Madness doesn't deliver on hype

By JON FASSNACHT
Collegian Staff Writer

Damn false advertising!

In an event touted as the "College Tour of the Year" by RCA Records, the Music Madness Spring Tour made its way to Penn State Wednesday night in the HUB Ballroom.

But it was hardly all it was cracked up to be.

The Interpreters, Trinket and Thin Lizard Dawn -- who replaced Babe the Blue Ox -- played a very loud show to about 50 people. Attendance was probably low because most of campus was getting inebriated with alcohol and green food coloring.

Those who weren't there didn't miss much.

The Interpreters opened the concert. Its show consisted of noise, a bass player who liked to sing in weird positions -- such as lying down -- and many short songs. It was almost impossible to hear the vocals because the wall of sound created by the instruments drowned out most of the vocal frequencies.

To make matters worse, the members' between-song banter was mostly random comments and bad jokes. The bass player's comment "Happy Valentine's Day" was met with absolute silence.

Trinket was an improvement. Hailing from Athens, Ga., the quintet has been promoted as the next R.E.M.

While the previous statement might be stretching the truth a little bit, the band did put on a decent show.

The two acoustic songs Trinket played were very well written and a few of its harder songs showed promise.

"I thought they were pretty good," Chris Chen (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said. "A few of their songs could be on the radio."

Thin Lizard Dawn closed the proceedings. Its music was . . . just like everyone else's. Its lead singer looked like he just woke up, and at times, the band sounded that way, too.

The highlight of the evening had nothing to do with the bands. One of the audience members danced the night away, running through the crowd and bouncing off walls.

Just imagine David Byrne skanking.