The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 18, 2000 Page: 15 of 28
twenty eight pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
T
"t"
THE KICK THRKSHKR ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18. 2000
15
11 'E TREA T yor RIGHT
MU330 rocks with chainsaws
Robert Reichle
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Sweat. Wrestling. Three-hun-
dred-pound men with chainsaws.
Isthisthelatest episodeof "Raw
is War?" Nope — it's what hap-
pened when MU330, a five-piece
"psycho-ska" band from St. Louis,
played at Fitzgerald's on Feb.
10. Though hampered by a small
crowd and a trombonist with a
broken foot, MU330 entertained
the crowd as much with its on-
stage antics as with its music.
mu330
Feb. 10, Fitzgerald's
Rating:
(out of five)
JOSH K#T2/THRESHER
4 Starting off with "Everyday
Christmas," from the band's re-
cently released Christmas album
Winter Wonderland, MU330
quickly launched into a set of
fast-paced ska-punk songs. Dan
Potthast, lead vocalist and gui-
tarist, kept the upbeat guitar
going through such rockers as
"Pool Party" and the aptly titled
"Rok," while trombonists Rob
Bell and semi-famous Hulk Hogan
impersonator Gerry Lundquist
punctuated the set with some
forceful trombone action.
Bell was more sedate than
usual, sitting down for the whole
set due to a broken foot. After
undergoing surgery the day be-
fore the start of the tour, he hit
the road with the rest of the band
even though he said using his
injured,foot felt like "walking
around on crushed ice."
MU330 trombonist Gerry Lundquist brandishes his chainsaw at
Fitzgerald's Feb. 10.
The outstanding vocals and
rock-with-horns approach to "Fa-
vorite Show," from the band's
1999 self-titled album, made for
one of the show's high points.
The band won over the crowd a
little bit more when they invited
two audience membersto wrestle
each other onstage to see which
one would stand in on guitar for
the bouncy ska song "La."
The show took a slightly
vaudevillian turn when Lundquist,
better known to his fans as the
"Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Roll-a,"
took t)ver the mike for a bit of
lounge singing. Then, as the band
segued into the punk tune "Get
Away From That Table," the mas-
sive trombonist with awrestler's
snarl went into Hulk Hogan mode,
ripping his shirt in half, manically
dancing the "power-skank"
V*
jw&'y.-
w
RICE
ALLIANCE
\(> HE'S NOT (,.\Y
onstage and finally firing up a
bladeless chainsaw and attack-
ing audience members. After the
mini-Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
the band closed its set with the
crowd-pleaser "Hoosier Love," a
song about rednecks from the
trashy part of town "gettin' laid
at Dairy Queen."
The band played a well-
rounded selection of songs from
its five albums, with room for
both wild jams and slower, more
endearing ballads. As entertain-
ing as Gerry's mayhem and the
impromptu auditions for a substi-
tuteguitarist were, MU330could
have spent that time better play-
ing more songs from its recent
albums. But the band success-
fully drew in the paltry Thursday
night crowd, making for an enter-
taining evening.
/^Technology and
Entrepreneurs hip
Innovation Concept Forum
Saturday, February 19, 2000 9:00AM -1:30PM
in McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall
Walk-up registration will be available starting at 8:00 AM -- limited seating'
Presenters will be:
* Malcolm Gillis, President of Rice University: "Houston: A Technology Revolution Waiting to
Happen."
* Flint Brenton, Vice-President of Worldwide eCommerce, Compaq Computer Corp. & Rice
alumnus: "The Futar-e of eCommerce."
* Thad Pugh, Principal of PI Integrated Systems and Rice alumnus: "FlexCAD: Third Party
Software Application for the Petro-Process Chemical Industry."
* Jim Tour, Chao Professor of Chemistry at Rice, and Harvey Plotnik, CEO of Molecular Elec-
tronics Corp.): "Commercial Applications of Molecular Computing & Electronics."
* Marek Kimmel, Professor of Statistics at Rice: "A Holistic Approach to Statistical Process
Control."
* John Bodine, Technical Marketing Manager, Cameron Controls and Rice alumnus: "MD-
Monitor.com: Wireless-Web Biosensor Device and Service."
* Karl Maier, President of BidTab.com and Rice alumnus: "BidTab.com: A Virtual Market for the
Pipe, Valve, and Fitting Industry." <'
Discussion Panelists will be:
: Edward E. Williams,Symonds Professor of Management at Rice: ranked second in the nation among
entrepreneurship professors by Business Week magazine
* Charles Szalkowski, Head of New Technology Business practice at the law firm of Baker & Botts, LLP
Please visit the Alliance website at http://www.alliance.rice.edu. The full agenda for the Forum on the 19th is posted at
http://www.ailiance.rice.edu/Calendar/
The Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship is a bold new initiative by Rice
University that joins the resources of the Brown School of Engineering, Jones Graduate
School of Management, and the Wiess School of Natural Sciences.
Grammy-nominated Brave
Combo makes polka cool
John Chao
THRESHER STAFF
Many people think that polka is a
fairly staid, unadventurous genre,
reserved for the realm of beerhalls
or subjected to the tortuous stylings
of ironists like Weird Al Yankovic-or
They Might Be (iiants. Of course,
many people also think thaUYanni
'polkasonic'
Brave Combo
Rating: *** (out of five)
plays classical music and that Kenny
G. is the best jazz musician since
Perry Como. But the fact that Brave
Combo's 1998 release Girl, recorded
with recently deceased pop icon Tiny
Tim, got nominated for a Grammy
(don't ask what category) says a lot
about the versatility of the genre.
Polka, it seems, has finally arrived.
Before we go any further, a full
disclosure — before 1 heard Brave
Combo's Polkasonic, I was convinced
that polka ranked right up there with
the amazing sounds of the zither as
the kinds of music I'd probably like
the least, but no longer.
Inhere are just so many possibili-
ties with the polka! There are slow
polkas and fast ones; they come in
different languages, and they use all
kinds of instruments, like drums,
violins and the ever-present accor-
dion.
Polka can sound like Tejano mu-
sic, and it can also sound like zydeco.
Sometimes it sounds like a jig too.
According to the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary Online, a polka is "a viva-
cious couple dance of Bohemian ori-
gin in duple time with a basic pattern
of hop-step-close-step." I couldn't
have said it better myself.
Of course, 1 must confess that
the opening track to Polkasonic
sounds exactly like every stereotype
of polka I've ever heard, every two-
steppin' drum-beat, every exuber-
ant trumpet blast, every happy.lyric-
sung with verve and something like
clinically diagnosed mania, but that
shouldn't stop you from going fur-
ther. That just means that 1 don't
know the first thing about authentic
polka. But, fortunately for me, nei-
ther do most of you. OK, so I also
have to confess that the first couple
of selections pretty much stopped
me dead in my fun-seeking tracks.
But given some time, some kind of
chemical enhancement and a lo-
botomy, I'd probably really dig the
backbeat heavy, accordian-filled zest
that Brave Combo offers. They even
cover "Purple Haze," which 1 bet
even Jimi never thought was pos-
sible.
These guys are great musicians,
. and they do everything in their power
to keep you from getting bored, from
weird vocal harmonies to odd time
signatures. If you turn up the bass,
it's almost like ska, only not really,
because it's even happier. It's so
happy that you feel like beaming a
great smile while shooting some-
one, preferably the drummer, the
guitarist and then the trumpet player,
and not necessarily in that order.
But see, that's the beauty of polka,
the feelings change every time you
hear it.
1 personally have abandoned the
old alarm clock, and instead, my
radio plays Polkasonic ever)' morn-
ing at 9 a.m. sharp, and darned if it
didn't make me on time until my
neighbor snuck in and replaced it
with Ween. But the point is, polka is
wonderful, and if your record collec-
tion is as eclectic as 1 know some of
yours are, then you can shelve this
puppy right between Field
Hollerings: Smithsonian Collection,
1907-1908, vol. 125, and Real World
Sampler 34: Afro-Ce.lt meets Asian
Dub, Battle Royale.
There are just so
many possibilities
with the polka!
s
All kidding aside. Brave Combo
is playing tomorrow at the Fabulous
Satellite l^ounge, and it should be an
amazing time. If you approach this
music with as much energy and hu-
mor as the performers are project-
ing, at the very least you'll under
stand why so many people swear by
Nuprin. No, seriously.
POLKASONIC
BRAVE COMBO,
ie Rice Thresher
randomly presents ...
the great
Archi-
Arts
giveaway
Enjoy Archi-Arts on the house, .courtesy of the Thresher
and the architecture students. There are 16 free tickets
to Archi-Arts, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday at the
Hangar (3333 Polk at Roberts), inserted randomly into
these issues of the Thresher at the colleges.
[Note to cheapskates and sore losers: Please, do not feel
compelled to rifle through stacks of issues to find a
golden ticket. Tickets are just ilO in advance and $13 at
the door and go toward a great cause.]
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, February 18, 2000, newspaper, February 18, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246668/m1/15/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.