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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 19, 1989)
-Entertainment Toni Childs' rapport with crowd transcends auditorium formality By Rick Heyman Emerald Contributor The Silva Concert Hall at tin1 Unit ("enter presents a tough challenge for an energetic sing er like Toni Childs The hall is so beautiful that it makes rock 'n' roll concertgoers behave as if they're at a classical perfor mance. The polite, sit-in-vour scat-and-clap-at-the-end-of-a song norms run counter to the kind of bonfire a singer like Childs is trying to ignite If you're Toni Childs, you play a few songs, turn up the house lights, and play Simon Says with the audience. This makes them look so silly that dancing becomes a very unself conscious act by comparison. In one simple stroke on Mon day night. Childs changed a stuffy concert hall into a small club, encouraging people to come up front and dance. It didn't hurt that on the next song, the incendiary "Stop Your Fussin'," she and her band knocked the intensity lev el up a few notches and never looked back. (.hiIlls songs <ire intensely personal, and she did a magnif icent job connecting with the audience on a deep emotional level. Her sometimes funny and always heartfelt between-song chats with the audience were very warm and human. Al though difficult to do in a ven ue the size of Silva Concert Hall. Childs never played the "star" or "performer"; her al lium is aptly titled Union, and Childs was able to join with the audience in a rare musical com munion. Childs’ stunning gift as a singer is not her husky voice, although it is an instrument to marvel at. Childs emotes so fully that it seems that every sinew, every nerve in her body is struggling to express the feel ings locked inside the music. Before her last encore. Childs told the audience "Singing is a way for me to express all the things I'd keep locked inside. If I didn't get to do this, I wouldn't be here today — I would have checked out a long time ago.” The catharsis shared between Childs and her audience on Monday was exhilarating and r wide [-ringing >1 music ground ed in <t global beat, moments of exuberance and abandon, mo ments of political and so< ial fervor, and moments of des peration and longing The only tru k for Toni Childs will be maintaining the intimacy and union, so crui ial for her and her music, when .1 huge following befalls her And as her performance at the Hull amply demonstrated, this is clearly her destiny Matthew Sweet opened the show with a loose, rocking set taken mostly from his recent. sound leans more to roots rm k than tlif anai hromstu I I. () ish keyboards that he's usrd to drstroy a numlicr of prnjet ts hf 's produced /•'ti// A/cxiri /-'ever iloi'sn't dif fer much from a standard Heart breakers record The two primary differenc:es are the thickly layered guitars, which (ill mm h of the musical spat e usually no upied by Benmont Tench's keylioards. and the freedom to explore Petty uses this freedom in several ways lie recorded a version of the Byrds' "Teel a If you ’re Toni Childs, you play a few songs, turn up the house lights, and play Simon Says with the audience. critically acclaimed album H.irth. Sweet's voice has be come fuller and more mature since the recording of the re cord, which only served to make his catchy and quirky songs even more irresistible Full Moon Fever — Tom Pol ly Tom Petty fronts one of the best bands in the universe Why in the world would he possibly want to make .1 solo record? The answer seems to be that it would be fun It's a time to play around without the nor mal expectations whii h accom pany an artist of his stature The Traveling Wilburys. the Petty-Dylan-Orbison-I larrison Lynne supersession, didn't cave in under the collective weight of its members' reputa tions because they didn't take themselves seriously. The same art-for-fun's-sake atmosphere of the Wilburys pervades Full Moon /-'ever. K.L.O.’s |eff Lynne co-pro duced the album and. as with his co-production on the Wilburys record, the LP's Whole I„nt Better" that is so true to the original (Betty's voice has always sounder! un cannily like Roger Md'.uinn's) that on <1 Heartbreaker allium he would tie at 1 used of rts ord mg filler With the expectations abandoned it's a hell of a lot of fun to hear his tribute Full Moon /'ever was also a i hence for Petty to .nr his wit k ed sense of humor Take the first few lines of "Yer So Had" “My sister got hit kv married a yuppie Took hint for .ill he was worth Now she’s a swinger, in love with a singer I can t de cide whit h is worse Tor all this talk ol lowered expectations, vnu might he stir prised to learn that the song writing is uniformly excellent, from the rot king beauty of "Tree Tailin' " through to the rocking stomp of "Zombie Zoo." Full Moon / ever is first rate Hetty a bit looser, a bit funnier, and a hit more guitar crazy. The best part may be that the Heartbreakers art1 a band who thrive on 1 hallenge Not only is Full Moon /-'ever an al bum to blare all summer, hut I Ih-I the next album with the Heartbreakers will raise the stakes even higher need a break? Check out the EnTERTAinMEttT section in the ODE classifieds. BUSY? GET TAN QUICK!'! We ve got your tan when you want it' SunShower on camput Wllll-IMI l» ■WW *J l»M 1 4(K off one Gyro* or Fatafel ** QJUTT LTJ* 1219 Aider 343 3062 .-•pirns b V89 OhjrwH*-* 1 FREE ADMISSION PASS Special Olympics Summer Games Opening Ceremonies Friday, May 19, I9S9 7pm McArthur Court, Eugene Featuring the St n t h <>rrur Singers. tht' i t’u t \ of i \ilifomiii Riu.un.i 0 s LIGHT UP SUMMER EVENINGS FREE 8'RAINBOW TA DCDCWi,h Everv $10 Cl\0 Homo Store Purchase Offer Good Through June 11 w/Coupon Limit 1 Coupon per Customer Come in and shop at our new stores and visit Allan Bros.Coffee for brunch, lunch or munch. 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