concerts
arising, I think, not out of the search for jacked up everything. There was ab- happen to take responsibility for the
a theme, but merely out of the band's solutely no excuse for the volume at well-being of their fans. After all,
desire to be open with their audience. which they publicly-addressed. The without ears, how will they ever get
They appeared to be sincerely enjoying show started off loud, but endurable, listened to again?
SUN. 1:20, 3:20, 5:20, 7:20, 9:20
MON. 1:00, 7:20, 9:20