I he Daily Collegian Courtesy of the Thee Lexington Arrows Thee Lexington Arrows will play Roustabout! Wednesday night at the Darkhorse Tavern. Organizer Jesse Ruegg said the band’s sound combines surf rock and garage rock. Roustabout! benefit from By Kevin Sullivan COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER To liken music to lichen, the relationship between booker and band is often symbiot ic and mutually beneficial, like in the case of next week’s Roustabout! Members of Thee Lexington Arrows and Thetans!, who will play Wednesday at The Darkhorse Tavern, 128 E. Colfege Ave., have known and worked with the pro moters of Roustabout! since before their current bands were formed. “Bands aie fairly crazy and form and break up all the time.” Roustabout! pro moter Jesse Ruegg said. “We kind of main tain relationships with the musicians themselves. There are a lot of personnel changes between bands, and we’ll often book that new band with the musician we knew.” Baltimore-based Thee Lexington Arrows is one example of this. Bassist Curt Schmelz and guitarist Alex Fine were a part of a band called The Alphabet Bombers that Ruegg and fellow Roustabout! promoter Jeff Van Fossan first saw in Washington, D.C., several years ago, Ruegg said. Schmelz said he encountered Ruegg and Van Fossan again when touring as a roadie with a band called Shakedown, who played a show in State College, Schmelz said. Today, Schmelz's new band is about to play their fifth show for the promoters. Thee Lexington Arrows play a less 10-fi style of garage rock, Schmelz said, although the band's recordings were defi nitely less polished earlier in its career. “Our old drummer wasn’t the greatest, so we had to keep it 10-fi so you wouldn’t notice," Schmelz said. Ruegg said the band always puts on a show and as such. Roustabout! continues to bring the band to State College. He said the band adds surf rock and rockabilly influences to its garage rock sound. “They kind of sound like The Sonics if they were fronted by a female singer and had a better guitar player." Ruegg said. “Kathleen is pretty small, but she has a huge voice. When she plays guitar, she really means it." Tree festival to showcase the ‘magic of the holidays’ The 15th annual event will feature more than 80 different trees decorated by local groups and area businesses. By Chidi Ugwu cOR THE COLLEGIAN While it may not be the first thing that students and locals think of come Christmas, organizers work tirelessly each year to make the Annual Festival of Trees and Craft Show a State College winter sta ple. “This festival is really meant for anyone looking to see the magic of the holidays," festival organizer Jennifer Stephens said. “It’ll be lots of fun for anyone who comes out." The festival, presented by the State College YMCA and the Penn State University Society of American Foresters, will run until Sunday in the Snider Agricultural Arena. Going into its 15th year, the festival will showcase 86 different trees decorated by groups and businesses, and will feature several vendors and musical acts. Stephens said. Visitors are also encour aged to vote for the best decorated tree. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the State College Family YMCA Strong Kids Campaign, Stephens said. “A lot of creativity goes into each of these trees,” she said. “We have some trees dec orated by children's groups and others decorated by senior citizen groups, so there’s a lot of diversity” But some people come to the festival to do more than just admire the trees. “A lot of times people come and take pic ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT performers partnership If you go What: Thee Lexington Arrows and Thetans! When: 10 p.m. Wednesday Where: The Darkhorse Tavern, 128 E, College Ave. Details: Tickets are $5 The band tends to do short “week ender”-style touring instead of staying on the road for long periods of time, Schmelz said. Most of the band members have regular nine-to-five jobs and ihey usually travel from Baltimore to piav a show several hours away, drive home the same night and go to work the next day. For this show, however, Schmelz said he will be taking the next day off an irregularity for him. This show also marks the first time the band will play the area with a CD to sell — the band’s debut “Get thee to a Drinkery.” The other band on the,.g)(ening’s bill, Thetans!, have a similar but more localized history with other bands. The State College-based band features several members who were involved in the now defunct Wilcox Hotel, said guitarist Ryan Peterson. After that group’s singer moved to Seattle, the members decided to form a new band together. “We all knew we still wanted to play music, so it was logical,” Peterson said. “We’re all songwriters, and we have to keep writing songs. It's like we’re sick with something we just got to do it.” Peterson said Thetans! play noise pop influenced equally by heavy metal, the Sex Pistols, AC/DC and avant-garde music. TWo of the members also play in the band The Maximums, Ruegg said. Though they are active musicians with several projects, Ruegg said the members of Thetans! have been on a hiatus recently. “They have a good draw with the grad student crowd,” Ruegg said. “They haven’t played that much so I thought it would be cool to get them in one last time this year.” To e-mail reporter: kjssoB9@psu.edu If you go What: Festival of Trees and Craft Show When: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday Where: Snider Agricultural Arena, corner of Park Ave. and Fox Hollow Road Details: Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children ages 13 to 17, and free for children ages 12 and under. tures of them to figure out how to decorate their own trees at home,” Kelly Johnson said. “People really do love to see them.’’ Johnson said she has been a vendor at the festival for two years and was a visitor long before that. It's easy to support the festival because it's fun and for a good cause, Johnson said. "It’s very Christmas-y," she said. “The atmosphere is very magical especially for children. It just gives you one of those feel ings you only get during the holidays. That’s why I've been coming here for so long.” Even with its yearly visitors, the festival isn’t exactly well known among students. "I’ve never heard of it. but it sounds interesting,” Chas Myers (senior-actuarial science) said. ’I can't say I’d be likely to go, though.’’ Myers said he would be open to going if the festival were moved to a more accessi ble place, adding that it seems like it would be a fun seasonal thing to do. Stephens also said she enjoys being able to see something she worked so hard to plan work out. “It's really nice to see it all come togeth er," she said. “There’s a lot of planning that goes into this event.” IROUGHT TO YOU BY PA! Friday, Dec. 11,2009 I 7
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