H I UT
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2001
Layin' the smack down
A raucous set keeps the
neighbors at University Park
awake with bad religion
by Michael Grooms
staff writer
This may be college, but
there were no signs of
classes here in State
College. On Satur
day April 14, the Bryce
Jordan Center hosted
one of the most popular rock bands
around, Godsmack. Staind, Cold, and
Systematic were the opening acts.
Before the show began, I walked
around to see what went on behind
the scenes. I have been to many con
certs, but never to a Godsmack show.
At first, things looked like any other
show, the parking lot was full of beer
drinkers, most of whom had lazily
thrown their empty cans all over the
place. There was music coming from
all the cars (surprisingly enough most
of the songs were by Godsmack). In
an attempt to get Godsmack auto
graphs, people walked around the
complex to find the band and their
tour bus. Upon finding the buses in a
huge, fenced-in area that was under
heavy guard, everyone, after evalu
ating the situation, realized that there
was no way to get close enough to ac
complish the task (without going to
the local jail).
The doors to the Bryce Jordan Cen
ter were to open at 7 p.m. Taking pic
tures would have been nice, but
people were not allowed to have cam
eras inside the facility. The guards at
the entrance were performing full
Big apples:
by Lucas Schneider
staff writer
Rarely does a CD get you up on
your feet dancing, craving for more,
but Bruce Springsteen and The E
Street Band's Live In New York City
concert does just that and more. Af
ter a 10-year separation, "The Boss"
and the E Street Band are back to
gether and better than ever. While the
CD is an amazing representation of
the their brilliance, it does not com
pare to the intensity and magic of see
ing them live.
While most reunion tour CDs are
just nostalgic live versions of hits
that made bands famous,
Springsteen, as he did for most of
the 1999-2000 E Street Reunion
Tour, explores some of his less com
mercial songs. The CD opens with
"My Love Will Not Let You Down,"
left on the cutting room floor of the
Born in the USA sessions, and re
Movies
Crocodile Dundee
in Los Angeles
Freddy
Got Fingered
A ty 144 r 00.,,,,, 1: yrri pt '
‘,..,,,,,.., L.,.... i _LI .2. I “ ‘,.... 0 ,, 11..
body searches that everyone under
went before entering the building.
After purchasing my $9O
Godsmack shirt (not a typo), it was
time to find my seat. The ticket said
Row C, so one would believe these
were pretty good seats. The seats were
not floor seats. Those were all gen
eral admission. My seat was about 75
feet above the stage, and about 75 feet
to the left of it! Talk about nosebleed.
The show began at 7:20 pm when
Systematic took the stage. The band
played seven songs and the 2,500
people on the floor created five sepa
rate mosh pits. Cold was next to per
form. They played for around forty
five minutes. The crowd enjoyed
them, but it seemed as though all the
songs sounded the same. Maybe that
was because it was hard to understand
what the lead singer was saying.
Staind was the third act to play.
These guys were pretty good. A
couple of their songs were recogniz
able. Aaron Lewis had a clear, un
derstandable voice. The music was
also loud enough to hear it. This leads
me to the final band, the headliner
Godsmack, the most exciting band of
the evening. They opened up with a
five-minute cartoon about the band
that focused on partying before the
shows. A loud firecracker went off and
Godsmack was on stage performing
the first song off of their new album
Awake, "Sick of Life." The problem
was that you could hardly hear the
music! The previous bands were
vived on the reunion tour as a fre
quent show opener. It's a big rock
number and gets the crowd up and
on their feet for the whole show.
Without breaking momentum, they
go straight into the showstopper
"Prove It All Night." On "Two
Hearts," Bruce gets some help from
fellow E Streeter "Little Steve" Van
Zandt (of Soprano's fame) and fin
ishes the song with a duet of Marvin
Gaye's hit "It Takes Two." By this
time the listener is ready for a break
as Springsteen explores some bal
lads.
"Atlantic City," originally a solo
acoustic song from his album Ne
braska is reworked as a rock band
ballad. The country flavored "Man
sion On The Hill" features a duet be
tween Springsteen and his wife Patti
Scialfa. A drastically different version
of "The River" now features a sax solo
by the "Big Man" Clarence Clemons
at the beginning and end of the song.
Now that the audience has had a
Video*
Rocky
Rocky (5 Pack)
much louder than Godsmack. Perhaps
the equipment was the problem. For
the first time since the show started,
you could talk to the people next to
you and actually hear what they were
saying.
Godsmack played all their popular
songs, including one titled "Trippin',"
which Sully Erna, the lead singer of
Godsmack, dedicated to all the pot
smokers.
The entire set lasted about an hour
and a half. The encore featured the hit
"Voodoo" and their first breakthrough
single, titled "Whatever." Erna,
stopped the show on a few occasions
to tell the nice folks of Pennsylvania
that he thought alcohol should be
served (it wasn't) and that the crowd
needed to become more involved in
the mosh pits. He wanted the people
on the floor to combine the five sepa-
Bruce Springsteen and
the E Street Band rock with
`Live in New York'
chance to catch its breath, The Boss
is ready to turn it up a notch. He be
gins a barrage of songs without any
breaks in between. "Youngstown" is
another acoustic song turned into a
rock band ballad, then comes "Mur
der Incorporated," another gem from
the Born in the USA discard pile.
"Badlands" is always a crowd pleaser,
as is "Out In The Street." They all lead
up to "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,"
which features a gospel rap in the
middle where Springsteen finds him
self lost on the banks of the river till
the "big man joins the band."
Two new songs debut on this al
"Land of Hope and Dreams," a
new song that debuted at the begin
ning of the tour and was the normal
show closer;and the controversial
"American Skin/41 Shots," about the
1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo,
which caused a boycott of
Springsteen's New York City shows
by the NYPD.
The two CD package accompanies
bum--
Music *
Ally Mcßeal
Janet Jackson
Maxwell
Tim McGraw
rate pits into one giant pit. This was
successful for about three minutes. He
also insisted on trying to get every
person in the stands to get up out of
their seats. He told the crowd "Get up,
or get out." Not everyone stood up,
nor did anyone leave. This comment
led him into the song called "Get Up
or Get Out," off of their first album.
How clever.
At the end, Erna promised to bring
some beer for everyone the next time
they came. Now don't get me wrong,
Godsmack was awesome, they just
should have been louder than they
were. The highlight of the evening
was when Lewis of Staind took the
stage alone with his acoustical guitar
and played the very popular radio hit
called "Outside." People lit their light
ers and sang along, and it was actu
ally pretty cool.
the HBO special, which will be shown
throughout April. The set also in
cludes six bonus tracks not featured
on the TV
special--" Lost in the Flood," an
acoustic version of "Born in the USA"
and "Don't Look Back," the first live
version of "Jungleland" ever released,
which features one of the finest sax
solos in rock music history. "Ram
rod," from disc two of The River was
a popular encore song on the tour. "If
I Should Fall Behind" features the
singing talents of all the vocalists in
the E Street Band (Nils Lofgren,
Clarence Clemons, Steve Van Zandt,
and Patti Scialfa).
Live In New York City was taped at
the last two shows of the Band's 10
show Madison Square Garden stand.
Live In New York City finished at No.
5 for the week ending April 2.1 on the
Billboard Top 200 chart, and was
No. 1 on the Internet Sales chart.
DVD*
Ghost
Little Nicky
Mummy
(Ultimate Edition)
Rocky I:
Special Edition
Rocky
(5 Pack)
by Deanna Symoski
G RRRL
POWER
Why Ws never been a better time to be a girl
of long ago, I referred to myself as a "girl" in class and was
quickly corrected for the obvious faux pas. We aren't girls
anymore—we're women! Okay, so I inadvertently erased
30 years of progress for my sex. But the thing is, I am a
girl, and if the new image of girls in the media is any
indication of me, I'm proud of what I am.
It used to be in a not-so-distant past, "Chick Flick" referred to one of
those weepy melodramas that girlfriends and wives dragged significant
others to see. The men would dutifully go on the condition that sometime
soon she would have to sit through the next installment of Die Hard or
Lethal Weapon or whatever Schwarzenegger had in the works. Movies use
to be a compromise, but with the tough new image women-driven roles are
touting, heroes like John McLean are fading fast, and even men don't seem
to care.
Consider the evidence. In 2000, the box office found amazing success
with films like Charlie's Angels, Miss Congeniality, and Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon--all of which surpassed the $lOO million mark. Since
January of this year, three women-driven films have already passed the $5O
million mark---Save the Last Dance with Julia Stiles, Jennifer Lopez's The
Wedding Planner and The Mexican, which rode the wave of Julia Roberts'
success
These films employ female leads, but due to strong stories and stronger
action, that detail has become an attraction instead of detriment. "Grrrl"
flicks represent a new kind of female—those who can apply lipstick with
one hand while breaking the neck of some unsuspecting fool with the other.
For the first time since Linda Hamilton came locked and loaded in
Terminator 2, girls are experiencing a movie makeover. The image of the
helpless damsel has given way to the ultra-feminine, yet independent
"grrrl." She is the epitome of well-roundedness, smart, funny and self
sufficient---and those are the characteristics that now give her sex appeal.
(Audiences for the mentioned films have been half male.)
Women used to be one of two things: Bond girls or bimbos. Both were
mildly entertaining, though neither could defend herself, and some needed
help just getting away from their attacker without tripping over a crack in
the sidewalk. The new grrrl has no trouble getting away. In fact, the new
grrrl fights back, and in some cases, is the attacker. She possesses the
perfect combination of brains, brawn and beauty—the last stemming mostly
from the first two. The message is that grrrls don't have to be gorgeous,
they just have to be grrrls, accentuating all the wonderful things they
already are.
Music is the vocal extension to film's visual impact. In the past few
years, music has run the gamut from the jackhammer rap/metal of Limp
Bizkit to the Sunday school messages of Creed. But in a recent move that
kickstarted with Destiny's Child, women have become the real musical
muscle.
Just as Gloria Gaynor convinced a whole generation that she would
survive, Destiny's Child is singing the new anthem for independent women
Their lyrics are the musical equivalent of getting punched by an Angel as
the group continues to emerge as the anti-Shaggy--the grrrls who won't
stand for men who bang on the bathroom floor. Their assertive sound and
confident words encourage women to stay strong—emotionally, financially
and physically.
The love ballads of days gone by seem almost dusty in their optimism
compared to the empowering forces currently behind music. Sunshine
Anderson, protege of Macy Gray, does such a job on her ex in "Heard it Alt
Before" that it almost seems like a good time to break up. These songs,
while not terribly eloquent, recognize the reality of relationships—the
heartbreak, the lies and the inevitable end. Songs like these, however, also
offer a sense of betterment to replace the tears that normally would stream
during sappier songs like "My Heart Will Go On," the equivalent to the old
chick flicks.
Just as all media trends ebb and flow with the changing climate of
society, this too shall pass. However, the fact that grrrl power has risen up at
all and in simultaneous mediums, nonetheless—makes an about-to-be
graduated student like myself just a little more confident about the things
that await. Thanks to the trend, I don't have to sacrifice femininity for
strength, brains for beauty. I can focus less on all the stifling stereotypes
that once accompanied female professionals and I can kick ass in all the
ways I was meant to. So, yeah, I am a grrrl—l just spell it a little differently.
' ."\ ".\