arts
Doobies light statfire
By R.W. Greene
■ The Doobie Brothers strode
Resolutely into Portland’s
Memorial Coliseum last Thurs*
day night, and if not totally tak­
ing Portland by storm, still laid
■own an hour and a half of the
.sleek and driving music that
has become their trademark.
■ Of thé* original Doobie
Brothers, which started as just
another San Jose ‘biker band’
in the late ’60s, there is only
one member left, guitarist
Patrick Simmons. To the
band’s credit, the many per­
sonnel changes have left a tight
and purposeful group of musi-
■ians.
K Without question one of the
most successful bands in the
'U.S., they look it. Drummers
Chet McCracken and Keith
Mnudsen dispensed with
microphones and monitors and
wore TV news-type headsets.
Guitar players wore wireless
^amplification systems which
allowed them to leap into the
audience and disappear
■ackstage while still blistering
our ears. They were surround­
ed by flashy, yet tasteful
lighting display, and they all
worked together with that kind
of nonchalant professionalism
that only-the best bands attain.
■ From the opening number,
Take Me In Your Arms, to the
encore songs, What A Fool
Be/ieues and Listen To The
Music, the show was well-
paced and smoothly worked,
The whole concert concept has
become stylized in the last few
years-the leaps into the au-
dience have become almost
Kligatory. But the Doobies
have the formula down cold so
it only seems rehearsed.
ï The concert tour was created
mostly to promote new
albums, andlhe band did this,
In an eight-piece band, there He probably is best known for Coast Doobie crowd.Their
carefully interspersing new
songs like Real Love and No is bound to be someone who his work with Jeff Beck in the style is characterized by black
Stoppin’ Us Now with older can harmonize, and the early ’70s. Weeks is more than T-shirts and running shoes,
tunes like China Grove and Dioobies do this with their an adequate musician, but he spiky and greasy crew-cuts,
customary aplomb. Again, does not sing, as Porter did. derivative rock and roll
Don’t Stop To Watch The
Wheels. The new album seems McDonald gets most of the Simmons (who did most of the changes, limited lyrical concep­
to continue in the same vein as credit hete with his husky Irish MC work) offered no explana­ tions, and an inability to decide
tenor, which seems to have tion for Porter’s absence. whether to sneer at the au­
’78s Living on the Fault Line,
and it would appear to have no been all over the radio this Another personnel change, dience or court it. Their
monotonous recitation of con­
monster hits yet. Minute By summer. Coupled with Sim­ perhaps?
Minute from ’79 had three hits mons’ rock and roll nasality
There were . few keyboard temporary cliches was broken
and was the album which laun­ and occasional shrieks, the two solos. Bumpus played sax in only by a fast railroad shuffle
ched Doobies into superstar­ are essential components of the rather workman-like fashion. with blues harp and drums.
dom.
Doobie “sound.” Both second McDonald finally let loose with
The singer could. not quite
The Doobies have three keyboardist Cornelius Bumpus a blast of barrelhouse piano on make his Mick Jagger imita­
elements going for them- and drummer Knudsen show­ Steamer Lane Breakdown, but tions work and flung small ob­
ed surprisingly strong lead both were capable of more. jects at the audience. It was im­
writing
and vocals. For
power, they presented us with vocal ability, Bumpus on a The uninterrupted string of possible to tell whether they
a two-drummer array of sound gospel flavored Jesus Is Just savage guitar solos became were sunflower seeds, guitar
with more percussion from Alright, and Knudsen out front tiresome. For his'part, John picks, or maybe safety pins?
Last year’s concert was
Bobby LaKind, (who has been on the final tune of the night, McFee is probably the most
the last two years). It was stun­ ^Listen To The Music. The au­ versatile of the bunch--besides reserved seating. On Thurs­
ning watching two drummers in dience sang as lustily as his guitar work, he also played day, tickets were sold as
perfect sync pounding out a Knudsen did on the latter.
pedal steel on Steamer Lane general admission. Tina Par­
backbeat. With McKracken,
I felt that some of the har- Breakdown and Violin on Black rott, sales and P.R. manager of
Knudsen and LaKind, it was , monies were weak in places, Water.
the Coliseum, said that deci­
awesome.
notably on What A Fool
Opening for the Doobies was sion is made usually by the
For songwriting, keyboardist
Believes, but this may be ex­ a depressing English band call­ band itself, or by the promoter,
Michael McDonald, is a master plained by the absence of the ed “The News.” The News is in this case, Concerts West.
whose originality and .hit­ band’s bassist of eight years, the latest in the series of ‘new
The evening was well worth
making ability has been an Tiran Porter. Porter was replac­ wave’ bands like The Records the price of admission. The
undeniable factor in the band’s ed on Thursday by Willie and The Clash, which go over personnel may. change, but the
Weeks, a figure seldom seen well in England, but do not Doobie Brothers’ standards' for
success. McDonald is from St.
Louis, where rhythm and
outside of L.A. studio circles. necessarily appeal to a West the musicianship remain^
blues was the predominant in­
fluence, rather than the rock
and roll/psychedelia of thè Bay
Area. His ear for the hook, and
the interesting chord-change is
highly tuned; his jazzy, Ray
Charles keyboard style
dynamically offsets the band’s
soupd. He does not write alone
much anymore, preferring to
collaborate with other members
of the band, and such notables
as Kenny Loggins and Carly
Simon. Simmons, who
authored so many of their older
hits,, does not seem to be as
prolific as before. The new
A DOOBIE BROTHERS’ HIGH at Memorial Coliseum-students talked about this
album contains only two tunes
one-held Oct. 9, for days.
in which he had a hand.
A/as, Ornelas stinks
By R.W. Greene
"
■ A mailer arrived at the office century in scope. The only
last week and invited us to at- price they pay for this luxury of
jend a “Fantasy of utopia bring- spirit is embodied in a small,
|Kg together for the first time, cowering,, mud-covered boy.
¿even Portland artists working He bears all their pain for them ,
in collaboration to create a ma- and they are wont to kick him
jor theatrical event.”
on the one day a year they let
1 After seeing the Storefront him out of his cage. A pretty
Theatre/Portland
Civic skinny plotline, but it is enough
lyheatre co-production of for the collaborates to hang on
|Bme/as, one wonders how it their occasionally magnifi­
they came up with such a suc- cent, but mostly overblown,
Cinct description of so messy an production seminars.
Bffair.
Director Ric Young can’t
■ The event is based (loosely) seem to make up his mind
on â 17 paragraph-long short whether he wants to show us
story by noted science-fiction Ornelas, or talk about himself
Writer and Portland resident, and his friends. So he does
Ursula K. LeGuin. It tells the both.
tale of a city named Ornelas
When the curtain rises, the
where it seems that everyone is audience is confronted with a
Ecstatically content; a utopian desk behind which sit five “col­
land whose values are curious­ laborates” amiably discussing
ly fashionably late twentieth­ the problems of putting on a
Wednesday, October 15, 1980
production of a certain short
story by Ursula K. LeGuin. The
cast shuffles on behind them
and sings, with gorgeous har­
monies, but rather inarticulate­
ly. They shuffle off again. The
lights go up, and so do the
egoes of the “collaborators”
who continue to discuss their
dreams and problems like so
many public television com­
mentators. The entire evening
proceeds like this—alternating
the “collaborators,” and
theatre-as-mixed-media sket­
ches of life on Ornelas. The
sketches are sometimes amus­
ing, sometimes breathtaking,
sometimes monotonous; the
“collaborators” never get past
tedious.
The music, done by Eric
Funk on Moog and ARP syn­
thesizers is rich and satisfying;
the costumes, by Ric Young
and Essie Weber, and the sets,
by Hank Pender, show im­
pressive imagination. But while
the design is lavish, we are still
left with few clues to the nature
of the society. They seem to
like sex, lots of it, and often.
They respect their aged more
than they do their youth. Their
craftsmen go on at length about
the contentment they find in
their work. It is discovered that
some citizens have left Ornelas,
after having seen the cowering,
mud-covered boy; but the
reaaly interesting question of
their motivation is never
presented.
The high point of the night is
an Omelasian fashion show,
complete with cheesy board­
walk music. The show begins
with in abundance of
deaphanous, swirling skirts and
togas which leave nothing to
the imagination, progresses
through rhinestone jockstraps
and gold lame, and climaxes
with an elaborate project in­
volving a sedan chair and a
disco mirror ball hat. The “col­
laborators” fall over each other
in an orgy of self-
congratulation--Helenic
Greece
Fredericks . of
Hollywood.
Musicians and fashion peo­
ple may get some enjoyment
from Ornelas. But for writers,
actors and directors, Ornelas is
an excellent example of what
not to do with a play. Or even
an “event.” .
Ornelas plays through
November 1 at the Portland
Civic Theatre, 1530 SW
Yamhill. >
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