Random acts

Of note

News from the Ether: Asheville-based avant-garde rockers The Ether Bunnies are set to begin work on their new album. According to percussionist James Owen, the group is building their own home studio to record the currently untitled project. For more information, e-mail the band at bunnylist@hotmail.com.

East meets West: A recent acoustic show held in the courtyard of Vincent’s Ear may soon end up on Japanese cable TV. Filmmakers with Space Shower TV, the Japanese equivalent of MTV, recently filmed the music of Fisher, Chris Geer, Issac Alexander Johnson and many others during a documentary about the coast-to-coast tour of Japanese candle and lighting arranger Candle Jun.

Front-row reviews

Who: Soulbone

Where: The Hangar

When: Saturday, June 29

For this review, we thought we’d try something a little different. If one reviewer is good, surely two is even better. The results of our little experiment pit reviewer Steve Shanafelt and photographer Bo Post against the Saturday-night crowd at the Hangar in the Airport Holiday Inn.

[The Hangar, 9:30 p.m. A DJ spins music for the growing crowd. The sound is deafening.]

Bo Post: Okay, there’s already a DJ telling me to drink because “the more you drink, the more fun you’ll have” … at least this is at a hotel, so if you get too drunk to drive you can always get a room. You can even take one of the cowboys with ya!

Steve: Dude, I’m getting a pair of cowboy boots. … No more of this wussy nerd look for me!

Bo: You know, you are basically paying a cover to listen to the radio and watch TV. [As she says this, Bo takes one of the bar napkins, rips off an edge, rolls it up and begins placing it in her ear.]

Steve: Bo, I’ve got earplugs. You can have some if you want.

Bo: No thanks. I’m a napkin-in-the-ear kind of girl. [The DJ spins Guns & Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine,” causing Bo to begin a painful lipsynch.]

Steve: Look, the band is finally setting up.

Bo: I’ll bet money that the guy in the black leather pants is the guitarist.

Steve: I’m not taking that bet. No way.

Bo: Hey, that Scorpion King guy is on TV! It’s The Rock! [Bo excitedly points to two professional wrestlers, The Rock and Mankind, on the bar’s big-screen television. This almost makes me miss having cable.]

Steve: I read Mick “Mankind” Foley’s book a few months ago. He’s actually a pretty entertaining writer. [At this point, Soulbone begins to play. Their first song is a cover of the Collective Soul hit “Gel.”] Hey, they’re playing.

Bo: [Eyes still glued to the television] That The Rock guy is kinda cute, though. Maybe we shouldn’t print that. … Hey, look! A leopard! [She produces a small picture of a leopard from her carton of American Spirit cigarettes.]

Steve: You know, for a cover band, these guys are actually doing a good job, all things considered.

Bo: Well, if they aren’t going to turn up the volume on the wrestling, then there’s not much more I want to see here.

Steve: Are they covering a Goo Goo Dolls song? That’s not typical bar-band material.

Bo: Yeah, it’s a Goo Goo Dolls song, but it’s like the off-key remix version.

Steve: Well, song content aside, they seem to be competent players. The bassist’s voice sort of reminds me of a young, white, less-dead version of Scatman Crouthers.

Bo: Who?

Steve: Scatman Crouthers. You know, the voice of Hong Kong Fuey? The guy that gets axed in the chest by Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining?

Bo: Redrum … redrum. I’m gonna redrum somebody if we don’t leave soon.

Steve: Come on. They’re playing some originals now. See, they actually have some real power and cohesiveness when they play their own stuff. More heart, I guess. By the way, are you going to take some photos for this, or not?