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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2000)
Guitarist comes full cirde ■ King Crimson guitarist Trey Gunn performs tonight at the WOW Hall By Jack Clifford Oregon Daily Emerald Even though Trey Gunn has n’t played music on the Univer sity campus since the mid 1980s, he remembered the experiences with quite a bit of clarity during a recent phone conversation from Areata, Calif. “My band Magic If played a lot at the WOW Hall and also at the EMU Ballroom,” said Gunn, a 1986 graduate from the music department. “There was a real hippie vibe back then, but a lot of punk bands came through town. I saw X and Black Flag at the WOW Hall. “Oh yeah, we also played at the beer garden on campus. It was horrible.” “Hey, at least there was a beer garden,” several students could respond to that last gloomy de piction of his performing career in Eugene. Life got better for Gunn, however, and tonight is a bit of a homecoming for the Seattle resident. The Trey Gunn Band plays the WOW Hall (did someone say “deja vu?"), with special guests Facelift, from Eugene, opening the 8 p.m. show. Tick ets are $12 at the door. Yes, Gunn’s life got much better not too long after he left the Pacific Northwest. In 1992, he joined a collaborative project with David Sylvian and King Crimson guitarist/frontman Robert Fripp, releasing a pair of CDs. Gunn then got the call-up to play with King Crimson, a spot he’s filled since 1994, enough time to lend his talent to five King Crimson albums. In be tween recording and touring with the legends, he’s managed to squeeze in enough personal time on his own band, which re cently released its fourth CD, Trey Gunn, with one of his touch guitars, plays the WOW Hall tonight. “The Joy of Molybdenum.” Gunn just finished recording his fifth album with King Crim son, “The Construction of Light,” which is scheduled to be released May 1. No wonder he recalls the beer garden gig as one that sucked. “It’s definitely an asset to have played with the best musi cians in the world,” Gunn said, referring not only to Fripp, et al, but also to such musical lumi naries as Toni Childs and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. “It’s a real honor to be in [King Crim son].” Attempting* to describe the sound Gunn puts out with his own band is no easy task. Draw ing on tinges of the world beat genre, some fusion and a progres sive rock pulse, the band’s mix is two parts mesmerizing and one part “damn, that’s cool.” The diversified music comes from the instruments used to produce the material. Tony Geballe plays electric guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar and the Turkish saz. Percussionist Bob Muller uses everything from a tabla to a darbouka to a gamelan drum for his input. Gunn himself takes the stage with a variety of touch guitars, built by Mark Warr of Warr Gui tars. The eight-, 10- or 12 stringed instruments are mostly tapped instead of strummed or picked and have ranges from be low a bass to the highs of an electric guitar. When he’s not tapping away, Gunn might chime in with a mellotron, a theremin, the short wave or his smokey guitar. For this three week tour, Randy Storm joins the band as another touch guitarist. With the memories of his past creeping in again, Gunn said that he looks forward to enter taining a local audience. This gig almost certainly will be bet ter than another one he recalled, this time involving the first band he formed in Eugene, Pun ishment Farm. “We were chosen to play at ‘test day’ when the Hult Center first opened up,” he mused. “They were checking the acoustics and needed someone to play for the reviewers. “We were the noisemakers.” Gunn’s kicking up a lot of racket these days and he’s gone from the pauper life of a student slumming for rent money at a campus beer garden to sharing a stage with King Crimson. That’s gotta be everything but “horrible.” Courtesy Laura Love, a Seattle-base singer/songwriter, began recording CDs in 1990; her ‘Afro Celtic’ sound has been delighting fans ever since. Love-ly benefit show to fight sexual assault ■ Laura Love, T.R. Kelley headline a pre-Valentine show at the WOW Hall By Yael Menahem Oregon Daily Emerald Love’s coming to town. Seattle-based singer/songwriter Laura Love and local Babes with Axes band member T.R. Kelley will perform Saturday night at a pre-Valentine’s Day concert. The WOW Hall event is a bene fit for Sexual Assault Support Ser vices, a local non-profit organiza tion. SASS offers counseling and ed ucational programs for people who have been affected by sexual abuse, harassment or assault. They also provide a 24-hour crisis line and self-defense empower ment classes. Phyllis Barkhurst, former direc tor of SASS and the brainchild be hind the concert, says she always wanted to put on a Love show. Barkhurst and Jodi Henry, SASS’ research development coordina tor, began working on bringing to gether the concert last summer. Henry is looking forward to the concert and enjoys the link be tween the artist’s name and the month the show falls on. “Valentine’s Day, her name [Love], our services — it just all came together,” Henry says. Love’s debut CD “Z Therapy” in 1990 introduced her self-de scribed “funkability” sound to music lovers. One critic labeled her sound “Afro-Celtic,” and that’s how her music is now wide ly known. Since her debut CD, Love has released five more albums, includ ing the most recent one, “Shum Ticky.” That recording was re ceived warmly by critics and au-. diences alike. “I didn’t set out to be unique,” Love says in a press release. “I think I was defined by my limita tions.” “I didn’t have the attention span to sit there and get every nuance of jazz, blues, swing, bluegrass or Celtic music,” she adds. Love’s “world music” appeal and her fusion of numerous music genres are apparent and that’s what brings the crowds in, espe cially in the Northwest. Kelley, who will open for Love, has made a name for herself local ly and nationally. She has been playing professionally since the age of 14 and has recorded two solo CDs, in addition to the two she’s recorded with Babe with Axes. Combining Kelley, the self-ti tled “eccentric fretless bass god dess,” with Love and her “hip Ap palachian” style should make for an amazing night of music, all to benefit a good cause. Tickets for the show are $20 and are available at the WOW Hall, 291W. Eighth Ave., the EMU Box Office, House of Records, CD World and at the SASS office, 591 W. 19th St. The music begins at 8:30 p.m. A Dozen Wrapped Roses for $\Q95 Pisces: What are you doing thi^veekend? Check your IS4 UO School of Music World Music Series presents iunelan Music and Shadow Puppetry of Java Featuring internationally renowned shadow-puppet master and musician Widiyanto Putro with the Eugene-based Gamelan Sari Pandhawa Saturday, Feb. 12 • 8 p.m. BEALL CONCERT HALL Gen. Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, at the door. For info, call Mark Levy at 346-2852.
