Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / April 19, 2001, edition 1 / Page 3
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April 19,2001 The Blue Banner Page 3 Features Review Free Radio Asheville Highlights Local Bands Mason Currey Staff Writer Local band Piedmont Charisma gave an intense and amazing per formance at a benefit concert for Free Radio Asheville in Vincent’s Ear April 14. The concert also featured the bands Pirate on a Stick and The Rugburners, as well as a group of local DJs. The performance by Piedmont Charisma, however, stood out as the best of the night. The benefit was in celebration of three years on the air for the local low-power radio station, which currently broadcasts at 107.5 FM despite the lack of Federal Com munications Commission ap proval. The concert was one of the larg est grossing fundraisers the sta tion has ever put on, according to “DJ Kool Wip.” The bands and DJs performed for free and all of the profits from the show went to the station. Unfortunately, Pirate on a Stick, the first act of the night, was not impressive. Composed of three high-school students, the band fea tured the rather sparse lineup of drums, a five-string bass guitar and vocals (plus, an eye-patch- wearing mannequin head mounted on, you guessed it, a stfck)’.”' They opened their performance by butchering the seminal Detroit rock band MC5’s anthemic “Kick Out the Jams.” While normally a great song to start a show, their cover of it lacked the manic energy and infectious excitement the song is supposed to celebrate. Except for one more cover I did not recognize, the rest of the band’s performance was of original ma terial, none of which was much better. Two particularly painful “songs” featured the lead singer reading some spoken word material over the lurching morass of drums and bass, bringing back painful memo ries of the self-conscious, forced insight of teenage angst-mongers. Musically, there really was not much the band could do with only two instruments, a fact not hidden by the drummer’s frequent cymbal-crashing or the fancy ef fects processor used by the bass player. Most of their performance, then, was reduced to an unsteady punk- metal thrash with the singer yell ing various misunderstood-teen- ager bromides over the din. m AMANDA ANDERSON/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Free Radio Asheville, held at Vincents Ear, raised funds to support the low-power station that offers music alternatives to local regulated stations in the area. The event featured locals Piedmont Charisma, Pirate on a Stick and several DJs. While the music was lousy, at least the band Sad a sense of hu mor. They did not take them selves too seriously, as demon strated by their self-deprecating comments between songs. Still, this was not a very auspi cious way to begin the benefit. Fortunately, the concert improved from there as the second band. The Rugburners, took the stage. The Rugburners, a recent addi tion to the Asheville music scene, cut a striking contrast to Pirate on a Stick. They were visibly older and were much more musically accomplished. After tuning up, all of the mem bers exited the stage, except the bass player, who began playing a brisk, steady bass line. Slowly the other members—two guitarists and a drummer—joined him on stage, each adding his con tribution to the music until it built into a wonderfully cacophonous climax. Unfortunately, after this intro ductory instrumental, the band had a hard time molding this impres sive wall of sound into equally impressive songs. While an occasional chord pro gression or hook stood out, in gen eral, the upbeat, pop-rock songs were nothing to get excited about. Ironically, their music re sembled a lot of the mediocre current rock music on the com mercial radio stations that Free Radio Asheville provides an al ternative to. During their hour-long perfor mance, I found myself more in terested in the obviously inebri ated fellow wearing an American flag bandana and doing some very creative, kung fu style dance moves in front of the stage. Finally, after an unnecessarily long performance by The Rugburners, Piedmont Charisma had its turn to play, immediately transforming a concert of other wise middling quality into an ex citing rock-and-roll event. Piedmont Charisma features Charles Corriher on vocals, Ben Ridings on guitar, Chad Pry on bass guitar and Josh Charisma on drums, all of whom are UNCA students, as well as Emily Staton on keyboards. As the band was getting ready to play, Corriher distributed flyers to the crowd titled “Political/So ciological Flair in the Interpreta tion ofPiedmont Charisma’s On- Stage Dance Moves Pt. 1.” The amusing flyers described the proper dance movements to each song, aided by a series of stick-figure drawing:: with help ful arrows to illustrate the appro priate actions. Corriher was also gracious enough to demonstrate the jerky, absurd moves before each song. The absurdity was increased by Staton, who loomed behind her Casio keyboard decked out in a bright pink dress and a huge card board hat decorated with life-size photos of the other band members’ faces. A description of these antics, how ever, make the band sound like a novelty act, which they most cer tainly were not. Once they started playing, they unleashed a dense, thrilling sonic assault, giving an excellent perfor mance that establishes them as one of the best bands in Asheville. Their actual sound is hard to describe. It features electronically processed vocals, cheesy key boards and distorted guitar set against the relentless rhythm of bass and drums. Needless to say, the actual expe rience of hearing them live greatly surpasses such a paltry descrip tion of their music. My favorite moment of the con cert was when Ridings applied a screwdriver to his guitar, sliding it up the bridge of his Fender Telecaster to send out waves of raucous noise. They are frankly and irresistibly fun in concert. Their performance was a definite crowd-pleaser, in stantly filling the floor in front of the stage with an eager audience. After Piedmont Charisma’s per formance, which only lasted about 30 minutes, a group of local DJs played some music, but by that time, it was nearly 2 a.m. and the club had mostly cleared out, effectively ending a worth while benefit concert. Holocaust Commemoration Week Events at UNCA Orin Shepherd StaffWriter UNCA observesHolocaust Com memoration Week April 16-19 with 2 variety of programs and events woss campus designed to raise Wareness of the tragedy. “It’s not only a good way to eniember the dead, but to raise "'areness for other political and ocial issues around the world, said ^chard Chess,a UNCA professor >f literature and language and di rector of the Center for Jewish Stud ies. “Ifwe have a commemoration, it is certainly very important in prevent ing that sort of thing from happen ing again,” said Yetta Williams, a junior sociology major. On April 19, members of the com munity, in addition to UNCA fap- ulty, staff and students, continu ously read names of Holocaust vic tims on the steps of Ramsey Library from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Following the Reading of the Names, a silent walking vigil left for the Beth Israel Temple on Murdock Street for a Yom HaShoah (Holo caust commemoration) ceremony at 7 p.m. On April 17 in the dining hall’s private dining room, students, fac ulty and staff read selections of po etry and prose written by Holo caust survivors, children of survi vors and others who were moved by or lived during the time of the Nazi sweep across Europe. A couple of different films were screened, including “The Quarrel” on April 16, which focuses on philosophical and theological is sues surrounding the Holocaust. “Schindler’s List” was shown on April 18 in the Highsmith Center lounge, followed by a discussion with Eric Wellisch, a World War II veteran, who participated in the liberation of several concentration camps. All throughout April in the upper level of Ramsey Library is the ex hibit, “Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains,” a collection of letters, pictures and stories of those who lived through the Holocaust and the Nazi era who now live in the Appalachian region. Those individuals include Markus and Maria Reich, who live in Asheville. According to the ex hibit, Markus, was rounded up and sent into a concentration camp in 1939, only to escape and be recap tured two years later. There he met his wife, Maria and after the liberation of Europe moved to America. After the exhibit leaves its place in the hallway of the upper floor of Ramsey Library, it will be housed in the library’s Special Collection as a donation from the Center of Di versity Studies. An estimated 6 million Jews were killed under Nazi supervision be tween 1939 and 1945, in addition to over 6 million more non-Jews, including Gypsies, Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and Soviet prisoners of war. The idea of a Holocaust Com memoration Week has its roots in the Holocaust literature classes. Holocaust Commemoration ob servances started in 1973 with Leatrice Robinsky of Cleveland, Ohio who taught in the Cleveland Public School System her entire caree. Her programs and ideas served as a model for schools na tionwide. The idea of a Holocaust Com memoration Week celebration at UNCA was started last year by Sam Kaplan, assistant professor of mathematics, which in its first year only included one event, the Read ing of the Names. According to Richard Chess, there was so much interest and partici pation, the programs expanded to encompass a wide variety of events that would be educational and in formative.
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