Bto-iK Con-brol Supplies f Sexual Weal-fcH Sev-viees. women Planned Parenthood • 1670 High, Eugene • 344-9411 fie Grand ^Opening "The Rec* WITH foersity visit www.spencergifts.com Best assortment of masks, costumes, and all that is great and gory. a universaJvtBios company Sugar Beets dish up the goods ■ Voted Eugene’s best band, The Sugar Beets rock the WOW Hall Saturday in their final show of the millenium By Sara Jarrett Oregon Daily Emerald Everything started with eight starving musicians jamming to gether in the University dorms between classes. Ten years later, not only are The Sugar Beets still together, but the band was just voted as Eu gene’s best in the Eugene Week ly’s readers’ poll. “[We] were born out of and sustained by the Eugene spirit — and gosh it feels good to be ac knowledged by the community we came out of,” the band’s gui tarist and vocalist Marty Chilla said of the award. Chilla stressed that what makes the band unique is that it has six songwriters and each per son in the band contributes to the vocals. The group’s performance Saturday at the WOW Hall is its last one until a 10-year anniver sary celebration in the spring of 2000. “We started taking a winter break last year so we can have a love life and stuff like that,” Chilla said. The release of “Once Upon A Time” earlier this year marks the Sugar Beet’s fourth recording and second CD. “I was very happy to hear [the Sugar Beets were voted number one] because they have personal ly been my favorite local band for some time now,” WOW Hall publicist Bob Fennessy said. Opening for The Sugar Beets on Saturday is The Clumsy Lovers, from Vancouver, B.C. Each band offers prominent fid dle and bluegrass sounds, Fen nessy said, but Chilla points out that his band isn’t one-dimen sional. “We are a band with strong bluegrass roots, but we like to use it as a starting point and get cre ative from there,” he said in a press statement. The Clumsy Lovers is a five-member band and has been described as “a combo platter of impeccable mu sicianship and silly showman ship” by die Seattle Weekly. “Our sound is bluegrass, Celtic and pop-rock with plenty of high energy and even some ska thrown in,” the band’s fiddle player and vocalist Andrea Lewis was quoted in the SW. “We play big party, foot stomping type of music.” The Clumsy Lovers have been together since 1993 and have re leased four CDs; the most recent is called “Barnburner.” All ages are welcome at the show, which begins at 9:30 p.m. Tickets cost $6 in advance, $7* at the door and are available at CD World, Face the Music, House of Reqords, La Tienda & Taco Loco, Record Exchange, the EMU Tick et Office or the WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth. VLT opens on a ‘fantastick’ note By Yael Menahem Oregon Daily Emerald A boy, a girl, their two mothers and the wall that separates the two family’s houses. That’s the premise for the Very Little The atre’s season premiere “The Fan tasticks.” The musical is based on Ed mond Rostand’s 1892 short play called “Les Romanesques” and has been produced 693 times in 68 foreign countries since first opening in 1960. The story takes place in one character’s imagination. The Nar rator — El Gallo, played by Stephen Newbury — is a roman tic hero and has control oveF the other character’s actions. The en tire play revolves around El Gal lo almost “puppeteering” the main characters. Accompanying El Gallo and the rest of the cast is The Mute and two actors who are also fig ments of his imagination. Matt and Luisa have been neighbors since birth and a wall built to keep them apart is actual ly a scheme by their mothers to bring them closer together. Matt is conservative and stern, while * Luisa is afraid of being ordinary and acts like a princess. Two University students, Tyler Hold en and Kimberly Bates, play Matt and Luisa, respectively. The mothers hire El Gallo to create havoc in the lover’s lives by asking him to attempt to kid nap Luisa while the two are walking in the park. The kidnap ping is actually referred to as a rape in the song, but the play’s program clarified that the origi nal 18th-century meaning of the word meant “to seize and carry off by force.” The directors, Jack Powell and Jane Russell, decided to stay true to the original play and added that they do not con done the act of violence that the word represents today. The kidnapping is staged to portray Matt as a hero who saves Luisa in distress. Then the moth- * ers tell the two that the wall and the disapproval of their relation- - ship is actually a farce. The first act ends happily with Luisa saved, and with Matt and Luisa to be married. The play takes an unromantic turn in the second act when El Gallo decides to tear Luisa and Matt apart. The mischief starts with small things like El Gallo in fluencing Luisa to tell Matt that she likes his face better in the dark. As a result, Matt decides to take a trip around the world, all courtesy of El Gallo, so he can work his magic on Luisa. In the end El Gallo hurts Luisa, and when Matt returns, she re turns to him and everyone recon ciles. El Gallo warns the audi ence, however, to keep the wall up. The cast of The Very Little Theater does a good job in bring ing the musical to life. They use imaginative tools such as silver confetti thrown by The Mute to create rain, and green confetti to create the illusion of cutting bushes in one of the mother’s garden. The two actors who accompa ny El Gallo, and appear at his re quest, add a humorous touch to the musical. “The Fantasticks” plays through Nov. 6. Very Little The atre i£ located at 2350 Hilyard St. 007653 Community Center lor the Performing Arts 8th & Lincoln ■ Friday ■ Caribbean Ntyht Jahkuumba, The live Bombers, Abaka-Dubi, Groupo Flamenco SUdin^Scale $6-12 door, 9:00 pm ■ Saturday ■ The Su^ar Beets, The Clumsy Lovers Bluegrass $6 advance, $7 door, 9:00 pm ■ Sunday ■ Sloppy Seconds, Shortround, Compact 56 Punk Rock $8 advance, $8 door, 7:30 pm ■ Tuesday ■ Buck-O-Nine, Scrimmage Heroes Ska-Punk-Reggae $7 advance, $7 door, 7:30 pm All Ages Welcome • 687-2746 Advertise Is the ©08 Classifieds