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Thursday • September 12, 1996
YJ-EEKEND
Thursday, Sept. 12
Cowboy Month, a rock band from New Orleans, is playing with open
ing band Skeeter Hawks at the Dixie Theatre.
Austin-based band Breedlove is playing with Citizen Lane at the 3rd
Floor Cantina.
Radioshow, a cover band, is playing with Linus at Bullwinkle’s.
hi Battaijos
tudent, runs
dnesday.
& Lows
day’s High
I2°F
day’s Low
Wakeland, a rock band from Oklahoma, is playing with Kirk Tatom
(former lead singer of Deep Blue Something) at The Tap.
Sneaky Pete, a classic rock and novelty cover singer, is playing at The
Cow Hop.
Friday, Sept. IB
Vallejo, a groove-rock band from Alabama, is playing with opening
band Skeeter Hawks at the Dixie Theatre.
Vallejo
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Gary P. Nunn, a country western singer from Oklahoma, is playing at
the 3rd Floor Cantina.
Fitzwilly’s is hosting The Don Overby Band, a classic rock group.
Fxpecte^
Allan Mayes, a classic rock band is playing at Chelsea Street Pub & Grill.
ow
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Michele Solberg, an Austin-based folk singer, is playing at Sweet
Eugene’s House of Java.
ter of the AM!
Sunflower, an Austin-based rock band, is playing at The Tap.
(From left) Bo Allen, Greg Economides, Norman Homburg, and David Watson sing a cappela at rehearsal.
The
Harmony
OF *
Brotherhood
There are no trimming shears, no
shaving cream, but a group of men
from the Brazos Valley still know what
it means to be in a barbershop quartet.
Story by April Towery
Photos by Rony Angkriivan
Greg Economides keeps the beat dur
ing a Brazos Barbershoppers rehearsal.
ts its
MSC Cepheid Variable is presenting the Rocky Horror Picture Show at
the Grove at midnight.
Jester, a rock band, is playing with opening bands Deep Ellum and
Saturday Night Moses at The Cow Hop.
The MSC Film Society is showing Flirting with Disaster at 7 p.m. and
:30 p.m. in the Rudder Theater.
Saturday, Sept. 14
Jack Ingram, a country & western
musician from Dallas, is playing
with opening act, Jesse DayTon, at
the Dixie Theatre.
The 3rd Floor Cantina is hosting a
Carribean Club Party, featuring Root
1, an Austin-based Reggae band.
Old Army, a classic rock band, is
performing at Fitzwilly’s.
Donald
it. 27.
Allan Mayes, a classic rock band,
is performing at Chelsea Street Pub
& Grill.
Mike Cancellare, an acoustic
performer, is playing at Sweet
Eugene’s House of Java.
MSC Cepheid Variable is pre
senting the Rocky Horror Picture
Show at the Grove at midnight.
Jesse Dayton
r
E very Tuesday night, 25 Brazos Valley men
get together not to play poker or drink beer,
but to sing at First Baptist Church in
College Station.
Dr. Bob Wattenbarger, president of the Brazos
Valley chapter of the Society for the Preservation
and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet
Singing, said he became interested in the group
because he sang in college.
“I took a break from singing for about 30
years and started with the Barbershop Quartet
when they formed here around seven years
ago,” he said.
The barbershop quartet focuses on entertain
ment and camaraderie among the singers.
“We are all close friends and get along really
well,” Wattenbarger said.
The weekly rehearsals involve breathing
exercises, bass, baritone and tenor vocal prac
tice, and more MilliVanilli jokes than at the 1989
Grammy Music Awards.
The Society for the Preservation and
Norman Homburg, a member of the Brazos
Barbershoppers, sings during rehearsal Tuesday.
)IT0R
: D itor
nion
Editor
)io Edit 01 *
Editor
Ih
e importance of being anal: a lesson
Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing
is an international organization that has been in
existence for about 60 years.
Wattenbarger said the Brazos Barbershoppers
is more like a choir than a quartet.
“We sing in churches and at banquets,” he
said. “We also have a big Valentine’s Day show
every year.”
The men are split into quartets of lead, bass,
tenor and baritone.
Wattenbarger said the Quartet is comprised
of a variety of age groups.
“We have professors, college students and a
high school student now,” he said. “We used to
have a 10-year-old kid. We’re always looking for
new singers, regardless of age.”
At the age of 16, B.J. Abies is the youngest
member and appears to mix well with the
diverse Barbershoppers, whose rehearsal attire
ranges from T-shirts and tennis shoes to suits
and slacks.
Abies arrives at rehearsal late, singing as he
walks in the door. All the members smile as he
sits next to a man old enough to be his grand
father. The man whispers something to Abies
that brings a smile to his face. Abies returns a
comment to the man, who suppresses a laugh
and the two continue singing.
The comraderie they share spans the age dif
ferences in the group.
One of the veterans of the Barbershop
Quartet is Director Bo Allen.
Allen said he has enjoyed singing since he
was a child.
“My daddy liked to sing, so I learned how to
sing tenor before I was in the first grade,” Allen
said. He said that the style of the barbershop
See Barbershop, Page 6
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College life has begun
to turn me into my
parents in sudden
id disturbing ways.
This transformation has
'Rte about mostly over
epast few weeks. After a
o-year tenure, I am out
the dorms, and I am
w living in a house.
A house. A place where
'if must do yard work
id dust the furniture and
e an the bathrooms. “Whoa,” I now
dik, “1 haven’t done this stuff in years.”
When I was a kid, I hated mowing
a lawn. I couldn’t understand why my
Is made me weed the gardens,
ashing the dishes was pure torture.
I'd a clean room — who needed it?
John LeBas
Junior journalism
“You’ll learn,” Mom and Dad
said. “You’ll see how you feel
when you have your own place,”
they told me.
In true know-it-all fashion, I
haughtily dismissed their predic
tions.
Time has proved me wrong and
my parents right.
I am becoming my childhood’s
worst nightmare.
I am becoming ... responsible.
This new frame of mind
sneaked up on me. My roommates
and I have put effort — a whole lot of
effort — into fixing and cleaning our
house. I quickly became very protective
of it, and I’ll be damned before I see my
hard work succumb to someone else’s
carelessness or lack of respect.
Sound familiar, Mom and Dad?
I first expressed my newfound atti
tude a few weekends ago. My room
mates are in a band, and they had gath
ered their other seven bandmates at our
house to practice. These are all friends,
guys I’ve known since high school, and
I trust them in our house. But the week
end taught me that my friends can be
stupid, bringing out the parent in me.
Some examples:
The door opened and several loud
guys clamored inside.
The door stayed open.
“Shut the damn door,” I yelled.
Several loud guys tracked mud
through the house after escaping tor
rential downpours.
“Wipe your damn feet,” I yelled.
Several loud guys raided the pantry
to fend off starvation.
“Go buy your own damn food,” I yelled.
Things settled down after they knew
the rules, but I was left wondering what
was happening to me.
Then, a few days later, I mowed the
lawn. It took me almost two hours, and
it cost me a lot of sweat.
But I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t the
work I liked, it was the result. I took
care of something because it was
important to me.
“How strange,” I thought.
My transformation continued a
downward spiral, unchecked.
Last week, my girlfriend taught me
how to shop for groceries. I unknowing
ly took detailed mental notes on the
processes of price comparison and
coupon clipping. Much to my chagrin,
we actually saved some money.
Scary stuff.
After returning home from the shop
ping trip, my girlfriend and I decided
the pantry was badly unorganized and
demanded our immediate attention.
We spent the next half hour reshelv
ing everything, designating spaces for
canned foods, staples, junk food and
breakfast food.
My roommate inspected the result
later that day.
“John,” he said, “you’re so anal.”
I pondered his assessment and real
ized he was right. I want things in my
house to be clean and organized
because ... because I’m growing up.
“Yes, I am anal,” I thought.
And you know, Mom and Dad would
be proud.