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feast or famine. Tuck in your bib for this week's banquet. First on the agenda, local scene 'zine The Unscene has a benefit Friday night at John Henry's featuring Dirty Sanchez, Basic Assumption, Hot For Chocolate, and Rock and Roll Soldiers. The Rock and Roll Soldiers aren't exactly a new band, as they've been playing for about a year now, but you probably haven't heard their name until now. Be prepared to hear a lot more from the RNRS. Only 17, they've got amazing high energy and fuzzy riffs right out of Detroit. You know, the kind of wild, revolutionary rock like MC5 and Iggy. The kind of rock that glamorizes adolescents, sex and teenage frustration. But you have to be of legal age to get in. On Saturday check out the Snukas at John Henry's. The regular crowd will recognize that name. For the rest of you, think old-school punk 'n' drunk rock with an aggro attitude. Also appearing will be Last Great Liar, all the way from Seattle. Also, Buelton, recording on a new Portland label called FILMguerrero but hailing from Southern California. Spaciously recorded in an old warehouse, the music is described as "pop-craft: sensitive, brooding and hopeful." Bluegrass fans take note: Colorado's Yonder Mountain String Band is poised to run wild with their traditional bluegrass arrangements and intriguing vocal harmonies (all four band members sing). Their fast-pickin' high-energy shows "resinate" well with purists and jam band lovers alike. They play only the traditional instruments: banjo, mandolin, guitar and bass. Bluegrass lovers say they're the best since Monroe. They play the Wild Duck Saturday along with Portland's Kerosene Dream, whose members can list three of the areas' most appreciated jam groups on their resumés: The Strangers, The Renegade Saints and Nine Days Wonder. Sunday at John Henry's is sure to be a butt-movin' experience, as the press for HairyApesBMX states. This four-piece smartly blends hip-hop, jazz and Afro-Cuban beats in an experimental manner. Incidentally, percussionist Mike Dillon plays in Seattle's Critters Buggin -- when not traveling with HABMX. If you missed the Trey Gunn Band when they performed at the WOW Hall last February then here's your chance to make it right. Trey Gunn has been playing bass with King Crimson since 1994, and his progressive ideas and otherworldly sounds emanate from such eclectic instruments as the theremin, Mellotron and a touch guitar, which is a tapped stringed instrument with the range of a piano. Save some energy for Monday's John Henry's show. The name Death Cab for Cutie might connote a sinister, brooding force but the truth is, well, not that easy. Their sound is of that hard-to-describe variety occupying territory between sugary, strummy pop, confessional emo-rock dioramas, and the power clamor of Unwound. From Bellingham, Death Cab will be appearing with the Jealous Sound and the And/Ors. That same night, the Sheldon High Auditorium will host the Jeff Healey Band. Blind since shortly after birth, Healey picked up the guitar at the age of three, and taught himself how to play it flat on his lap, which has become one of his trademarks. Obviously a musical prodigy, Healey has gone on to garner himself a reputation as one of blues and rocks finest guitarists. The Shannon Fayth Band opens. Hey, wait a minute, the week's not over yet. moe. appears at the EMU Ballroom at the UO on Wednesday. They've got a brand new CD, Dither, and any jam band fan will be in one if they miss this show.
mid-18th century music didn't sound much like what Bach, Handel and their contemporaries had in mind when they wrote it. Instead, it sounded like later Romantic composers -- plodding, heavy, melodramatic, played on instruments and in styles far removed from the originals. Although some later scholars and musicians began rediscovering and recreating Baroque and earlier sounds, in their commendable attempts at purity, they overcompensated with bloodless interpretations. Baroque scores left much of the interpretive decision-making to the performers, expecting them to flesh out their blueprints with genuine emotion. And today's well-trained period-instrument performers have learned to play their difficult instruments with far greater virtuosity. Many, such as Andrew Manze and Il Giardino Armonico, now give us performances with all the lightness and transparency of the original with the vitality, controlled improvisation and nuances the composers expected. One of the groups making the most noise in this area is England's Red Priest, who unleash their assault on stodginess at the UO's Beall Hall next Tuesday, Feb. 6. Composed of virtuoso veterans of top period-instrument ensembles such as the English Concert and the Academy of Ancient Music, the flamboyant foursome has sparked accolades and alarums for its refreshingly radical reinterpretations of 16th to18th century music. Eschewing tuxedos and other restraints, but not historical awareness or impeccable musicianship, they dare to take chances and even talk to audiences. Terms such as "psychedelic" and comparisons to rude rockers and Irish pub players dot their reviews -- they're the Pogues of early music. They may go too far sometimes (synths?), but fans of folk music, jazz and rock, as well as classical connoisseurs, might find this quartet to be just their flagon of mead. Another colorful concert hits Beall on Thursday, Feb. 8, as pianist Gregory Mason joins other UO faculty musicians in an enticing program of mostly 20th century music by Piazzolla, Poulenc, Ginastera, and Saint-Saëns. Two more fine UO faculty groups (the Oregon String Quartet and Brass Quartet) and pianist Victor Steinhardt converge on Beall this Friday, Feb. 2 to play Mozart, Bernstein, Brahms, and more. Worried about the new war heads in Washington? Head up to Portland on Saturday, Feb. 9 to hear the Northwest's premier new music ensemble, Third Angle. The group will play one of the most powerful anti-war statements ever composed: George Crumb's 1970, Viet Nam-era "Black Angels," for amplified string quartet and an arsenal of other sounds. The show also includes the world premiere of Shaun Naidoo's percussion solo Rift Valley Canon. Also featured will be works by Arlie Neskahi, whose Kinji Suite draws on his Dine (Navajo) heritage; and John Luther Adams, whose Coyote Builds North America is based on the version of a Native American trickster tale as rendered by our own Barry Lopez. If you've been watching PBS's "Jazz" series, you might have noticed that the sophisticated, often light-hearted songs of Cole Porter comprise a significant part of the canon. The Oregon Festival of American Music's Emerald City Jazz Kings pay tribute to Porter and some of his Broadway colleagues on Feb. 1 at South Eugene High. We owe immense gratitude to OFAM for its thoughtful programs and well-performed concert series. The organization brings so many overlooked works to town and consistently offers the most thrilling, enlightening, and rewarding music -- of any kind -- being made in this community. 
Adam's Place Bliss Steak Ranch Buzz Coffeehouse Chantrelle's Diablo's John Henry's The Old Pad Oregon Electric Station Rick's Pub Sam Bond's Garage Tiny Tavern Waterfront Bar & Grill
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