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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1997)
'27; ili The Battalion f? 1717 ,i.. 1: Page 3 Thursday • February 27, 1997 cloud tswi S S3i(j || Decisions, decisions... February 27 Thursday ^^■Sreedlove, a blues/rock band from Austin, is playing at 3rd Floor is' anti- 'dsis:;' Cantina at 8 p.m. ■Fysher, a rock band from Iryan-College Station, is playing with Jazztop, a rock band from iryan-College Station, at Dixie ieatre at 8 p.m. to Latin Cheese Quartet, a cover band from Bryan-College Station, is V ila, g at Club Ozone at 9 p.m. nJMSC Cepheid Variable is pre- n s V senting Ninja Scroll in 201 MSC at 7 p.m. iCofl jr^Picdemonte, a Latino band from i blr Venezuela, is playing at Sweet Eu- ’ M ie’s House of Java at 9 p.m. [abo.'J' , „ , . . ^ I Sneaky Pete, a smg-a-long artist from Bryan-College Station, is play ing at the Cow Hop at 9 p.m. Ljg f]g; K David Trout, a rock ‘n’ roll co- ICfiUCS s . jipedian, is performing at Chelsea peet Pub and Grill at 9 p.m. | The Woodies, a rock band from Iryan-College Station, is playing at zwilly’s at 10 p.m. February 28 Friday | Lor Ruthie Foster, a blues musician |ctt from Bryan-College Station, is play ing at Dixie Theatre at 8 p.m. Bryan-College Station, is playing at Double Dave’s at 8 p.m. MSC Film Society is showing The Princess Bride at Rudder Theater at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Don Overby, a classic rock mu sician from Bryan-College Station, is playing at Fitzwilly’s at 10 p.m. Matt Rosin, an ethereal goth ic musician from Bryan-College Station, is playing at Sweet Eu gene’s House of Java at 9 p.m. Chubby Terrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, a cajun zydeco band, is playing at 3rd Floor Can tina at 8 p.m. David Trout, a rock ‘n’ roll co median, is performing at Chelsea Street Pub and Grill at 9 p.m. March 1 7 Southern Backtones, a rock band from Houston, is playing at the Cow Hop at 10 p.m. Lost Prophets, a rock band from Saturday Ruthie Foster, a blues musician from Bryan-College Station, is play ing at Sweet Eugene’s House of Java at 9 p.m. Magic Rockers, a classic rock band from Bryan-College Station, is playing at Fitzwilly’s at 10 p.m. Ronny Spears, a country and western musician, is playing at Dix ie Theatre at 8 p.m. David Trout, a rock ‘n’ roll co median, is performing at Chelsea Street Pub and Grill at 9 p.m. Throwaway People, a blues band from Bryan-College Station, is having a CD release show at the Cow Hop at 10 p.m. Local alternative rock band Fysher thrives on instrumentation, acoustics By Michael Schaub The Battalion |. T he members of Fysher have been together for only three ^ months, but drummer Brian eadle already knows the band’s |)ngs forward and... "I hum the songs before I go to |ed,” Beadle said, “I can play these ngs backward.” “We’re going to do that next show,” guitarist and singer Sean mith said. Fysher will bring its acoustic rock ) Bryan’s Dixie Theatre tonight. Guitarist and singer Chris lontes said Fysher formed in mid- lovember of last year, from the shes of two now-defunct bands. “I just called Brian up, look- ig for a drummer for a new and," Montes said. “He said he new a guitarist and I told him to ring him over. It turned out we ere all interested in the same pes of music.” With Montes’ former band- hate Cliff Buckley on bass, the band was playing original songs nd covers within weeks. “We’ve mixed so well together, fskind of scary,” Beadle said. “We ill just clicked.” Fysher takes its cue from such Iternative rockers as Dave fatthews Band, Jackopierce, Veni al Horizon and the Grateful Dead. “The music’s not folk; it’s fast, upbeat rock,” Montes said. “It nakes you want to hop around.” As in Dave Matthews Band, at- ention is paid to all instruments, dontes said. “The whole emphasis is on the nstrumentation,” he said. “Each song has a lot of different rhythms.” The band’s instrumentation is not entirely acoustic, Buckley said. “The leads are more electric, but the rhythm section is acousti cally based,” he said. “We tend to mix the songs up, have a different twist each time.” Fysher got its first break last year, when club owner Willie Ben nett heard Montes and Smith play an acoustic set at an open-micro phone “singer-songwriter’s night” at the 3rd Floor Cantina. “After that, he offered us the opening act spot for Vertical Hori zon,” Smith said. Fysher will open for the Washington, D.C., folk band again March 22. “Then there was the time we played Madison Square Garden,” Beadle said. “Phish opened for us.” Maybe not, but Fysher has booked shows in downtown Bryan well in advance — a far cry from its roots of playing at Double Dave’s. The band is trying to raise enough money to produce an al bum, Montes said, but for now it’s concentrating on its live show. “Without acting, we try to keep the audience interested and in volved,” Montes said. “When we’re playing, it feels like we’re some place different. We’re not up there; it feels like we’re in it.” Band members hope to help revitalize Bryan-College Station’s live music scene by working with other bands, Buckley said. “We all need to work together on it,” he said. “If people saw what was going on, the music scene would be so much more happening.” See Fysher, Page 4 Some students try several majors in search of perfect one By Aaron Meier The Battalion I n the Pauly Shore movie Son-in-Law, Shore plays a professional student with more majors behind him than most colleges offer. While his endless string of majors pro vides comic fodder for the film, some students at Texas A&M can relate to “The Weasel’s” quest to find a major. Scott Phelan, an education ad ministration graduate student, tried five majors at two colleges, amassing 200 credit hours before finally graduating. Phelan began college as an aerospace engineering major in 1988. He switched to electrical engineering, then to engineering technology electronics, followed by engineering technology telecommunications. Finally, he moved to the College of Business and graduated with a degree in management in 1995. . “I wasn’t in the engineering program for myself,” Phelan said. “I was doing it because my par ents wanted me to.” Phelan said he realized his major posed many scholastic obstacles when he started school. “A lot of people started off aerospace [engineering], then re ality quickly hit and we decided we needed to find something else,” he said. John Kerrigan, a senior market ing major, initially studied speech communications at the University of Texas at San Antonio, but decid ed to take a different academic path when he transferred to A&M. “I wanted a high-paying job, and there didn’t seem to be many in speech communications,” Ker rigan said. He became a sociology major before finally settled on a market ing major. Kerrigan said his other majors assist him in more ways than he expected. “My other majors have en hanced my experiences as a mar keting major,” Kerrigan said. “So ciology helped me because marketing deals with how people interact with each other. Speech communications helped because I am now able to speak in front of large crowds during classroom presentations.” Paul Santoya, a sophomore po litical science major, agreed that his experience as a mechanical engineering major helped him to prepare for his current studies. He said the organizational skills he learned have helped him budget his time efficiently. Phelan said that his numerous major changes became more an noying than beneficial after a while. “It became really frustrating when a lot of the courses I had tak en wouldn’t apply to my new major, extending the amount of time it took me to graduate,” Phelan said. Phelan’s family also became per turbed with his chronic changing. “After a while, my parents just wanted me to get out of school,” Phe lan said. “Not to mention my grandfa ther, who was paying for everything. When I finally graduated, they were more relieved than anything.” Your degree is going to be with you the rest of your life. If you don't enjoy what you are majoring in, you might as well get Russell Crones Senior marketing major Santoya said his parents support ed him in his changes in majors. “My parents just wanted me to make sure I knew what I was doing and not jump into it blindly,” San toya said. Kerrigan offers advice to students considering changing their majors. “I would suggest looking at the college you want to major in,” Kerrigan said. “Make sure the de gree can take you where you want to go in life. Talk to people that are in the major and see what they say about it.” Phelan suggests not wasting any time when thinking about changing majors. “If you are considering chang ing majors, the first thing you should do is go talk to an advis er,” Phelan said. “Find out what classes you are going to lose and try and get back on schedule as soon as possible.” Russell Crones, a senior market ing major, said other things besides time should be considered before changing majors. “If you are uncertain about what you want to do, taking time off from school and trying to get a bearing on what you want to do with your life is a real possibility,” Crones said. “Don’t waste time and a whole lot of money before you realize what you want to do.” When considering a major, a student should always consider happiness above all things, Crones said. “Your degree is going to be with you the rest of your life,” Crones said. “If you don’t enjoy what you are majoring in, you might as well get out now.” Theater Arts Program goes Ape Students perform award-winning Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape Fysher By Michael Schaub The Battalion T he Theater Arts Program might be Texas A&M’s best-kept secret, but actor Guiller mo De Leon has known about it intimate ly for three years. “There are seniors in the dressing room for this play saying, ‘Man, I should have been doing this my whole time here!”’ De Leon said. The Theater Arts Program will perform The Hairy Ape today, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Rudder Forum. The play, written by Nobel Prize-winner Eu gene O’Neill, deals with social interaction be tween the rich and the poor in American society, director Robert Wenck said. “It deals with the feeling of despair the have- nots have,” Wenck said. “The message is well- taken today. The problem’s worse now.” De Leon, a junior theater arts major, said O’Neill’s message is still relevant. “It has political undertones,” De Leon said. “I think it is something students should see, espe cially if they’ve been in the workforce.” Although the daily rehearsals have been in tense, De Leon said, the actors are having fun with the play. “We’ve been working since the beginning of the semester,” he said. “We’ve had some really good nights.” Wenck, an associate professor of speech com munication and theater arts, said he is having fun watching the students. “The play calls for a lot of understanding, and the students have a really good grasp,” Wenck said. “It’s a huge assignment for Billy De Leon, and he’s doing an excellent job.” The play will be De Leon’^ 12th production at A&M. He has worked before in plays such as Othello, The Crucible and The Madwoman of Chaillot. But his true calling is playwriting and direct ing, he said. The Theater Arts Program will per form his original play La Llorona later in the se mester. De Leon will direct. “It’s about a legend, a woman who drowns her children and is cursed to walk the night,” De Leon said. “The play deals with why this woman would drown her two kids. I tried to create my own mythology.” De Leon said he is pleased with the work of di rector Wenck. “He’s very laid back,” he said. “He lets us work on our own, and gives us good insight.” Still, the Theater Arts program suffers from lack of recognition, De Leon said. “I wish the school would at least acknowledge Theater Arts as a department,” he said. “We all wish we had better facilities. We don’t do nearly enough as we should be doing.” The absence of a full-fledged fine arts pro gram makes the university suffer, Wenck said. “We’re the only major university without a college of fine arts,” Wenck said. “We have no de partments of music, theater, dance, or art. We miss those things, and we’re certainly big enough to have them.” The program does the best with what it has, De Leon said. “The energy level tends to be a little low,” he said. “I wish I could do more to get peo ple’s attention.”