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The Red and Black. Tuesday. June 3. IHO
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OPENS JUNE 11TH AT A THEATRE NEAR YOU.
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Produced by fREDDIE FIELDS Directed by GARY WEIS
N TO SELECTED THEATERS .
The most outrageous of em all.
did„) h
40 Watt Club
entertains wavers
on a shoestring
By WILLIAM HAINES
Staff writer
“The Baked Potato" and
“The Sardine’’ are not new
dances, but they do describe
the heat and SRO crowds at
Athens first, exclusively new
wave nightclub. The 40 Watt
Club, located in what used to
be The Crow's Nest atop the
downtown Sub and Steak
sandwich shop.
Friday night. REM and
The Teeveez sweated for all
they were worth in front of a
capacity crowd of about 75
people packed shoulder to
shoulder in an area a little
larger than a living room The
40 Watt Club has been giving
Athens' new wave cognoscenti
a chance to pogo in place for
three weeks now. having
opened its door May 9 with The
Side Effects
Pylon drummer Curtis
Crowe and Paul Scales co-own
the club The idea for The 40
Watt Club, which caters to
Athens and Atlanta new wave
hands, became a reality after
Crowe decided to use the
former Crow's Nest as a
nightclub instead of a rehear
sal room Crowe, who also
owns the studio over Schlotz-
sky’s Sandwich Shop, had held
several parties there and
dubbed the studio “The 40 Watt
Club" because that was the
power of the light bulb they
practiced by When Crowe
became aware of The Crow's
Nest's availability, he decided
to simply move the party
across the street to the corner
of College Avenue and East
Broad So. the new club’s
official name is really "The 40
Watt Club East." Crowe said
Crowe openly admits The 40
Watt Club operates on a
shoestring budget One ticket-
Rockers make Townshend’s
‘Empty Glass’ a great album
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GATEWAY COINSAND COLLECTIBLES
548-1528 • Gateway Shopping Center • North Avenue (across from Bi-Lo)
Monday-Saturday • 9 am-6 pm
By JAY WATSON
Staff writer
Empty Glass
Local new wave fans enjoy dancing at the 40 Watt Club
taker, two bartenders and a
disc jockey comprise the club's
total staff Exposed pipes and
bare walls underscore Crowe's
minimalist attitude toward the
nightclub business
Crowe has used his first
hand knowledge of New York
clubs to fill the need for an
Athens nightspot that serves
up only new wave. Crowe
hopes his connections with
Pylon will eventually bring in
national acts from Atlanta
In the past few weeks. The 40
Watt Club has played host to
Pylon. The Smarts. The
Swindles and the Untouch
ahle.v Atlanta-based Vietnam,
included on the Public Image
Ltd bill .if th<- ifora will play
the club.on Friday. June nth
When asked to comment on
The Crow's Nest's association
with laid back, cocktail music,
Crowd responded. "I did my
lies! to take everything down
that was reminiscent of The
('row’s Nest I tried to hide
most of that."
The 40 Watt Club is open
Thursday through Saturday
from 9 p m to 1 a m
Pete
Townshend
Atco Records
Pete Townshend has walked
on the proverbial razor's edge
(or rather jumped up and
down upon it) for longer than
practically anyone else in rock
From his early anarchistic
rage with the Who, through the
growing maturity in Tommy
and. most recently, the intro
spection of Who Are You,
Townshend has been cut.
battered, and bruised but has
always seemed to avoid
damage to the major organs
This durability has made
him one of the most time-
wisened. brilliant figures in all
of rock and roll As a guitarist,
songwriter, and rebel. Town
shend has influenced countless
musicians, from the feedback
wizards of the late 1960s to the
new wavers of today
Empty (Hass. Townshend's
third solo album, gives him his
greatest opportunity to stretch
out and away from the
collective effort of the Who into
strictly his own interpretations
of his ideas By avoiding the
somewhat anachronistic
moralizing of Who Came First,
a tribute to the Meher Baba,
and the occasional silliness of
Rough Mix. Pete's brilliant,
though erratic, collaboration
with Ronnie Lane. Empty-
Glass is a solid, secure
excursion into rock and roll
which represents what Town
shend’s artistic freedom is
capable of producing
founds
Though the slow numbers
are not to be ignored, it is the
rockers which make Empty
(ilass a great album. “Rough
Boys," the opener, and
"Gonna Get You," the closer.
are two of Townshend's best
songs ever.
These two pieces mark
Pete's emergence as a truly
thoughtful arranger The
guitars grind and bash upon
each other, yet the jagged
edges are always tempered
with synthesizer (Townshend’s
favorite musical tool in the
advent of his ever-worsening
deafness), piano, or backing
vocals. The latter provides the
real visceral force to “Gonna
Get You." and the piano moves
to the fore in a lovely coda
which acts as a thematic
opposition to the eventual
return of the mayhem.
Townshend has purposely
challenged his own vocal
abilities with the use of soft,
synthesizer-laden backing
tracks instead of loud guitar
accompaniment on the album's
more lyrical numbers "I Am
An Animal” finds Pete re
sponding to the challenge with
a high smooth vocal. If he had
trouble with “Baba O’Riley" in
the Who's documentary film
“The Kids Are Alright," you
surely couldn't tell from
“Animal" or the later, "A
Little is Enough."
Some of the songs are not as
easy to pigeonhole. “And I
Moved" marries a mckleodeon
piano theme to the band's
boogie pace in a richly
textured compromise "Keep
On Working." and "Let My
Love Open The Door" each
have the Scotch-Irish overtones
that recall Rough Mix The
latter song works; the former
is unfortunately trite and silly.
“Jools and Jim" is a barrel-
house boogie tune with honky
tonk piano and solid drum
backing The slower middle
section features another lovely
vocal soaring over the bass
line.
"Cat’s in the Cupboard" and
"Empty Glass" are more
guitar showcases. The first
features a killer harmonica riff
and solo which brings to mind
Paul Butterfield or Delbert
McClinton The reai rhythmic
drive comes from the jangling
lone bass strings of the guitar,
and the drums persistently
hammer away at the beat
The title track also includes
those intense guitar notes
behind Townshend’s fed-up
liturgy on the woes of stardom.
“Had enough of...the razor’s
edge." sings Townshend;
ironically it is the same edge
he alone has so successfully
circumvented and exploited.
The final bars of the song
pound out a progresion not so
accidentally similar to the
themes in Tommy.
Empty (ilass is not just
another rock record. Listen to
it two or three times and you’ll
begin to recognize the true
brilliance of the playing,
singing, writing and arranging.
If there’s more polish here
than on "I Can’t Explain,"
there’s supposed to be, and I
don’t think the music suffers
for it. We’ve known all along
that this man has guts Now
he’s showing us he has finesse
Album courtesy of Chapter
Three Records.
