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Popular Steely Pan performs Friday
by Ryan Finn
Staff Writer
As a musical group, the Steely Pan Steel Band is one of
the most celebrated in the Southeast. The annual concert event, held
at Appalachian State University, routinely sells out, bringing in an
audience of thousands made up of students and non-students alike.
The Steely Pan Steel Band is set to play tomorrow night
at Farthing Auditorium at 8 p.m. Admission is $5 for ASU students and
$8 for the general public.
“It is, hands down, the most popular and sought-after
group in the school,” said Dr. William G. Harbinson, dean of the
Hayes School of Music. “They don’t just perform, they really
entertain, and they are totally self-supported.”
Steely Pan does not directly operate under the School of
Music, although the school does offer the band assistance in the form
of performance rooms and times.
Far from being pigeonholed into playing a more commercialized
kind of music often incorrectly associated with steel drums, Steely Pan
organizes their programs from a wide array of literature, Dr. Scott R.
Meister, a music professor and musical director for Steely Pan, said.
Previous concerts have been known to incorporate jazz, rock, classical
music, reggae and of course traditional steel drum music.
Dr. Jay C. Jackson, assistant dean of the School of Music,
said “the high level of expertise and involvement” of the
students involved in the band, as well as the “quality of surprise
in what they try to do.” Harbinson put it more directly “You
never know what you’re going to hear.”
It is this variety coupled with the traditionally spirited
sound of the steel drum that makes Steely Pan such a recurring hit with
audiences, Meister said.
“The sound of the steel band makes peoples’ bodies
move,” and because of the possibilities of scale found in the instrument, “you
can play any kind of music on it, not just Caribbean.”
The instruments themselves are indigenous to Trinidad and
Tobago, and Meister has dedicated a large part of his musical career
to building steel drums, tuning them, and teaching students about the
cultural and historical significance of the instruments. Meister frequently
takes students on trips to Trinidad and Tobago to study not only the
instruments but also the people who created them.
Part of the Steely Pan program is a historical overview,
where students perform with early prototypes of certain instruments,
to giving audiences a brief appreciation for the history of the musical
form. Steely Pan members learn how to play these instruments, but they
also learn “incredible lessons as musicians, as professionals,” Meister
said.
Dr. Meister has invested more than just himself into the
Steely Pan Steel Band. He may spend $3,000 to $4,000 a year to tune and
improve his instruments.
Steely Pan has just released its fourth CD since 1996 with
plans to release a fifth CD that will be centered around a 20th anniversary
reunion currently planned for April 23. All proceeds feed directly
back into the group.
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Legends: stepping stone for
big names
by Elizabeth Ashford
Staff Writer
So many famous faces have graced this stage, from Dave
Matthew’s Band to OutKast, from John Mayer to Jimmy Fallon.
“Legends is the only campus- owned nightclub in the
east. It’s a very unique place for students to go and we provide
BYOB [bring your own beer] for certain events ... It holds a thousand
people so it’s an awesome place to have concerts or any kind of
event,” Appalachian Popular Programming Society (APPS) President
Billy C. Morris said.
“Widespread Panic exploded right as we had them and
we had 1300 to 1,400 people wanting to get into the show ... that was
a tremendous show just from the amount of popularity,” APPS Program
Coordinator Randy M. Kelly said.
Kelly said Legends was started so students could have a
social outlet. It was built in 1985 or 1986 and was first called H’Appys.
H’Appys was updated and redecorated in 1988, and
because of the new image and new set up, a contest was held among Appalachian
State students and Legends was the new name selected.
Murals of great rock ‘n roll legends were then painted
by Appalachian State art students and the famous performance art painter
Denny Dent that now decorate the walls, Kelley said.
Kelley said BYOB is allowed at most events but that ID’s
are checked at the door, and the patrons have to check their beer in
at the bar.
“A student brings a six-pack, their ID is checked
at the door and they’re asked to go directly to the bar. They turn
it in, then they’re given a card with a corresponding number on
the card to the number that we put on the six-pack when we put it away,
so they will get only their own beverage at a space we mark inside the
coolers, and it’s absolutely free,” Kelley said.
When a patron wants a drink, they come to the bar and they
show their card. Depending on how many they brought, they’ll get
their beer, and their card will get marked, so they’ll know how
many they have left. If they don’t drink all that they brought,
they’ll get the remainders when they leave, Kelley said.
Kelley said his staff goes under TIPS [Training in Interventions
Procedures] training, a nationally recognized alcohol awareness program.
In this program, servers must pass a test and then they
are certified in how to deal with events at locations that allow alcohol,
Kelley said.
Legends recently became a smoke-free facility because all
residence halls are now smoke-free, Kelley said.
Kelley also said they could not afford to update Legends’ ventilation
system to make it strong enough to pull all of the smoke out of the building,
so it would not get into the smoke-free section.
Kelley said Legend’s is now trying a “pass
system” where, during designated times, patrons who have already
paid, can obtain a pass to leave the building and have a smoke break
outside.
Great acts come to Legends because of the hard work of
student volunteers in the APPS programs, Kelley said.
“Because it’s a volunteer organization, absolutely
volunteer, there’s no grade, but students often find this much
more interesting and educational, beneficial to their later life, than
their classes. They learn leadership, they learn goal setting and they
learn responsibility of using student activity money of their fellow
students and we turn that money back into more programming. All the revenues
we make above our cost go back into programming, they don’t go
anywhere else, it keeps your fees down.”
“Legends provides just solid entertainment, for kids
to go out and socialize and enjoy themselves with their friends and watch
good music at the same time,” APPS Stage Shows Chair Andrew T.
Sarda said.
“Two years ago we had John Mayer just before he got
really big and that’s a big show; that’s something Legends
can do, is bring people that are just about to go national, just about
to break through, and you’ll see them before they’re on VH1
and MTV,” Sarda said.
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