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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1989)
Monday, August 28, 1989 The Battalion Page 11D ‘thy’ is role 1 want to do J e foie of met oncerts coming to A&M own Hall to bring George Strait, Judy Tenuta; lommittee optimistic despite advisor resignation HOW TO SPOT THE NOID ON YOUR CAMPUS. ' he wants r °m the reveJ lI >d talk abtfe ,te d with >Hd. By Keith Spera n of man lOf The Battalion Staff n son said Schwarzenti^wVhen you get right down to it, the Alda orPhlMain reason anyone would read an between about MSC Town Hall is to le, the inteieHd out what concerts that student in. Now wenprumittee is bringing to Texas nd idiot." aJm over the next few months. Bio, let’s get that information out Ht. The confirmed concerts are as follows: ►The Coors Light Comedy Com- ndos, featuring David Naster and i Taylor Mason, will kick things off on |(iday, Sept. 1. Tickets are only 50, and it’ll be over before yell dice. Crowds have been huge for se guys the last couple of years, so your tickets early. 'Judy Tenuta, the bizarre come- Anne who was featured recently in Batch of Diet Dr. Pepper comrrrer- 1s, will swoop into Rudder Audito rium on Oct. 20, spitting gum and using all males in the audience of wanting to be her love slave. (•Please, ladies, don’t scream too dly, but George Strait — The I Aice, The Hat, The Wranglers — is Homing back to A&M. You’ll have to it until Feb. 2 to see him, but Hlging from audience reaction at All) ' * ■ * ast cou P* e °h shows here, it’s ^ »rth the wait. o NO! /HBThese, of course, are only the con- Hits that have been contracted. Oth- e^s are in the works, but aren’t defi- y et - (You may be wondering why it’s so ^ Hugh to book major concerts at /BcM. And why, you may ask, why Site there so few rock concerts here? i senior biomedical is the Town Hall 'Pan for 1989-90. HMoore explained some of the iptoblems that she and her commit- face this year, which are basically Photo byJay Janner George Strait is scheduled to perform in G. Rollie White Feb. 2. Kari Moore, science major. the same problems that have always • DON I Hnfronted Town Hall when trying r>jy (0book rock shows at A&M: tH •Country concerts are booked I much further in advance than rock Hows (i.e. George Strait — six Jonths in advance). By the time ■own Hall finds out a rock band is (ailable on a certain date, chances the campus facility needed for concert is already being used by me other organization. [•The facilities here (be. G. Rollie hite Coliseum) aren’t capable of eeting the production needs of any rock acts (the size stage the ^(nd wants won’t fit, or G. Rollie’s JjHof won’t support the sound and j^v^jliglit equipment the band needs to ' hang from it). ' f j *Rock shows, because of their J pigher production costs and because ftlffiey generally draw bigger audi- »feices than country shows, are more J||j(pensive to bring. Because the col iseum cannot hold that many people |only about 8,000 or so) and because post of the people here are on col lege budgets and can’t pay a whole v loi for a ticket, it is not economical for a show to come here. •College Station is in between '■ 1 jhree major rock markets with nice cilities — Houston, Austin and could teach a new advisor, she’d feel it was O K. to move on,” Moore said. “Still, it was a surprise.” MSG Director Jim Reynolds said that the process has already begun to replace Croteau. “What we’ll basically do right now is go out and find someone who has had background experience in working with performing arts and hopefully find someone who has had that experience plus experience working with student volunteers,” Reynolds said. Reynolds said he is not optimistic about hiring someone before school starts. I ou can tell (that there is a demand for alternative music) by the way people dress — there are more groovy-looking people around campus these days.” — Stevie “Ray” Wall, Town Hall Vice-Chairman for Club Programming -$6 —Ii Jallas. The bands would much rather play in those towns than here, so those cities get most of the avail able dates. Despite these problems, Town [all has brought rock ’n’ roll to "M in the past. Night Ranger, eap Trick, Huey Lewis and the ws, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders, E.M. and Robert Palmer have all yed here in the last four years. Moore said she and her Vice- aan of Concerts, Alan ompson, are working to bring a k show here. |This year, though, Town Hall is ed with a new problem. Their [SC Staff Advisor of two-and-a-half lars, Laura Croteau, announced tree weeks before school started t at she would be resigning her posi- t m as of today to take a job at I KYS-FM. I The Town Hall advisor is the per- s p who does most of the contract 1 gotiations with performers’ orga- I lations. I Also, since the advisor is available I day to take phone calls about po- I itial concerts, this is the person I to often makes the initial contact with a band’s organization, a contact (lean lead to a concert. (The loss of the T own Hall advisor (this point in time, when many of shows for the upcoming semes- are being planned, could have a Itrimental effect on Town Hall’s 'gramming. aoteau said that the timing of Brresignation couldn’t be helped. W'KKYS was recently bought out a national company and the job It became available,” Croteau said, wasn’t seeking a new job, but this e became available a few weeks 3 and it was a good deal.” Croteau said that the new position ered better career opportunities d a chance for her to further pur- a career in the music business. According to Moore, the Town ’’ execs were surprised by the res- ation. We met over the summer to dis- s plans for the upcoming year, Laura said that when she felt we Id handle it on our own and “In the meantime, (MSC Associate Director) Kevin Jackson and Jim Reynolds will suck it up and do the best we can to work with Town Hall and with other parts of Laura’s re sponsibilities,” Reynolds said. “The one thing we will not do is go into the hiring process and hire someone we don’t feel really good about.” Both Moore and Reynolds said that Town Hall will continue to op erate without a full-time advisor and that Town Hall’s programming will not be affected significantly. “I picked a good exec team and I’m real confident in them,” Moore said. “It will be a little more work for us. The first Friday after school starts is our first show, but every thing for that show is done before school starts, so Laura will be able to help us with it.” Reynolds said, “I’d like to say, ‘Well, we’re just gonna stop and not plan to do anything until we get the position filled,’ but obviously we’re not going to do that.” Croteau, however, foresees poten tial problems. “I think that the programming may not be as profitable,” Croteau said. “I think that through the things we’ve achieved through the last two years, we’ve been more marketing- oriented toward our events and therefore we were able to market them well toward the students, where we could break even or make a profit, so that we could have other programs. “I feel like I was trained to know what an artist was worth and what was negotiable, whereas someone who is not experienced in working with national acts — and national acts are where we make our money — may not turn the profit like last year,” Croteau said. “Town Hall will still exist, and I hope good concert decisions continue to be made.” This year’s Town Hall committee has a tough act to follow. Last year Town Hall finished the year around $40,000 in the black. One of the most successful aspects of last year’s Town Hall program ming was its “Coffeehouse” series, which featured amateur talent doing everything from reading poetry to strumming acoustic guitars. The shows were held in Rumours snack bar and were free. Moore said she hopes to build on last year’s success. “Last year, the (Coffeehouse) crowds were different every time, with some regulars coming to each show,” she said. “This year, we want to build more name-recognition (for the Coffee house series), since last year was its first year. Coffeehouse is free — it’s for the student body, so we want more people to know about it so they can participate, both by watching and performing.” Mark Kirk will be in charge of Coffeehouse this year. Moore said that this year Town Hall will concentrate more on the smaller, more intimate concerts of its Club Series. “Hopefully, we’ll have more small shows that will reach a wide diversity of campus interests,” she said. Stevie “Ray” Wall, a junior wildlife and fisheries major, is the 1989-90 Vice-Chairman for Club Program ming, so it will be his responsibility to book the smaller concerts. “We’re talking eclectic, alternative music,” Wall said when asked what he plans to do with this year’s club shows. “We’re looking for bands you would hear on college radio stations, like KANM-FM. We’re gonna wake this town up.” Wall said that he thinks there is definitely a market for this type of music in Bryan-College Station. “Given any large college, there will be different tastes in music,” he said. “If you look back to when Eastgate Live (a now-defunct live music club that was located near the east entrance to campus) was open, when they had bands like the Reiv ers, they always had a big crowd.” Evidence of the market for alter native music can be found strolling about campus, according to Wall. “You can tell by the way people dress — there’s more groovy-looking people around campus these days,” fie said. There are difficulties in trying to land a show of this nature. “For one thing, no one on the al ternative music scene has ever heard of A&M,” Wall said. “Also, to find an appropriate date, with all the other committees and events at A&M that are scheduling things, is tough when trying to work a date in with a band’s routing.” Of course, Wall’s small-show pro gramming won’t be limited to strictly alternative music. He said he plans to try to bring bands from all musical fields, including quality regional bands and hard-rock bands. “If I could get a good hard-rock band, they’d be here in a second,” he said. As of right now, no club shows are definitely booked. When they are. Wall says, they will probably be booked into DeWare Fieldhouse, where acts such as the Judy’s, Joe “King” Carrasco and Wazobia have performed for Town Hall in the past. The possibility of Town Hall co promoting concerts with off-campus clubs, and then holding the shows at the club, is also being considered. If you are a freshman or transfer student and would like to become a member of Town Hall, information will be given out at the MSC Open House on Sunday, September 3. Applications can be picked up at the Open House or in the Town Hall cubicle in the Student Programs Of fice on the second floor of the MSC. Students other than freshmen and transfer students need to wait until the end of the spring semester to apply. Beware. The NOID, that bizarre character that yuks pizzas, is out there somewhere on campus. He could be disguised as anyone. A major jock. Psych teach. Bowhead. Even your big rival’s mascot. But most likely, he’s hanging out, search ing for pizza ’cause he likes to trash ’em out-make the crust soggy, splat ter sauce all around the box and toss on the wrong ingredients-before he overnights it to the wrong place so it’ll be good and cold when you get it. Don’t get juked. 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