ARTS Wednesday, July 17, 1985 0 The Michigan Daily Page 8 Black Flag thrashes with new power By John Logie E VERY SO OFTEN a band comes along that defines a genre. Black Flag is such a band. Of all the bands spawned during the mid- to-late '70s, Black Flag has con- sistently been the reference point for the American Punk-Hardcore-Thrash scene, and justifiably so. Through, numerous personnel changes the band has maintained an intensity and meaning, a depth, if you will. Now, after eight years on the road and numerous records, Black Flag has been accorded an almost gran- dfatherly status in the annals of thrash music. To a degree the band is becoming passe among young fans. Black Flag's recent musical ex- perimentation, with nods to jazz, metal, instrumentals, and even pop have created mutterings of discon- tent. with the Black Flag of the past, or somehow should be. Morrison which on a surface level are accurate (long hair, poetry, animal magnetism, wild performances) but The only original member of Black ultimately do a disservice to Rollins Flag still with the band is guitarist and the band. Black Flag is bolder Greg Ginn. The claim is trotted out and more assaultive than the Doors occasionally the Black Flag is Ginn's ever were. band, and that it really doesn't matter who else is with him. This limits each Black Flag's latest release, Loose new band member to an echo role and Nut, shows the band coalescing, with overlooks the collaborative element significant contributions from every that has recently added vitality and member. For the last two years the range to band. line-up has been reasonable stable, and Loose Nut reflects the musical It should be pointed out that not expansion that familiarity allows. every band with Greg Ginn is Black Flag. Ginn also has worked with Tom Troccoli's Dog and the October Fac- tion, and his work for these groups has been decidedly different from his work for Black Flag. Black Flag is a collaboration, and now that three quarters of the collaboraters are dif- ferent, the band is different too. Instrumentally, the additions of I won't deny that Black Flag at Kira Roessler on bass and Bill times verges on an adversary Stevenson on drums have broadened relationship with its audience. The the band's musical scope, allowing it band has refused to become a to reach beyond the standard thrash greatest hits jukebox, at times tempos and chords. playing exactly what it s audience doesn't want to hear, as they did two years ago at Detroit's Graystone The most obvious impact, Hall. There is a false assumption at however, has been that of Henry the heart of the stifling attitude that Rollins, the latest in a series of lead many fans have toward Black Flag - vocalists. Rollins has been thevictim that Black Flag today is equivalent of a stream of comparisons to Jim Thursday night at 7 p.m. Black Flag will perform in, of all places, The Nectarine Ballroom. The fashion- dance-disco atmosphere of the venue would seem to be at odds with the essence of Black Flag, but stranger things have happened. The show will be opened by Tom Troccoli's Dog, made up of Ginn and members of now-defunct Nig-Heist, who opened their Graystone set totally nude and provided one of the most entertainingly offensive performances I could even hope to experience, and St. Vitus, a legitimate heavy metal band that has drawn favorable, and unfavorable, comparisons to Black Sabbath. Black Flag will also be at Schoolkid's at 3 p.m. for those who want to meet and chat with the band. I Black Flag's latest line-up (front to back) Henry Rollins, Kira Roessler, Gregg Ginn, and Bill Stevenson has remained stable for two years, allowing the band to branch out and develop beyond their original straightfoward thrashings. 1 Tetes' novel style brings house down neapolis group specializing in ex- By Julie Jurrens c cellent vocal harmonies and no-genre- is-safe musical eclecticism - they're Q also a hoot to watch (although not S omebody was showing a videotape nearly as messy as Conan) and are of Conan the Barbarian with the sound also making some pretty wicked social off and the jukebox on at the Blind Pig commentary (although theirs is before the Tetes Noires' show Monday deliberate and Conan's isn't). night. Some opening act. Arnold Sch- Conan, however, did have all of warzenegger was raping and Mongolia to spread his pecs in. The pillaging to the tune of "Just a Tetes had only the tiny Blind Pig Gigolo" - for some reason it seemed stage, and for six women and a mighty appropriate. Watching Conan whole bunch of equipment that's a really was a hoot yet underneath it all tight squeeze. "Where's the real one senses it says something really stage?" asked one band member. The strange about our society. Not unlike crowd, for a Monday night, was plenty the Tetes Noires, a six-woman Min- respectable. The show, which was the first in a three-week U.S. tour, started STANLEY H. KAPLAN at about 11:30, opening with "Plato's" from the Tetes' self-titled 1983 EP. +S *M V "Plato's," about a New York sex . l ,. club, has a sparse rinky-dink sound and monotone chorus that plays up I the emporium's seediness. While it's an intriguing song, I'm not sure f whether it should have opened up the show - it's a little too detached and NO contemplative to grab the attention of 4 u.6eminmauR a bar audience. Next was "The 662-3149 Hawk" a wonderfully evil dig at that 203 E. Hoover guy in the White House who just got CN AW sM.4804 See TETES NOIRES, Page 9 I 4 ml I 0 Ex-Cowboys Saxophonist and keyboardist Tim Hodgkinson (left) and guitarist Fred Frith (above) bring music fresh from the forefront of the British avant-garde scene to the Ark tonight at 9 p.m. The show, a production of Joe's Star Lounge in Exile, will feature three sets. Hodgkinson and Frith will each play a solo set, and then the pair will unite for the third. Both are former members of the '70s British avant garde band Henry Cow. L- t e _