aes

 

 

April 9, 1990

 

 

. Other Press

 

Tear It Up!

By Nick Waldron

Sick of those Vancouver bar
bands? You know the ones I’m
talking about,"Louie Louie, Money
Money. and the rest the horse-

CARUIDY

Cramps se in the mid

beautiful mix of 60’s trash-kitsch
and 70’s raw punk. Over the years
The Cramps have released an im-
pressive array of albums with tons
of classic tunes. (Goo Goo Muck,
Garbage Man, Green Fuz, Hot
Pearl Snatch, Human Fly, Uranium
Rock, Can Your Pussy do the Dog?
as well as an impressive brain-
smearing cover of Surfin Bird, just
to name a few.)

Rave Ups tS th

The Rave-Ups
Chance
Epic Records

by Tim Crumley

The Rave-Ups have been
around for 5 or 6 years, but I
haven’t had a chance to hear them
until I got this record. They’ve been
doing mostly the bar band thing,
but I guess that they have finally
been able to break that mould in the
last couple of years and have gotten
‘serious about their craft.

What comes out of all this ex-
perience is a pretty straight ahead
_ rock album. The band is very at
ease with itself; the members know
each others rhythms and habits, and
it all seems to come together in the
end. I don’t much care for straight
ahead rock and roll anymore, so I
‘guess I’m saying the Rave-Ups are
worth almost anyone’s time.

 

 

   
  
 

started churning out a horribly

The Cramps have to be one o
the loudest and most energeti
bands you’ll ever see. Lux Interio
just can’t sit still. Let’s just say h
does a little more than sing like
demented psychotic on stage. Bu

ey! You'll have to see that for

mireknow what's

‘ nie tick
CC. amps on

bhi! Glades are you'll

 
  

disappointed and you’ll most likely
come out of the show with a whole
new perspective on music. By the
way, their new album is damn good
and they’ll most likely be playing
some songs from it. Geez, you’d
have to be stupid to miss the show
now.

 

They try to implement some
different tone colours into that tired
old genre, and it doesn’t always
work as well as they’d like it to
(kind of like Diet Jolt), and at one
point or another it ends up sounding
like someone trying to play
"Smoke On The Water" on a sitar,
or breaking up in the middle of a
rock song for a Sri Lankan Cobra
Flute lesson. Most of the time,.
however, the different flavours
blend in subtly and highlight the
talented songwriting, like on "The
Best That I Can’t", where a harder
electric guitar mixes in with a
country & western lap steel for
some interesting results.

However, their greatest asset is
their ability to assimilate other
band’s sounds without sounding
like they are stealing from them.

there to see the show. You won’t be;

    
 

Vinegar Tom, by Caryl Cur-
chill, made it’s professional debut

March 28 at The Vancouver Little -

Theatre.

Called a "Feminist Play" it dis-
cusses the treatment of women in
today’s society and compares it to
the treatment of witches in 17th
century England. In the play the
women who are convicted of being
witches are merely poor or don’t
want what their society had in store
for them.

Director Martin Millerchip
decided to play down some of what
I consider the raunchier of the
play’s jokes but presents this dis-
turbing play fairly well. His
decision to segregate the audience
by sex was a nice idea but too much
the gimmick. Explained in the pro-
gram as an attempt to "fill the gap
between men and women" it
seemed to be more of an oppor-
tunity to fling certain lines and
comments at one side of the theatre.

e Climb

The results are really interesting,
especially on "She Says (Come
Around)", when John Cougar
Maellencamp rhythm guitar mixes
with B-52’s vocal harmony.
Sounds really strange, but it has
style.

The majority of the songs are
really well written. The Rave-Ups
do for FM radio what the: Northern
Pikes did for AM a couple of years
ago - put some really good material
on the air without managing to
sound terribly cliched.

And hey, I’ll admit it. There
are times when a band strikes a
chord in your personal life, and I’m
endeared to the Rave-Ups because
of "Smile". Being a father, I know
what they mean when they sing "if
you could box up your baby’s
smile/I bet you’d change this world
around."

Mixed Signals, On New Plays

The New Play Centre is host-
ing a one act play festival which
introduces four new plays by four
new witers at SPRINGRITES: 90
The Next Generation.

The four plays are split in half
and grouped into two programs.
Program A and Program B consists
of The River Lady by David Wid-
dicombe and Nitebooth by
_ Maureen Robinson.

In the River Lady Laura, a
_ hitchhicker who is confused about
life, goes into an all night diner
where shye meets Tyler the dish-
washer. Tyler is a regular "Joe"
_ who is quite the dreamer. Hey, this
guy thinks he can solve problems
_ by creating a religion based on the
Planet of the Apes!? Laura’s no
better. She thinks marbles are "the
_ greatest invention ever" and keeps
them in a dirty sock. Getting on to

the subject of death, Laura recounts
_ astory about a lady who was found
dead in a river, hence "The River
| Lady,” wow, anyway, all that was
found on her was a piece of paper

  

with the word "cornflakes" on it.
The conversation goes on and on...
death, what would become after it?
Rabbits? Birds? Who knows and do
you really care? but seriously,
Tyler and Laura are people who
seem to try and escape from reality
- acouple of dreamers - people who
think about a better life with a
house, kids, a boat or aircraft car-
rier?, but never try to achieve any-
thing. The performances given by
Kim Kondrashoff (Tyler) and
Sharon Heath (Laura) are pretty
good but it seems like they were
acting seperately and didn’t quite
connect. This play is mediocre
with some amusing parts but the
conversation lags on occasion.

The second play Nitebooth is
about a man and woman who are
both waiting for an important call
at a payphone: Each person has a
reason for wanting the phone booth
and each is expecting a call at the
same time. Peter (Dwight McFee)
is a straight-laced family kind-of-
guy who drives a ford, wears suits

and is married with 3 kids: Wendy,
Jon, and Michael (ring a bell?),
only the call he’s waiting for is
from his mistress (ooh!). Margaryt
(Crystal Verge) is your average
hooker, but higher class than some
because she "graduated" to the
payphone (Gee, I wonder who
she’s waiting to heat from?). As the
play progresses, the characters
begin to talk about their lives and
start to fall for each other. The two
actors are very good and believ-
able. The lines are often quick and
witty and the actors work well
together.

The plays in program B are
good but if possible try to catch
them on a Sunday when it’s pay-
what-you-can, so you can get your
money’s worth.

Programs A and B run in reper-
tory until April 8 at the Waterfront
Theatre on Grandville Island.

For more information, call the
New Play Centre at 685-6228 and
for showtimes call the Waterfront
Theatre box office at 685-6217.

by Dena Nishizaki

 

The two best parts of this
production were the musical num-
bers and the set by Susan Madsen.
Madsen’s set with a stone chimney
and little furniture looked good but
the seats for the audience which,
were supposed to look like grassy
hillside weren’t all that comfort-
able.

The musical numbers, most of
which are witty and some almost
crude were excellent.

As Alice, Bonnie Panych was
convincing as a women con-
demned for her open sexuality.
The character of Jack was played
by Martin Evans who handled his
role well. Jack is not meant to be
liked and he isn’t. As a character
Susan is somewhat whinny and an-
noying which Barbra Cormack
played with a vengeance.

One of the best performances
was by Doris Chilcott who played
Joan. an old poor woman who

VINEGAR TOM

a play by CARYL CHURCHILL

 

deepened on the kindness of her
neighbours to survive. A witch be-
cause she curses her neighbours
who soon begin to have misfor-
tunes, her false confession to this
crime is,one of the most moving
parts of the play.

Another exellent scene is
when Betty, played by Victoria
Davidson, the daughter of a well to
do family who plans to marry her to
a rich husband, is tied to be bled.
Both her performance and the
scene are memorable.

Where the story or perfor-
mance lack there is usually som-
mething coming up around the
bend to make up for it. Running
until April 21st at The Vancover
Little Theatre Vinegar Tom makes
for a good evening out. Tickets are
$10 at the door and performance
start at 8:30, no latecomers will be
seated. Reservation can be made at
876-4165.

by Marion Drakos

Siberry Satisfies

Jane Siberry
Arts Club Granville
March 25, 1990

by Tim Crumley

Jane Siberry played to two
sold-out shows March 25 at the!
Arts Club Granville. This isn’t real-
ly surprising, because her shows
are usually filled with people want-
ing to see her spectacular stage
shows.

The audience was rather
shocked to find that Siberry had
opted out of the stage performance
route. Instead, the show was very
sparse, just herself, guitarist Ken
Myhr and keyboardist Ted
Borowiecki. Drums were con-
spicuously absent, especially con-
sidering the percussiveness of her
material.

With the release of her latest
album, "Bound By the Beauty",
Siberry has chosen to keep the
music as simple as possible, aid in
this intimate setting, it worked
beautifully.

Siberry was nevous at first, let-
ting the music speak for itself and
her. But as the show went on, she

 

 

began speaking to the audience,
and by the end of the show was
talking about her personal
philosophies on life. She is very
charming and witty, and she en-
deared herself to the crowd very
quickly.

It was the second show, so
musically, they were very loose. It
was funny watching them screw up
"Life is a Red Wagon" 3 times be-
cause they couldn’t stop laughing.

A set from the play currently
playing at the Arts Club provided a
haunting backup for the band
Siberry didn’t even notice it was
there until about halfway through -
the second show. It provided ter-
rific atmosphere though - it was
almost like they were playing in
your own living room.

Most of "Bound By the
Beauty" was played, as well as
"The Walking" from the album of
the same name. The encore was
classic - "Mimi on the Beach", with
little chunks of "Georgy Girl" stuck
in to push the point home; and an
incredible rendition of "The Taxi
Ride". This was a very enjoyable
show.

 

 

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