Willis is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser
hose who didn’t go see Wes
ley Willis at John Henry’s on
JL Monday night are among the
millions of poor souls who have not
yet been enlightened by Chicago’s
own king of rock ‘n’ roll.
I’ll try and make it up to those less
fortunate by describing the show. But
first, a little background on Mr. Willis.
First of all, he’s a schizophrenic.
Really. This is perhaps his most in
teresting and defining facet. He
swears at the voices in his head, is
prone to shouting out random gib
berish and liberally sprinkles pro
fanity through his lyrics and his dia
logue with the crowd.
Physically, Willis cuts an impos
ing figure: He’s well over 6 feet tall
and surpasses the 300-pound mark
by a country mile. He has an enor
mous gap between his two front
teeth arid a sizable scar in the mid
dle of his forehead from head
butting his fans.
Appearances aside, however,
Willis is one entertaining mofo. His
music is a bit hard to describe.
Willis is a one-man show, and his
instrument is a simple keyboard. He
doesn’t exactly “play” the key
board; rather, he hits the demo but
ton and simply changes the key
based upon
whatever song
he happens to
singing at
' the moment.
And the
songs! Most of
Willis’ tunes
have titles like
“Vultures Ate
My Dead Ass
Up,” “Rock
Saddam Hus
sein’s Ass” or
“I’m Sorry
That I Got
Dave
Depper
In Stereo
Fat.” However, many of his songs
simply celebrate (or ridicule) var
ious celebrities, forming the ker
nel of such masterpieces as
“Apollo Creed,” “Dave Grohl”
and “Megadeth.”
Monday night’s show saw Willis
in top form. During the opening
acts, he alternatively sat down at his
merchandising table or walked
around , mingling with fans and dis
pensing head-butts with gleeful
abandon.
By the time Willis took the stage,
the sizable crowd filling the floor
and the bar was exploding with an
ticipation. Requests for past classics
such as “Cut the Mullet” flew
through the air before he even had a
chance to fire up his keyboard.
Willis coolly shouted, “Shut the
fuck up!” back at the crowd and de
buted what is destined to become an
indisputable classic: “Osama bin
Laden.” This incredible number
had lyrics along the lines of: “You
are a terrorist. You are a real jerk.
You planned the September attacks
on New York City. Your ass is gonna
get whipped by die United States!”
Throughout the song, I was
moved to observe a patriotism
rarely seen in Eugene’s 20-some
thing contingent. Yes, “Osama bin
Laden” would have made the $6
price of admission entirely worth it
to me. But instead, I was treated to
more terrifically amusing tunes for
more than an hour.
At the end of every song on his al
bums, Willis shouts “Rock over Lon
don! Rock on Chicago!” But during
Monday night’s show, he changed
“Chicago” to “Eugene, Oregon,” a
friendly gesture that did not go unap
preciated by the audience.
The hits kept coming: “Santa
Claus Was A Car Thief,” “You
Wrecked Your Daddy’s Cadillac”
and “Lick a German Shepherd’s
Dick” all graced the air before he
closed the show down with his two
best-loved songs, “Rock and Roll
McDonald’s” and “Cut the Mullet.”
Despite rapturous applause,
Willis did not perform an encore.
Instead, he stoically gathered up
his lyric sheets and stepped off the
stage, wading through a sea of
adoring fans and giving out much
coveted head-butts.
All in all, it was a night to remem
ber. Wesley Willis comes through Eu
gene every couple of years, and I high
ly recommend his next show. I can
guarantee you that you will never see
anything remotely like it ever again.
E-mail columnist Dave Depperat
davedepper@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily represent those of the
Emerald.
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Hot off the Press
and into your hands
Oregon Daily Emerald
Circulating 10,000 papers daily
Make a resolution to try
some unusual new wines
By Fred Tasker
Knight Ridder Newspapers
The trouble with New Year's
resolutions was demonstrated
years ago by “Calvin and
Hobbes,” the much-missed com
ic strip about a cute/nasty little
kid and his fleabag live/stuffed
tiger. Calvin decided not to make
a resolution because he was al
ready perfect, and Hobbes
replied that he had vowed not to
be so offended by human nature,
but might already have blown it.
To avoid such transcendental
tangles, I make the same resolution
every year and always keep it. The
trick is not to vow something hard,
like losing weight or being nicer to
people. Instead, I always resolve to
try at least one new wine a month
— something I've never tried be
fore, maybe never even heard of.
It's very rewarding. If you'd
like to join me, here's a list of
some of the lesser-known wines
I've come across this way:
• Malbec: In France, where it
originated, this wine is inky
black, hard as nails, used as a
minor blending wine to add col
or to Bordeaux red wines. But in
Argentina, where the sun gets
the malbec grapes toasty ripe,
the wine is generous and plump
and soft, tasting like
chocolate/cherry candies. Even
better, since it hasn't really been
discovered yet, it's usually under
$10 a bottle.
• Gewurztraminer: Seldom or
dered because few can pro
nounce it (it's guh-VERTS-tra
MEEN-er), this full-bodied wine
tastes like white grapefruit,
litchis and mint. When it's made
in France's Alsace region, it's
full-bodied, powerful and bone
dry. When it's made in Califor
nia, it's more often lighter, more
delicate and lightly sweet. Either
way, it's great with spicy, white
wine foods like Cajun fish or
barbecue pork.
• Retsina: This is not a single
wine but a group of white wines
made in Greece of various grapes
and flavored with pine resin — a
throwback to when ancient Greeks
sealed their ceramic wine contain
ers with it. Today's retsina is much
milder than the old ones. To me,
they still taste like Pine-Sol, but
you might like them; as always, it's
a matter of personal taste.
• Pinotage: Grown almost ex
clusively in South Africa, this
is not a wine blend but a cross
ing of two grape varieties —
pinot noir and cinsaut. For
decades, naturally occurring
acetones sometimes made it
smell like paint, but thanks to
new growing and fermenting
methods it's deep, tarry and op
ulent, rich in flavors of rasp
berries and plums.
• Torrontes: Another hard-to
pronounce wine (torre-own
TAYSS), also from Argentina, it is
feather-light, bone-dry, crisp, with
citrus flavors. It's great as an aperi
tif or with simple fish dishes. It's
cheap, too.
• Madeira: This is a fortified
wine from the Portuguese is
land of the same name off the
African coast. It's creamy,
rich, smoky, slightly sweet,
with flavors of toffee, nuts and
tropical fruit. Great as an
aperitif or with the richest,
sweetest desserts.
• Prosecco: This pale, straw
colored grape makes a positively
vivacious wine — light, soft, dry,
fruity and lightly sparkling. It
comes from Italy's Veneto region,
near Venice, where it's served as
an aperitif and with the region’s
trademark shrimp scampi.
• Bull's Blood: This hearty,
red Hungarian wine got its
name centuries ago when local
warriors, under siege by invad
ing Turks, ran out of water and
had to drink wine. The Turks,
seeing the defenders' red
stained beards and renewed
vigor,^concluded that they were
fortifying themselves with
bull's blood and fled. Tradition
ally a blend of four Hungarian
grapes (kadarka, kekoporto,
kekfrankos and medoc noir), it's
often given an infusion of
cabernet sauvignon today.
• Tannat: Originally grown in
southwest France's Gascony area,
where it made a tough, ink-black
wine, the grape ripens in Uruguay
to a softer, richer style.
©2002, The Miami Herald. Distributed by
Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
mu o
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Eugene, OR 97402
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westbound offramp into Eugene. As freeway approaches it ends on 7th St., stay
in the middle lane and travel down Jefferson Ave. This will lead you directly to
the fairgrounds.
From West: Travel eastbound on the 126. This road will turn into West 11th
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