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Review: Battle of the Bands

watsonsauce

Friday November 16th the Pendleton room in the Student Union turned into a stage for 5 Michigan Bands:

Through out the night there were 150 or so students who wandered in and out of this event, held by New Beat Happening. People seemed to enjoy the performances and were involved in the voting process, choosing the winner of this year’s Battle of the Bands.
I unfortunately missed the first two bands but I heard very good things.

Moon Roots
http://moonroots.bandcamp.com/

Popliteal Fossa
http://soundcloud.com/poplitealfossamusic/sets/ep

Rosepoem
has a sound similar to Radiohead, which is hard to pull off. Atherial vocals, lovely and creative guitar melodies etc. Unfortunately something odd was happening with the microphones and the vocalist’s higher notes were garbled. They were the winners of the Battle and will either be opening for New Beat Happening’s headliner in the winter semester or will have their own show sponsored by NBH.

http://www.reverbnation.com/rospoem

Joanah Baseball
mixes music, samplings etc. He is a University student and fun to dance to. However, he does need to work on some of his song transitions. Poor transitions can be the downfall of any DJ.

The last band Super Collider
consists of 3 guy’s on guitar, bass and drums. They are very good and were later the favorite to win the Battle (votes over road this enthusiasm) Their music is psudo sca. No vocals but excellent skill with instrumentals, which can make or break a band. Check them out, they really are excellent!
Link

http://supercollider.bandcamp.com/

Keep your eyes peeled for more NBH concerts and events, as well as concerts sponsored by EQMC and WCBN! Especially if you like good music, these people really know what they are talking about.

REVIEW Michigan Men’s Glee Club !

Helene

Last night I went to the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club 153rd Annual Fall Concert.  I brought my friend along, and we had great seats on the main floor front and center.  Hill Auditorium is a great place for concerts, with a big, open, well-lit stage and comfy cushioned red seats.  As I walked into the auditorium, my first impression was overjoyed at the sound of such harmonious singing.  I was impressed at how the men sang in such perfect harmony and with such poise.  They exhibited great stature and confidence throughout the entire concert.  This was not surprising to me since they were taking instruction from conductor Eugene Rogers.  Dr. Eugene Rogers is the associate director of choirs at the University of Michigan as well as the conductor of the Men’s Glee club, and he also teaches undergraduate conducting here at Michigan.  Rogers was an enthusiastic host and so grateful to all the people who came to see the show.  I was amazed at how he could lead such a large group of singers with a single gesture or motion of his hands.  The Men’s Glee club was also looking quite classy in their professional concert attire (black suit, white tie) and red boutonnieres.   

One of my favorite parts of the show was when Vision, the male ensemble from the Detroit School of Arts conducted by Cheryl Whitney Valentine accompanied the stage.  These high school boys blew me away.  Their rendition of “Rock-A-My-Soul” was soulful and impassioned.  By the end, they had the whole audience clapping along.  Another highlight of the show was the Friars’ hilarious appearance after intermission.  The Friars are the oldest a cappella group on the U-M campus and are a popular Ann Arbor Act.  They prepare their own music and choreography and are known for their spontaneity.  Two of their members in charge of the introduction were joking around that due to budget cuts, their group had been reduced from eight to two.  But I loved their final line when introducing the rest of their group:  “And Now due to unfortunate circumstances we present you..”  

They started their act out with Bright Sunshiny Day which captivated their light-hearted, carefree spirit spot on.  They are surely a spontaneous bunch and their humor was effortless; they left the entire crowd laughing.  The reason I found them so amusing is because they seemed like they were having genuine fun and loved to entertain people.  For future notice, their 57th Annual Study Break Concert is on Thursday, December 6th at Rackham Auditorium.  I have never been to one of their concerts, but after seeing their performance last night, I am definitely planning on going!

Towards the end of the show, the Men’s Glee club sang some Christmas songs—it’s never too early to get into the holiday spirit!  They sang Silent Night and Joy to the World, but they were both very upbeat, quick, and kind of jazzy versions.  I had never heard either of these songs sung in such a manner, so it was interesting to hear them in a different tune and setting.  Overall, the Men’s Glee Club did a fantastic job last night.  I give them two thumbs up.  You have to check them out!!!

Review: Hold me Bat Boy, Touch me Bat Boy…..

watsonsauce

I went to see the Department of Musical Theater’s performance of “Bat Boy” on Saturday instead of going to the IOWA game. I’m pretty positive I made the right choice.

For those of you who don’t know, this musical is based off the “Weekly World News” Headline “Found in West Virginia Cave – a half boy, half bat!” The writers of this farce Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming couldn’t have asked for a better setting or subject matter. They, along with Music contributions from Laurence O’Keefe, have created their own monster of dark, clever and campy humor, complex plot, cross-dressing Virginians (although, this may have been an artistic choice of the MT director), incest, love, random woodsy scenes…. it goes on.

The music is memorable, the choreography, by director Linda Goodrich, was entertaining and creative. And what can I say about the cast?

Bat Boy – junior Ryan Vasques has a beautiful tenor voice and a phenomenal stage presence. He uses his whole body to express himself, which was important for this role. His development from non-verbal Bat Boy to well educated young man was very believable, which considering the subject matter was an unexpected experience.

Shelly Parker – senior Ashley Park also has a strong voice and held her own on stage with a number of very dominant male characters. Her playful body language was fun and Park knew just how far to push the caricature with out becoming tedious or annoying, which is harder than one might think. Her comfort in her own skin was apparent and definitely helped the strength of her role.

Meridith Parker – senior Jane Bruce has a strength in her that radiates into every corner of the theater. Her voice is full and strong, well developed and matured. She carried the emotional trials of her character very well and held a “No” for an impressively long time! Bruce was very enjoyable to watch on stage. She harmonizes beautifully too!

Dr. Thomas Parker – junior Zachary Thompson. I’ve met Zach once. He told me to go see Bat Boy. I didn’t realize over all what I was about to get myself into nor did I know what to expect from Zach’s performance. Let me tell you that Zachery Thompson is quite the physical actor. I was quite impressed to see what he could do with his body, the wiggles and natural flow that he was able to whip out at will. His comedic timing was unbeatable in this production and he didn’t miss a note. Thompson was also very convincing in his role. He masterfully perpetuated the plot line and seamlessly carried himself through from beginning to end.

Senior Travis Ward-Osborne (Rick Taylor, Lorraine, Mr Dillion) who’s voice and (again) physicality blew me away. Ward-Osborne was close to stealing the show if his fellow leads hadn’t been so overwhelmingly strong.

The ensemble did a very nice job, they were beautifully in synch with each other. Unfortunately senior Jordan Barrow (Mrs. Taylor, Reverend Billy Hightower, Roy) although he had a beautiful voice could not project past his mic. When he was playing the Reverend his voice got lost in the crowd, which was too bad because his performance was otherwise very impressive.

All in all this was a fantastic production, my first experience of the Musical Theater Department at Michigan. The set design was amazing, the lighting not too overwhelming (thank god, there is nothing worse than a bad lighting designer).

The only complaint I really have about the production is the acoustics in the Arthur Miller Theater, the sound wall created by the band sometimes made the voices difficult to hear and the hard boxy walls deadened sound.

So it Goes.

See a Dept of Musical Theater show! They are very talented and worthwhile!

Preview pt. 2: Battle of the Bands, let the battle begin

watsonsauce

BATTLE OF THE BANDS
Friday Nov 16th (THIS FRIDAY)
7:30 pm
Pendleton Room in the Michigan Union
$3 at the door

Come join New Beat Happening this Friday night for a wonderful celebration of local music. There are 6 bands from around Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University playing for the chance to win a chance to open for a nationally touring band in the spring, or have their own headlining show booked by New Beat Happening and the University of Michigan!!!!

Come out, dance to some excellent music, vote for your favorite sounds and support your local music scene!!!

REVIEW: Don Giovanni

nina.j

Don Giovanni

Don’t tell anyone that I ate a scone in the back of the Power Center- I know its not allowed. I grabbed one as I was leaving class last Monday evening, bypassing dinner, and rushing to a dress rehearsal of the opera ‘Don Giovanni.’ I am in a Romance Languages seminar called ‘Don Juan’ and my professor scored us special access to the final run through and I was so glad she did because I was out of town for the actual performance. I have never witnessed a dress rehearsal of such an extravagant production. It was very interesting to watch such a dramatic performance in such a small and relaxed audience.

I know nothing about opera and have never been to one before, but because of this course I am very familiar with the story of Don Giovanni. I have read multiple versions on French, Spanish, Italian, and English, seen clips of several theatrical renditions and films, and now the opera. So I certainly understood what was happening on onstage. But even if I hadn’t studied the tale beforehand,  I think it would have been very easy to follow along for several reasons.

First of all, the Italian lyrics, written by DaPonte, were translated by director/professor Robert Swedberg into sur-titles that flashed above the stage throughout the show. Second, the actors were excellent in their facial expressions. I may not have understood their language but the cadence of their voices and the gestures of their bodies made very transparent renderings of emotion. And lastly, the story is folkloric and archetypal. It may be a negative stereotype of a man- a libertine who philanders just a little too much- but it is a caricature that everyone can recognize and laugh both with and at.

Before the opera, Robert Swedberg visited our class to discuss his process of translation to the stage. One key comment he made that liberated me to enjoy the production was this: “In opera, you must suspend your disbelief.” It takes a leap of faith to dive in swim around with the performers, but once you release realistic expectations it is very fun and free. In real life, these people would not be singing to each other spectacularly, nor would they be reciting the same thing over and over again for twenty minutes without interruption. They would not be gesturing like puppets or disguising their identities without question or coming back from the dead to belt one last aria. After three hours of engaging in the colorful, brightly lit story, I learned that in this particular kind of theater the audience must not resist the escape into fantasy if they want to  enjoy the experience.

In debriefing the performance in class today, my classmates expressed mixed reactions. On the one hand, the singing was impressive, extravagant, and almost super human. The acting was dynamic and the story came alive on stage in certain ways that it cannot on paper. On the other hand, some translations seemed confounded. For example, it was unclear that the story was set in New Orleans and exhibited no indication of this outside the explanation in the program. That detail seemed to be confusing. But then again, I suppose you are bound to find at least some disagreement with the production among a class of students learning every detail about this particular tale.

The most contested issue among the audience I shared the opera with was that at the end Don Giovanni is dragged to Hell by demonic, sexy women dressed in body suits that made them appear unmistakably nude. Huh?! In other versions, a masculine, God-like/King-like figure has the final say on Don Giovanni’s damnation. Robert Swedberg explained that this direction is a way of circumnavigating mechanics of the staging (there is no trap door that could appear to lower Don Giovanni into Hell). In this opera version, it is the women who seem to be seeking the long-awaited revenge. This alteration changes the tone and the message of the story greatly! Is Don Giovanni being punished for his treatment specifically of women or toward societal standards as a whole, including men?

Ladies? Gentlemen? What do we think?

Next time a U of M venue puts on an opera, I highly recommend attending! It’s not something I ever imagined myself being fond of but I was very entertained and impressed by the art form. And if you want to learn more about the Don Juan story, my suggestion is to start with Johnny Depp.

REVIEW: Women’s Glee Club Fall Concert

Hannah Weiner

In my philosophy class recently, I learned about the difference between what is “beautiful” and what is “sublime.”

Imagine the compactness of a flower bed: how intricate each flower is, how symmetrical and harmonious nature can be, and how it’s hard not to smile when we see something as simply wonderful as a flower bed. This is beauty.

The sublime, on the other hand, is something grandiose that provokes emotions of grandeur and magnificence. To see something sublime is to feel slightly terrified of its power. What’s best about these definitions is that feelings of the splendid sublime are pervaded with beauty.

Saturday night at Hill Auditorium, I felt the sublime pervaded with beauty. As the members of the Women’s Glee Club walked onstage singing “Tshotsoloza,” a South African song about a train, the beauty of vocal contrasts dwelled in my ears. The acoustics in that place are near perfect, I’m sure you’ve heard, but there’s nothing better than having a musical group use that to their benefit. The layering of the vocals never ceases to astound me, especially with a unisex singing group. I’ve never understood vocal workings myself – soprano, tenor, bass, etc., so I say with great modesty that the Women’s Glee Club fused voices mellifluously.

Beyond the singing, the first half of the concert was spent reminiscing on their trip to South Africa. Pictures and videos brought life to the stories the members told, but nothing told their story better than the songs. “Voici le printemps, mon cousin,” a Belgian song sung in French that was introduced to them by the Belgian glee club, posed a stark contrast to the other tribal-sounding songs from South Africa. Even “Ngana,” an Australian song, blended more with the South African songs.

The song “Homeland” stuck out to me as both sublime and beautiful. The solos were beautiful, undoubtedly, showcasing individual voices that meld into the group. However, during crescendos, the feeling was sublime – my heart and ears swelled with the group’s voices. The piano was not cumbersome and accompanied the club perfectly. Naturally, the placement of such a climactic and emotional song fit incredibly in their song-list.

The Women’s Glee Club entirely outdid themselves on Saturday night. With the anecdotal first half of South Africa, and a second half highlighted with instruments and soloists, the club put on an utterly sublime and beautiful show.