University Daily Kansan / Friday. April 5. 1991
9
Arts and Entertainment
By Joe Gose
Kansan staff writer
Scott's in his Trans Am with his windows down
But he's in a jam with the girls around
Jay Davis and Dave Cummins of the band Brain Candy play to a frenzied crowd at the Bottleneck on open mike night
He yells hey! Get outta my way!
I shouldn't be so scared.
"Sex Drive" - The Embarrassment.
The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampton St., is regarded as one of the few places in Lawrence to catch live alternative local and national bands.
It took almost nine years to build that reputation.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, small, struggling bands from across the country considered Lawrence a home away from home.
Bands such as R.E.M., The Cramps, Dead Kennedys and Buzzcocks used to ramble through these local clubs.
Clubs such as Off the Wall Hall and the Lawrence Opera House, as well as the student radio station, JKHK, were responsible for generating interest in bands that were labeled "culture workers," and how they are considered mainstream.
"The Opera House did Iggyp Pop, the Go Go's and the Police and things like that, while Off the Wall Hall did more of the alternative stuff like the Embrassment," said Brett Mosman, owner of the Bottleneck. "The moment we came close to putting together the kind of stuff we're doing now."
Julie Jacobson/KANSAN
However, in 1983, on the Wall Hall closed and reopened as Cogburn's. The Opera House closed soon afterward. The outlets for live music became slim, and live alternative music in Lawrence almost died.
"Gammons and Cogburn's started up, and they were real dance-oriented," said Mosiman, a 1983 KU student. "We weren't any place to see live music."
In 1985, Mosiman and a woman named Mona Tipton, who left the club in 1989 to teach English in Japan, bought Cogburn's in an effort to change that situation. But the lack of original local bands and the demand for popular cover bands delayed the change.
"It was real evident when we first bought Cogburn's that cover bands were what people wanted to see, and that was making us money." he said.
Mosiman said that there were only one or two original bands in the
Lawrence area in 1985, compared to the Bottleneck for the increase.
"What comes first, the good clubs for bands to play in or the good bands to create a scene?" he said. "I really think that we gave bands a platform, and the music scene blossomed around us."
Travlin' Matt Kesler, bass player for the Pedal Jets, a band that started in Lawrence almost nine years ago, agreed.
"The Bottleneck opened up live
entertainment, he said. "There was no scene in Lawrence for a while, and there was no place for a scene. It's not just the music map as far as college music goes."
Lawrence is considered fertile ground for live alternative music, Mosiman said. One of the reasons for that is KJHK, which gives air time to many of the bands that perform at the Bottleneck.
Phil Wells, director of concert promotions for KJHK, said that the station and the Bottleneck had built a
good working relationship.
Other clubs, such as the Jazzhus,
926 1/4 Massachusetts st., and now
Benchwarmer Sports Bar & Grill,
1601 W. 23rd St., live music in
the bars mainly offer bands that already have an established audience.
And while the Rock Chalk Bar, 618 W. 12th St., offers unknown knacks a chance, it does not have the space to exhibit additional acts that the Bottleneck does.
Thus, because the Bottleneck can
take chances with unknown groups, a person who wanders in on any night may happen to see a future gold-record band.
But in the early days, it was a lot more risky taking those chances.
"Nobody knew who Trip Shakespeare was, and they would maybe pull 25 people for a weekend." A whole lot of money on these weekends.
"But now it's a scene. It has worked better than I had ever imagined."
Depardieu is at his best in 'Cyrano'
By David Small
Special to the Kansan
reviews
Gerard Depardieu loves Roxane. No, Cyr
ano loves Roxane.
But Depardieu, nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, is so believable as Edmund Rostand's swashbuckling and peteic soldier with an oversized proboscis ("My nose precedes me by 15 minutes") that it is difficult to separate actor from character.
Debardieu is Cvrano de Bergerac.
Rappeneau's Oscar-nominated film is an epic fairy tale rich with lush scenery and exciting heroes. It offers some interesting cinematic choices that succeed quite admirably, mostly because of the performance of who he made his U.S. film debut in "Green Card."
If you exclude Steve Martin's 1987 modern update of the Cyrano story in "Roxanne," four decades have passed since a faithful version of the novel was published, and sacrifice has appeared on U.S. screens.
Cyrano is introduced through the wide, innocent eyes of a young French boy attending a Parisian theater.
MOVIES
Cyrano makes a grandstand entrance into the Paris theater, ordering a pompous and inept actor off stage. In the film takes on the propelled by Depardieu's energetic preacher.
An audacious adventurer and soldier, Cyrano also offers a tender side. His greatest emotion is shown in his love for his young wife, the Anne Brochet, who is unaware of his passion.
"While I was alone in the shadows, others come up to kiss the sweet rose," Cyrano pines, revealing a surprisingly frightened and lonely man destined to love only through another — the handsome Christian, played by Vincent Perez.
And what of his famous nose?
In the first scenes of the film, Depardieu uses the size of his nose for comic and dramatic value. He uses it as a weapon, both literally in a comical but tragic duel, and as a verbal asset in a witty trail of self-deprecating nose jokes to fend off his enemies and his own
insecurities
Interestingly enough, the much-vaulted nose is only the pivotal point of Cyrano's character for the first 30 minutes of the film. As the cinematography brightens and adds color to the Paris streets, the importance of the nose jides for everyone but Cyrano as the film's characters and the audience become more by Cyrano's heart-tending love for his cousin.
Rappeneau uses the last half of the film as an epic video of war, with beautifully filmed scenes of Spanish soldiers battling famished and greatly outnumbered Gascons, who were more interested in stealing the Spanish Army's rations than in winning the battle.
Anne Brochet gives an effective performance as Roxane, a woman inspired by "embroidered" love. Fainting over the love poetry crafted by her character's sutor, Christian, allows Brochet to exhibit a somewhat campy quality. It worked.
The weak link in this film is Vincent Perez as the superficial suitor. Although Perez is handsome enough, he is not quite believably stupid enough.
'Flashpoint' fizzles as Stones fail to ignite
Special to the Kansan
Bv Kristine Curlev
Let me say that I like the Rolling Stones. The name itself is synonymous with rock 'n' roll. As for the group's new album, I have little praise.
"Flashpoint" is a live compilation of 17 of the band's biggest hits. Songs range from early Stones songs, such as "Huby Tuesday" and songs from their 1989 album, "Steel Wheels."
It's hard to criticize classic songs such as "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and
"Flashpoint" also includes two new songs, "Sex Drive" and "Highwire", the only two tracks not recorded live. The remaining 15 tracks are from the 90-Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle World Tour.
MUSIC
The music is rushed, and Mick Jagger's vocals sound like he still is reaching for that sense of youthful rebellion but that has obviously met advancing age. The band's ability most popular hit, "Satisfaction," is grossly dismembered by new instrumental accompaniment, and we somehow aren't convinced that Jagger "can't get no . . ."
"Satisfaction." These songs helped shape and define a generation of rock music. But it seems the fire that used to ignite these bad boys of rock is missing on this album.
Even more discouraging are the group's two new songs. They are pop-ish and seem more
I realize it's hard to come up with the same caliber of songs for a band that's been around for more than 25 years, but the Stones don't even come close to equaling previous work. If anything, it appears that the band members have fallen into the easy rut of writing pop hits that still get airplay because of who the Stones are rather than for the quality of the music.
like songs that today's pseudo-rock bands are likely to produce. Even the successful 1989 release "Rock and a Hard Place" doesn't match the songs this band has delivered over the years.
Exciting versions of "Paint it Black" and "Sympathy for the Devil" appear on the album, but other than these two songs, the remainder of the album is "Sad Sad Sad."
CALENDAR
Fridav
"The Business of Murder," 8 p.m., Lawrence Community Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire St., call 843-7469 for ticket reservations.
University Chamber Orchestra, 8 d.p.m., Swarthout Recital Hall, free.
*America's Funniest People*
videoated auditions, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
fourth-floor lobby, Kansas
Union, information at SUA Office.
Baghdad Jones, 9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St $3
■ The Homestead Grays, 9:30 p.m.
The Jazzhaus, $92½ Massachusetts
St. $3
■ "Heavy Metal," SUA Movie, midnight. Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union, $2.50.
Saturday
"Taxi Driver"; SUA Movie, 4 p.m.
Wooldrift Auditorium, Kansas Union,
"Dances With Wolves"; SUA Movie,
7 p.m. Wooldrift Auditorium,
Kansas Union, $2.50
Opera: "The Pirates of Penzance" b.
p.m. Crawford-Prey Theatre, Murphy Hailt Hall at Murphy Hall Box Office,
public $5 for student public All seats required
public
"The Business of Murder," 8 p.m., Lawrence Community Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire St., call 843-7469 for ticket reservations.
Sin City Disciples and Zoom, 9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. $4
■ The Homestead Grays 9:30 p.m., The Jazzhaus, 926 $1/2 Massachusetts St., $3
■ "Heavy Metal," SUA Movie, midnight Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union $2.50
Sundav
■ "Dances With Wolves," SUA Movie, 2 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union, $2.50
"The Business of Murder", 2:30 and 8 p.m., Lawrence Community Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire St., call 843-7469 for ticket reservations.
**O** opera. "The Pirates of Penzance," 8
p.m., Craft-More-Prey Theatre, Murphy
Hall, tickets at Murphy Hall Box Office,
10 $ for public, 5$ for students, all seats
Monday
Open mike, 9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck 737 New Hampshire St. free.
Tuesday
"The Seven Year Itch," SUA
Movie, 7 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium,
Kansas Union, $2
■ KU Trumpet Ensemble and Tubal/Euphonium Consort, 8 p.m., Swanbath Rental Hall free
Red Kross, Eleventh Dream Day.
and Yo La Tengo, 9-30 p.m. The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.
education $10.
Wednesday
*The Seven Year Itch*, SUA
Movie, 7 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium,
Kansas Union, $2.
Black Cat Bone, 9:30 p.m., The Bottlenock, 737 New Hampshire St.
Thursdav
■ "The Seven Year Itch," SUA Movie, 7 p.m., Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas City $2
■ Farm Accident and Pastor Frogs,
9:30 p.m., The Bottleneck, 737 New
Hamshire St. $3.
■ Mamou, 9:30 p.m. The Jazzhaus,
126½ Massachusetts St. $3.
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