8 - The Michigan Daily Summer Weekly - Wednesday, July 8,1992 Men and their beefy guitars Catherine Wheel andthe Soup Drag- ons rocked hard last Wednesday at St. Andrew's in Detroit. Catherine Wheel churned, and even the fluffy bandwagonjumpers, the Soup Drag- ons beefed up their pop lite. The best fireworks were definitely on stage, and not over the Detroit River. Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel (left), and Jim McCulloch (right) of the Soup Dragons repre- sented their Brit popland well. 0 0 FILM Continued from page 6 Gilbert)firstmeets titillating Ivy (Drew Banymore), the most right-on adjec- tive she uses is "scangey." Scheming Ivy worms her way into lonely Coop's family, seducing her middle-age- crisised father (Tom Skerritt) with sex, her invalid mother (Cheryl Ladd) with her energy, and taking over Coop's home life with her friendship. Because the story is told through Coop's voice- overs,youneverquitelearnwhatmakes Ivy tick beyond her revealing com- ments about her own family (and even the stories about a dead mother and Summer for Fa W G] T1 father who never gave her anything CHARLATANS might be lies). What Ivy does in the movie's present, however, is enough Continued from page 6 fodder for this'90s B-movie take-off of doing the endlessjams of Fool's Gold, the meaningful black comedy. Though they probably would've sounded like the pacing of Poison Ivy is sometimes the new improved Charlatans. slow, ex-Detroiter Katt Shea Ruben Burgess' understated vocals, qui- almost flawlessly balances the vamp- edy singing about dissatisfactory life 'n-camp of Ivy's penetration into the situations, match the emotional riffs household with such thoughtful detail and textured rhythms. shotsasIvyinCoop'smother'sslightly- Burgessexplainshislyricalinspira- too-large clothing. The ultimate cheesy tion as "Observations. They're about teen flick line Ivy delivers, "Fuck you people, and me, about other people, with a limp dick," nicely sums this aboutme again and aboutother people summer's appeal. Iwouldhavethought.Peopleingeneral Poison Ivy is playing at Showcase. and what people leave behind like dirt -Annette Petruso and bad sort of hideous things like ruin and things. The way people do ruin things." RobCollins'keyboards work within the songs to add to these effects, unlike C l ssmost keyboards which seem to be slapped on top as a catchy novelty. From the distorted organ-like bits that open "Weirdo" and "Can't Even Be Bothered" to the rippled keyboard parts throughout "Chewing Gum Weekend," E x am s Collins' lines fill out Between 10th and 11th's character. At St. Andrew's, the only band member that moved besides Mr. Dis- play was Collins, who bobbed up and SAT Classes begin: down, totally digging his instrument. ednesday, July 8th As on the Charlatans' albums, Collins' lines gave the Charlatans the umph that makes them different and fun. Burgess RE Classes begin: may be the charming face, but Collins defines the Charlatans sound. The or- hursday, July 9th gan was mixed heavy, and it added an edge,afeeling associated with freelove and the '60s that the audience ate up in CAT Classes begin: the heat. uesday, July 14th Of course, Burgess assumed (and 996-1500 FREE INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS WHO NttD aration- SCHOLARSHIP MONEY h University 1-8 0 0- 258-0 6,90 got) most of the attention. His vocals held up well in concert, but that didn't seem really important. His appearance -long dark hair cut fashionably, well- defined face, boney pale chest peeking out from a stylish retro shirt, and long fingers flayling; his tenderness for the '[My lyrics are] about people, and me, about other people, about me again and about other people I would have thought. People in general and what people leave behind...' - Tim Burgess, lead, The Charlatans audience-giving thirsty fans acupof his water, for example;andhis undying enthusiasm for his own band's music jutted his body 'round non-stop during theset,definedwhy theconcertworked well. Burgess fed off of the audiences unconditional frenzy, and gave them something to get excited about in re- turn. But drummerJohn Brookes told the New Musical Express in November, "There's a lot of people in the music business that hate us - because they hate to think a band like us is so impor- tant." Burgess agreed, "Yeah." Why? "Because we know that we're doing something right. And it just seems to me that nobody else has a clue. Then again, there's no reason to feel sorry for yourself so I don't really know why he saidthat. 'Cause weneverfeelsorry for ourselves." Makenomistake though, The Char- latans are a delightful pure pop band liveandonrecord,notblissed-outwashy guitars. "I don't like them groups at all," says Burgess. "I think they're re- ally blank. Really pointless. They think they're being rebels ... They're prob- ably just middle-class wankers. Can't be dealing with people whining about sexual traumas." Just it seems, his own version of dreamy. hver irrationality. 0 MCAT M Tt EX CEL Test Prep 1100 Sout The Wolfgang Press look (Mick Allen, left, and Andrew Gray, right) like G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live band at St. Andrew's last Thursday. Allen's strong-armed vocals and strong-boned face were reminiscent-of Tom Waits-sans-grain.