The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 7, 1992 Page: 17 of 24
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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1992 17
numbers raves about Shamen's new show
Mr. C (top) and Colin Shamen (bottom) appeared at Numbers last weekend.
BY DORRY SEGEV
T
JLect
;hnology is not a concept
that is new to the genre of dance
music. From the early days of
Vince Clark's Roland TR-707
kick/snare/hi-hat pop to the
recent influx of EPS sampler-
based garage studios, technology
has been the sole driving force in
the dance music market. Last
Friday, January 31, at Numbers,
Scotland's The Shamen proved
that a show on the cutting edge of
high-tech still sells.
A crowd of people waited
outside of Numbers to buy
tickets at the door to the sold-out
five-hour "rave" The Shamen
call Progeny (a take-off on their
London club Synergy). A rave is
essentially a travelling club—
they bring their own sound
system (with sub-woofers that
really can move mountains), their
own light show (a kaleidoscope of
lasers aimed at every inch of the
club), their own computer-
generated, drug-inspired slides
projected on the walls of the club,
and, of course, their own com-
puter-generated dance music
spun by their own (computer-
generated?) disc jockeys.
The crowd of people waiting
outside of Numbers probably
thought all this rave stuff
sounded pretty cool. Well, it was,
but, unfortunately, only for about
half an hour, and only if you
got in free on press passes.
Honestly, the four-hour wait
between 8 p.m., when doors
opened, and midnight, when
The Shamen played their
miniature set, lacked the
excitement predicted by the
press release.
The main problem was the
confusion between the conflict-
ing concert and the club atmo-
spheres of the rave. Those four
hours of club music would have
gone by much faster had the
Numbers crowd treated it as a
club (and danced, dare I suggest
it) and not a concert (where they
just crowded the stage and stood
watching an empty, boring stage
without moving). Maybe Num-
bers was too crowded to realize
the club concept. Or maybe
American audiences have a lot to
learn about raves. In any case, it
didn't work, but don't blame The
Shamen.
What did work were the
performances themselves. Moby,
the manic opening act from New
York with good beats but a boring
repertoire, warmed up the crowd
with amazing, almost inhuman
energy. Despite his initial
complaint that he "came all the
way from New York to play this
song," Moby seemed to enjoy the
attention from the otherwise
sleepy crowd. To mask the DAT
playing his prerecorded
soundtracks (my guess), he set up
a two-tier stand with a drum pad
on the top and a keyboard on the
bottom; it appeared that neither
were powered-up. But he put on
quite a good fake-show, banging
up both the keys and the pads
with the anger of a serial killer.
Intermittently, Moby would
forget he was faking and just start
flailing around the stage (with
some simple but appropriate
dance steps). But I forgave him,
because his music packed quite a
punch and he did his job as an
opening act.
After about half an hour of
Moby and another hour of
waiting, the deities themselves
emerged. As all one-hit-wonders
go, they played a bunch of warm-
up tunes to fill their 50-minute
set before they got to the popular
songs. One particularly memo-
rable song went something like
"space. . .space. . .space... space.
. .time.. .time.. .time... time..
.space-time! space-time! space-
time!" As if it weren't sad enough
on its own, The Shamen intro-
duced the song by saying "this
next song is about when space
and time come together." Some
of their pieces had incredible
beats, so they were good to dance
to, but they left a bunch to be
desired as far as substance (did I
say substance? Can we actually
expect substance from a dance
music duo?). They need a real
songwriter. Maybe they rented a
songwriter to write "Move Any
Mountain," the one actual hit
that The Shamen have under
their belt. Too bad they played an
awful remix of even that song
(which made it sound just like
the rest of their stuff).
I should slam The Shamenfor
being boring and "typical." But,
I'm not judging their music as
much as I'm reviewing their
show.. .the Progeny rave show.
And, as a show, it may very well
have been one of the more
innovative concepts in dance
music today.
It was fun, loud, and it sent a
beat through your body like
nothing I've ever known. That's a
good dance music show.
f^ft^
Freshness, quality & great taste on one plate
Open every day
6811 Kirby at Holcombe
Houston, TX 77030
(713) 666-4047
Mon.-Thurs. 11 am - 9 pm
Fri.. 11 am - 10 pm
Sal. 12 pm - 10 pm
Sun. 12 pm - 9 pm
Arms
FROM PAGE14
in line with Shaw's satire of
appearance over substance.
The costumes, coordinated by
Paula Piatt, are yet another treat.
Across the stage troop soldiers in
dashing military uniforms
dripping with gold braid, servants
in understated yet beautiful
Bulgarian costumes, and Raina
and Catherine in an array of
stunning dresses. Thomas
Fowlkes and Rifat Qureshi
deliver lush sound design as well,
with classical music snatched
from Rimsky-Korsakov and
Prokofiev to recreate an Eastern
European atmosphere.
Shaw is often ridiculed for his
high-flown, over-philosophical
plots. But Arms and the Man,
while holding its share of
thoughtful observations, is
among his lightest, funniest
works. For an entertaining plot,
admirable acting, and sumptuous
costumes and set, I heartily
recommend it.
Arms and the Man, by George
Bernard Shaw, plays Wed.
through Sat., Feb. 5-8 & 12-15, at
8:00 p.m. in Hamman Hall.
Student tickets are $4. Call 527-
4040 for reservations.
"Consort with
the followers of all
religions
with friendliness!
the Baha'i Faith
For Information Call:
West. University
BahaT Community
664-0776
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becoming a VISTA Volunteer. VISTA offers
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VISTA recruiter Katy Dooley will be
scheduling interviews at the Texas Career Fair
on February 12, Grand Hall from 12 noon-4:00
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Zitterkopf, Ann & Howe, Harlan. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 7, 1992, newspaper, February 7, 1992; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245804/m1/17/?rotate=180: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.