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Kiss, the stat +b>?> \\ar*\c aim By Mark Chevalier Gamacock Staff Writar Friday night, four masterful musicians once again tantalized the ears and eyes of the local rock set with an incredibly complex yet nigniy spiruec performance before a nearly full house at the Carolina Coliseum. I would find it hard to believe that many of you reading the above would think, for more than a second or two, that I was indeed speaking of the rock band, Kiss. In fact, the music of Kiss is so blatantly bad, that most critics reviewing the band generally limit themselves to only one or two degrading terms, so as not to insult the reader's intelligence. I also have to believe that it would take con siuerauiy less man an cxurcmiu iu mane even iuc most die-hard Kiss fan admit that the music is little more than garbled noise. So where does one begin in reviewing a concert such as this? I was going to say, for instance, that the concert was plagued by feedback and raspy vocals, but who cares. It literally didn't matter. The only thing I can think of that would hinder a Kiss performance would be too little volume, which definitely was not the case. The music was loud, very loud, but it had to be; if you pick up a guitar and strum the same three barchords over and over, it would probably put you to sleep. But, if you turn your amp up all the way (and stand directly in front of it), two things will happen: 1) there will be a lot of feedback (which sounds real neat it you uiinK it aoes); ana 2) tnere win De an incessant rumble (which you can call energy if you think it is). Now what all this will do, even though it's those same three bar-chords, is sound like a whole lot more, but with the added bonus of making you nauseous after the first five minutes. This is the secret of the Kiss 'sound.' n- ' r a - u ii : _ ti i J - ir 1 I ,i ii 11 isn i uie music uiai iriaue iviss popular, wnai is it? It must be the big three: the make-up, the stage ^p||H \_-Wtr ^^BjtffjL ^MB^^BKPt!^" ?' ' --flg jl "" a 1 Htf W "- ' ME 1 M J , ffc:, Mi ^ B^t'y 2 w *f, XV- *V ' ? yj ^ le show with B und rumble | stunts and the hype. Before we consider these things, however, we must | keep in mind one other important factor ? the age t 1/nMM/voln l?Mirlnir nirfkf'o ArAttrrl r?o nrfoH glUUJJ rviso a^)JCdl3 IU. i' I luajf IU5111 o wunu taugvu between 13 and 18. The smell of pot was replaced by P the munching of chips and the downing of soda, and if ^ you weren't watching the show, you were probably g looking over the vast array of T-shirts and posters available in the lobby. B ^? nfortr* nkrvtir Knf on o IrinH Bali I\ldd Id UUl JUdl d OIJUW , uuv oil t v V/Ut c* rwuiu h of mongrel breed that sets up camp somewhere I between a Las Vegas chorus-line and a Barnum and I Bailey circus. In effect, the members of the band 1-1 become both the performers and the animals; they || swing above the audience suspended on wires, they p breathe fire and they prance around the stage like || antelopes in platform shoes. || Then there was Kiss' sleek white stage, the colored H lights anH thp flashing sicns Sammv Davis himself I* would have felt right at home gliding down the lighted ? stairs belting out 'the candy man can.' After three of the easiest earned encores I had ever experienced (in my day it took a resounding round of applause to get a band back on stage, here a couple i IriHc thfir 'hin'c' nnH hand was hark) thp crowd shuffled out, detouring for one last look at the | T-shirt table. Outside, a local church group was passing out flyers claiming that Kiss stood for Knights In Satan's l Service. Even if this is the case, which I doubt, it seemed an absurdly over-blown gesture on their part. Kiss is cream-puff decadence, if that. Dylan's protest songs of the 60's were more of a social and religious j threat than anything this band will ever say or do. If Kiss stands for anything, it's Kutting Into Student's Savings. Thus it is not the moral, the ethical, the social, the religious, the political or the glittering pseudo-decadence that drives Kiss forever onwards, it's the buck. If you think it anymore than that, you're giving them more credit than they deserve. ,S-"r n-^ '"." '" '1 - -;", ,' ?'{ ^rS- Jmit ' ' sPlI - SV-^ 3 g^agSa ': ' :'-;?; VI:c\_> m | | 1 B: ? H^||g|H I ^,'"''s';; HggHB| ' - <tfifi&&-'.v':^^^^HraB8BlKH^9nSB^9BlnSSS^^BHH9B^^^^^^^^HK:::':-'::-':':'::. 1 Bg : ?Jjf % & jg ?i r,?fflB " '>v-:| in domn ? uambcock Rin hard Dwsar 'Prophecy': about boon By David Baker cnionainmani tuuur In the standing of those whom people frequently mistake to be a doctor, Richard Dysart ranks among the highest. The mix-ups come as a result of Dysart's being cast as a physician in half-a-dozen or so films. Dysart's first and most memorable portrayal of a /4rvn f Ar r* o m n i n D o r\ UUV. I Vi V. C* 111 v> 111 X a UU J Chayefsky's The Hospital in 1972. As the evil-minded Dr. Welbeck, Dysart almost stole the film away from stars George C. Scott and Diana Rigg Aiier me mm Decame a success, Dysart began to notice people on the street giving him dirty looks. "I didn't know how powerful a character can become to people," Dysart said, "especially one as terrible as Welbeck " mUxv :4: ~~ 1 * : i \ me ci iik:ui recupium uysai i received for his role in The Hospital led to supporting roles in The Terminal Man uis another villainous scalpel swinger), The Day of the Locust, The llindenburg and 4 LI^LI.. ? i ? r iwu iii^niy acciauuuu mauu-iurtelevision movies: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and this past season's First You Cry. Currently, Dysart is winning recognition in John Frankenheimer's Prophecy, Paramount Pictures' hit horror movie. He portrays Bethel Isely, the manager of a lumber mill which is poisoning Maine's water supply with chemicals. As written, Isely was a despicable "company man" whose only concern was money. "But," said Dysart, "we changed all that." Both Dysart and r ranKenneimer leu mat lsely would be more interesting if portrayed as an honest, scrupulous man who gets caught up in something he is powerless to stop. "He's not a ?v\ A w* r? M ' r\fiAAM4 MA* J P inauiiigii| l M<m. t in 'Prophec star happy ning career Whatever his motivations are, Isely still has the dubious distinction of being eaten alive j by a mutant bear. The scenein question is eliciting screams j from audiences everywhere, ! but Dysart insists it was a fun scene to film. "There were two men inside the creature," Dysart said, "so there was really nothing to be frightened of." "They had it in ! rliffnmnt cilflc f fir Hifff>rPnt UUIV/1 V/ilt OlliVO ivt Utii X/. X/..V scenes," he added, "and its face was moved mechanically." j Just prior to Prophecy, j Dysart completed the role of the U.S. Secretary of Defense in American International's multi-million dollar Meteor, a science-fiction epic starring |i Sean Connery and Natalie Wood The film has not yet been released. ? ?/ ! * U i ' ??/\ 'mm ni( 1 UllUfl MclllU muy It Iiuvuif, trouble with the special ef- j fects," Dysart said, explaining ! that Meteor's effects, strangely | enough, were to be done after the actual filming. "With Prophecy," he said, "they did j the special effects as we went j along." Dysart was "disappointed" ; with his role in Meteor because, | he said, "none of my scenes were those involving Natalie." j "1 really love her," he said. Dysart's newest film is the political comedy Being There, wherein he will portray still another physician. j "When I first heard about the role in Being There," Dysart explained, "I said to my agent, i 'We've come to the end of the doctors.' But when he told me Peter Sellers and Hal Ashby j were involved with the project, j I said, 'Why, of course, I'd love to be another doctor.' " Dysart said he feels that j Being There is going to be one of the most important films of next year "i ininK u s going iu be Sellers' best work. He fought to get the part and he's brilliant ! in it. "I like my work in it, too," he added, "and if my work can I- ? 111 I I A 4 tC ?' spean ior me, i n oe ueuer on. j