THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2003
MUSIC
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 11
Osbourne's inexperience obvious
REVIEW
When Kelly Osbourne arrived in Lawrence two Thursdays ago, she reported an enthusiastic crowd at her previous show in Denver that kicked off her new tour.
Steve Vockrodt
svockrodt@kansan.com
Scott Reynolds/Kansan
The mild-mannered Osbourne said people attended her shows for her music, not her reality-show fame.
While the Denver crowd may have been receptive to Osbourne, the newest pop musician, the less-than-capacity Lawrence crowd at the Granada seemed more fixated on Osbourne, the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne.
Kelly Osbourne performs on Friday, March 14 at the Granada at 11th and Massachusetts Street. The visit was a part of a six week tour to promote her debut album 'shut up.'
At no point was such an attitude more obvious than during the last song when Osbourne invited several crowd members onstage to sing along. The mostly young audience members feverishly tried to pass off the microphone to others onstage to avoid the embarrassment of not knowing any of the song's lyrics.
Once the Har Mar segment ended, Osbourne's backing band took the stage and began playing energetically, which signaled a welcome change of pace. A yellow-haired Osbourne appeared shortly after and sang to low vocal levels, which were not corrected until about three songs into
The evening began with Har Mar Superstar, a solitary man singing along to prerecorded music who slowly stripped down to his underwear. Har Mar effused a sheer sense of confidence as he made several references to his sexual conquests.
KELLY OSBOURNE ... C+
Where: Granada, 1020 Mass St.
When: March 14
her forty-five minute set.
Osbourne seemed somewhat comatose onstage, barely moving around and seeming unimpressed by the equally comatose crowd near the front of the stage. As the show continued, Osbourne warmed up to the performance and showed signs of delivering rather well.
The set included nearly all the songs from her debut album Shut Up, including the title track as well as "Come Dig Me Out" and "Papa Don't Preach." Osbourne's nascent music career and relative inexperience as a front person was made obvious by several vocal gaffes and kinks, as evidenced by her singing with the microphone nowhere near her mouth in a performance that took several songs to stabilize.
If she can shed the image her television show projects and she widens her scope as a legitimate music performer, her music career might hold future promise.
Osbourne was effective in engaging the audience between songs, demonstrating her affability and growing comfort in performing.
By the end of the tour, it should be conceivable that she enter the mold of a musician rather than an object on display.
Vockrodt is a junior in journalism from Denver.
So Long, Astoria by The Ataris
Reviewed by Nate Harold nharold@kansan.com
On its major label debut, the Southern California band The Ataris delivers a middle-of-the-road recording. Primary songwriter Kris Roe and the rest of the band offer little to no surprises in their slicklyproduced melodic pop rock.
trasted by occasionally depressing lyrics, So Long, Astoria is neither annoying nor overly catchy.
With an upbeat, sunny sound con-
With most of the songs sticking to the
Ataris signature up-tempo beat, complete with the crunchy guitar pop hooks that listeners are accustomed to, the album comes off as barely memorable. That's not to say the record is bad, but it is too safe and polished to truly stick out in a market flooded with similar-sounding bands.
Contributed art
Vocalist Kris Roe's singing ability has evolved into a more dramatic and varied style. On the title track, Roe starts off with a breathy, hushed vocal melody which develops into his signature higher pitched rasp in the chorus.
The lyrics on So Long, Astoria seem fixated with calendar dates and seasons, as Roe describes the trials he confronts in life. In the song, "Summer of '79," he sings, "Our last day of summer, 1979." On the track, "In This Diary," Roe sings, "Here in this diary I write you visions of my summer."
"My Reply" begins with the line, "I got your letter and the poetry that you sent to me / Postmarked in December of last year." Given these references, the unexcit-
1. BLOOD BROTHERS ... Burn Piano Island, Burn
2. CALIFONE ...Quicksand and Cradlesnakes
3. MURS ... The End of the Beginning
KJHKTop10
4. ULTRA DOLPHINS ... Ultra Dolphins
5. BEANS ... Tomorrow Right Now
6. AISLERS SET .. How I Learned to Write Backwards
7. CAT POWER . . . You are Free
8. SONGS; OHIA ... The Magnolia Electric Co.
9. LOVE, PEACE AND POETRY ...
6: BRAZILIAN PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC ... Various Arists
ing but tasteful cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" seems only fitting.
So Long, Astoria comes off as a conservative effort, with the band sticking to the formula that Ataris fans are familiar with
10. ANTELOPE ... Antelope
and will probably love. It's neither groundbreaking nor terrible, but somewhere in the uninteresting middle.
Grade: C