Daniel J. Stasiewski, A&E Editor behrcolls@aol.com Saturday night's alright for coffee Ever wonder what Bruno's would look like minus the tables and chairs? Add a few comfy couches in front of the stage, plus a love seat or two and you have a pretty sweet hangout place. Well, the Lion Entertainment Board (LEB) has decided to do just that come next semester. Welcome to the future home of the Coffee House Series presented by the LEB. "The idea came from students at Behrend, basically. We had been receiving a lot of emails and feedback and thought we'd give the students here what they wanted," said Dave Daquelente, President of the LEB, "Students were suggesting that we go a different direction with our selection of music, so that's what the Coffee House Se ries is all about." The LEB took the student's suggestions into consider ation and threw around some ideas on how to make a coffee house series into a reality. The members of the LEB decided to create a relaxed, comfortable environ ment in Bruno's every Saturday night in November to reach a different crowd on campus. "We're working on getting the Seattle's Best Coft'ee Shop in Bruno's to stay open during the performances as well," said Daquelente. "We want this to feel as chill as possible and be a place for students to really want to go and hang out at." The LEB will hold a preview of the Coffee House Se ries on Oct. 4 with guitarists Syd and Eric Himan. The show starts each night at 8 p.m. and could go on into the Come November, each Saturday night will feature a mu sician and a poet. Also, in between the performers, an open mic will be set up for the audience if students want to read poetry, or even give a try at performing. "We booked our performers through the National Asso ciation of Campus Acts, saw what they had to offer, really enjoyed their music and booked them. We can only hope that the other students on campus like the music as well," said Daquelente. The music to be perfOrmed will mainly be acoustic folk- Perez's 'Angel' doesn't fly by Olivia Page staff writer "Angel" is Amanda Perez's hit song, the only hit from her album of the same title. Her album covers a wide variety of genres from R&B to hip-hop, and even a little melody of gospel. Many artists have songwriters, but she writes her own songs, which is a plus. One problem is that she is very "cliché" when it comes to her rhymes. The song "Angel" is very catchy and one that many people can relate to. But everything that she sings in the song has been said over and over before. When you sit down and write a song it doesn't need to have metaphors, the song just has to be original. "Oh God send me an angel/wipe the tears from my eyes/send me an angel from the heavens above" is not original. So what if she writes and produces Evanescence reinvigorates melodic metal by Roger Gorny staff writer Evanescence is an Arkansas-based band consisting of Amy Lee on vocals and Ben Moody on guitars, as well as a few additional artists. A combination of Moody's scorching guitars, Lee's wounded, haunting vocals and a soft, tinkling piano sound is intertwined tactfully throughout their CD "Fallen." The album gets off to a roaring start with "Going Under," a song that deals with the torment of a broken relation ship. Lee firmly stresses: "50 thousand years I've cried/screaming, deceiving, and bleeding for you/and you still won't hear me." The album rages on until it hits a soft, melodic note with the track "M by Erika Jarvis staff writer The song "I Still Love You" sounds like a remake to a song the group Xscape would have produced when it first started. This does not necessarily mean that the song is bad. She is a tal ented singer who just needs to freshen her songs up. "Never" is a song she sings very well but the song lyrics are not only basic, but also an insult to women. "And I'll never let you go, no, no, no/I love you so/and I'll get down on my knees and I'll beg/you please...." A woman should never have to beg a man for any thing. With "No More" she gains some sense. She sings about how "I ain't tak ing this no more/It's time for me to say Immortal." This song deals with the hollowness of a relationship in which a person has given their life and sanity to someone who sees right through him Eric Hutchinson is just one of the performer's in the LEB's Coffee House Series. rock, while a pianist will be featured as well. The poets that will be featured offer a variety of different types of poetry, including slam poetry. "The LEB thought that bringing a poet to the Coffee House series would bring more diversity to the campus, and it will be a lot of fun, give it a more coffee-house vibe. We even have the No. 3 slam poet in the country coming," said Daquelente. The idea for the Coffee House Series is something new for Behrend and the LEB hopes to make it a recurring thing every fall. "We're trying to see how well this goes over. It's defi nitely different than the punk bands we normally bring it, and we hope that it is something everyone on campus can get in to," said Daquelente. Look for these performers to come to Behrend during the Coffee House Series. Nov. 1-Kamal and Eric Hutchinson. Nov. 8-Gemineve and Steven Kellog. Nov. 15-Vanessa Ilidary and Jennifer Maine. Nov. 22- Amanda Diva, Miche Fambro and Lea Morris all of her songs? The images she makes the entire album seem old. Every one of her songs takes people back to the early 90s with her beats and how she sings. I ~;,„ TAgai , ..:' , .•••._ , •,••; , , ,:,::::,: , -.',':i•' . ' , .. ,. •••••vi -, ••*•- ,-..... ::::•....t: II : A:•••.:.:,•:if, '•••• , ,...:•:-..e. - ; N ...*,,,,,.,,,, 's AR.O::Ai:,: -, :i ' .. •••••0 ..•].-- •••::: , 4,••: , :: , . , .. , .. a.'11 '.-.--,,. :::•:,:::,-•... -••• - ••'""?':? , A. 1'..11 li:', '-' , ."'.A ' . 4 •••••:.-i• . 5 . :. 4,,,x,•:. I'l Friday, April 25, 2003 bye-bye/wipe away my tears cuz there ain't/no need to cry." She also has some very seductive songs, but they are all recycled. Maybe if she had R. Kelly write her songs "I Like It" and "Your Body is Mine," they would be more original. Then she claims to be a rapper. The remix of "Angel' is butchered. With "Whoa" she has a really good rapping style but she raps with a different ar ray than most rappers flow to. "Where You At" seems to be a remake of a Master P song. The beat and what she raps about has a No Limit feel. To sum it up: Basically all of her songs sound very alike, with the rap ping as an exception. They all have her same unique singing voice and the beats are very similar. or her with hollow vision and a black branded heart. This person has sapped every ounce of mortality from their lover and dragged it out the door with them as if it meant nothing. As Lee sings: "You used to capti vate me/by your resonating light/ but now I'm bound by the life you left behind/your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams/your voice it chased away all the sanity in me." The background choir on songs such as "Everybody's Fool" and "Whisper" help in curtailing the brutal intensity that most nu-metal bands today bring to the table. Also, Lee's emotive, vibrant vocal quality brings a certain degree of soft ness to the typical vocal shredding en velo Bed in toda 's nu-metal. 4 ' lr A&, ( ,, A by Scott Soltis Sports editor "What can I say that can explain all this time I'm loving life there's not a day that I can't say all this time I'm singing out a song about a dream that's coming true" That's from the chorus of "Given the Chance" off of the Starting Line's full length debut album "Say It Like You Mean It". The band really has a lot to love about life these days. The Starting Line is on the same record label as punk stars New Found Glory, Drive Thru Records will participate in their second straight The Startling Line will perform May 2 at College Jam 2003 Warped Tour this summer, their debut album is selling well, and they will be releasing an acoustic set this summer. Not too bad for a band started over the Internet and has only been in existence for a little over three years. I spoke with vocalist/bassist Ken Vasoli while the band toured Califor ma. Vasoli is excited to be coming home to Pennsylvania to play Behrend, although they hail from the eastern portion of the state. Vasoli had a lot to say about life on the road, so much in fact some of the interview had to be edited for content. Q: I heard you guys had an inter esting story about how you formed a band. Could you elaborate on that a bit? A: We actually formed loosely over the Internet. Matt (Watts) first came to me by writing me an e-mail just ask ing me if I knew anyone in the area that wanted sing for a band that he was starting. I told him that I was in a couple of bands already, but one of them was playing a show at a skate park so I told him to stop by and we met up there and we started jamming together and formed this like two months into our friendship and have been together ever since. Q: Which do you like playing bet ter, big venues like the Warped Tour, or smaller venues like college shows? A: Personally, I'm more of a small The final track, "Whisper," is a song about someone immobilized by fear and pain, and wants to wrest it away from themselves. The truth is a voice and an image that continues to haunt them un til they rise to meet it at the termination of their life. As Lee sings: "I'm frightened by what I see/But somehow I know that there's much more to come/Immobilized by my The essence of Evanescence clearly seems to be that metal can be painted as more of a dramatic, artistic landscape with the Startling line A: Personally, I'm more of a small show kind of guy. It depends. I don't like really small shows. It's just like playing in someone's basement. Warped Tour is cool like once a year. I think its cool that its only once a year. If I played stuff like that all year I don't think I would like it. Q: Since you guys are from Penn sylvania, have you ever been to A: We've passed through before, but never actually been in Erie. We've been to Penn State before, definitely, it's a fun school. Q: Your music has been described as punk, pop, and emo. How would you describe your music? A: I don't know, when it comes to those three words I don't know nec essarily what people think they mean. I tell people that we're punk or what ever, I don't know. If people are like " we're punk, you know". And then if someone knows what punk is I'll be like; you know, we're punk. It's just *&(l44*! confusing. Q: What is your impression about the recent trend among some crit ics who say that punk has sold out and is not really punk anymore. What do you think of that? A: I think that punk is like a confus ing thing. Some things that other people consider to be punk, I don't. Certain bands on MTV and the radio that just write their music around what is cool and trying to fit the im age of punk instead of actually want ing to write that kind of music. I think selling out is dependant on who you're writing your music for. If you're writing your music for MTV then you're selling out, but if you wrote it for yourself and MTV is play ing it then you're not selling out, in my opinion. Q: Finally, what song do you look forward to playing most in your set? A: I really like playing "Up and Go" and "A Goodnight's Sleep," those are my two favorite songs. One last message from Vasoli before he takes the stage May 2 at Behrend's College Jam 2003, "*&@#*! rock on Penn State!" and still firmly have a grip on the qualities that form the core of metal: crunching guitars and power drenched vocals. It seems pretty clear that Evanes cence has a good sense of what good metal music is, and If its future al bums are anything like "Fallen," the odds of metal bringing back the glory days of the past seem better than ever. The Behrend Beacon Page
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