The Sentinel from Carlisle, Pennsylvania • 35

in mtnf nyawymnn ri-rmninn Friday, August 8, 1986, Alive, Carlisle, Pa. 9 Idealistic group needs chance ll (REWDEW style of danceable, meaningful music that features some great guitar work. Innocence Mission which also includes bass player Mike Bitts and drummer Steve Brown became determined to play more than covers after years of kicking around in garages and lounges. "We had kind of reached a dead end with where we could go with our music," Don says of the circumstances that caused the group to switch from the lounge circuit to rock club stages. "We wanted to go someplace where we could be more than background and develop a following," he explains.

"We definitely wanted to be able to play our own music," Karen adds. Insistence on doing their own stuff has cost them locally. While the Perises won't admit it after all, the feelings of club owners do play a part in future bookings they have been excluded from more than one i IN tv, IIP" '-J By David Hawkins Staff writer Karen and Don Peris, both in their early 20s, talk like a couple of nice kids. At first, their group, Innocence Mission, sounds like a lot of other light rock bands. Originals combine such influences as Dream Academy, Amy Grant and Dire Straits.

You might think that's why the band is not getting much respect in this area. A glance indicates they are too sweet; a quick listen says, "Not different enough." "I think our music is not a cliche in any way musically or lyrically," says Karen, lead vocalist and keyboard player. "I would say. with the music out today, ours would be a little refreshing," adds Don, the group's guitarist. Beneath the demure exteriors refined at Lancaster Catholic High School is an unshakeable confidence in their songs.

Most are written by Karen, some with help from Don. In this case, the personal assessment is correct. Their background is a framework upon which the group hangs their own Innocence Mission's originals are USA 1 1 job because they throw in an occasional Innocence Mission original. After a couple of debut performances at The Metron, one of the Harrisburg area's few live band nightspots allowing original music, the band dropped out of sight for a few months. It wasn't that Innocence Mission wasn't working.

It just wasn't working here. Dates were scheduled and announced at a couple of places, but they never came off until July 18 and 19 at Pine Tree Inn. It's simply more profitable to book only established acts rather than take a chance on a group with a churchy name that insists on playing some self-compositions. There are a host of bands available locally doing other people's hits with some flair that bring in a few regular followers. Of course, nobody said it would be easy.

Newlyweds Karen and Don Peris aren't complaining. "It seems we've been together for Dave HawkinsAlive second-generation iconoclast Dweezil Zappa, whose stint as a guest VJ brought a much-needed lift of freshness to MTV's broadcast day. A little more spontaneity and fun in front of the cameras might do a world of good for next quarter's Neilsen report, guys. Ah, Beach Boys the epitome of clean-cut all-Americana. Their spotless image has been tarnished A is 1 1 often idealistic but still danceable.

so long, but we're just starting," Karen says, noting the band first formed in 1980. "We have a lot of big goals and a long way to go, but we're satisfied with the start," she says'. That start has included developing a following. The group has been more successful doing so in the Philadelphia area, where they have played at Empire Rock Club and Central Park. The group also made an EP, produced by Sharks drummer Doug Phillips' Llist label.

The vinyl, "Tending the Rose Garden," is an excellent introduction to the Innocence Mission approach. Approach is the key word. Innocence Mission is not just a rock band it wants to combine a message with its music. Even the name was carefully chosen. "We didn't want to pick a name that was just a word," Karen says.

"We wanted a name that meant something, something that goes along with the lyrics. "My lyrics are often idealistic," she explains. "They kind of take the viewpoint of a child still holding onto values, wide-eyed, but sometimes disillusioned with the world and sometimes seeing all the opposition out there. "We want people to have fun with our music, but we also want meaning to get across," she says. "You can dance to our music but you can also sit down and just listen with a lyric sheet." Don simply says, "The best thing about our originals are they are original." That is definitely a plus.

"Can't Anybody Stay Together Anymore," "Shadows" and "Trust" are Innocence Mission numbers from their EP that combine the band's peculiar brand of ingenuity with some conventions of dance rock. "Can't" is a song for the child disenchanted with the fragility of human relationships; "Shadows" observes how human nature thwarts the highest goals; and "Trust" is a funky, hopeful call for faith. considerably in the last decades, what with Brian Wilson's mental state and Dennis Wilson's death. Now, a new blow has been dealt them by a Washington, D.C., lawyer. Frederick W.

Schwartz acting as a private citizen, has filed a suit against the band, claiming well, they broke their promises, to take it out of legal jargon. Remember those controversial Fourth of July concerts at Capitol Mall, the ones then-Interior Secretary James Watt thought were unsuitable venue for a rock 'n' roll band? The Beach Boys played at the foot of the Washington Monument in 1980, '85 and '86. Schwartz charges they also flim-flammed the public when they did so. their Columbia release "Nervous Night." Now, with star-status ensured, the group won't likely play clubs for a long while, so those who want to see The Hooters without a long trip to a major market should catch them inHershey. The band will play three other regional dates late in August Hazelton, Aug.

21; Wildwood, N.J., Aug. 22; and Johnstown, Aug. 23. Jim Johnson, a representative of Cornerstone Management, which handles the group, says more shows in September are possible, but after that, The Hooters will be out of circulation for a while. Currently, group principals Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian are writing songs to be recorded this fall for Columbia.

The release of the new album will be followed with a national tour. Other August concerts include: Aug. 23 another Philadelphia band with a record contract, the -Metron. Aug. 25 the latest South Jersey pretender to the Bruce Springsteen throne, John Eddy (Columbia), will bring his hit "Jungle Boy" to Metron.

Aug. 30 Bricklin will be back in Harrisburg with Kix (Atlantic) Restaurant TuwiNq into Rock scene MTV's Neilsen ratings climb 4 group's tunes. promise-laden band, one with the flexibility and personality to do a great dance party at a club one day then play a Christian music festival the next. But the group, like many other talented bands with aspirations to make their own name, is on a treadmill locally. They won't get heard much until trendy club-goers are willing to listen to more than the name and parochial club owners are willing to look a little beyond the number of people at the bar.

and keep their word. More lawsuits: Remember when Noel Love, former manager of the Jon Butcher Axis, sued the band's new management for $20 million, charging the music business equivalent of "alienation of The plot thickened recently when Jon Butcher and Derek Blevins of the Axis countersued Love for $2.4 million. The dollar figure may be lower, but the charges are juicier. According to Butcher and Blevins, Love misappropriated some $800,003 of the band's money, keeping for himself their true incomes and paying them a measly $200 a week salary. annual Summer Jam Fest in the Reading area on Aug.

23. Molly Hatchet, Poco, Johnny Van Zandt and Pretty Poison are listed for the concert at Willow Glen Park Other bands playing locally include: Big Noise, the new vehicle for former Ravyns keyboardist Kyf Brewer, Aug. 23 at Countryside Inn. The Inciters Aug. 20-23 and Bashful Aug.

27-30, both at Mechanicsburg's Paradise. used lo be inevitable lor everyone past LJ Ai ByEthlieAnnVare MTV has tied with USA Network and CNN for first place in the cable television Neilsen ratings, pulling itself up a tenth of a percentage point since the disputed ratings for the last quarter of 1985. In the second quarter of 1986, MTV as well as WTBS and USA, two basic-cable program nets earned a 0.7 rating, which is chicken feed compared to the broadcast Major-label acts hitting area Karen Peris writes most of the Even on covers, which range from 'Til Tuesday to Jackson Browne, the band puts a little of itself into the seamless usually with Karen's distinctively slurred vocalizations, sometimes with a hot lick from Don's guitar. At the Pine Tree show, the originalized covers included a faster-paced version of Jackson Browne's "For America" and an impressive interpretation of Joni Mitchell's "Clouds." Innocence Mission is a The lawsuit, filed under an obscure law called the False Claims Act, claims the Beach Boys promised to make no prof it from the 1980 concert and yet later accepted revenues from Home Box Office for broadcast rights. The band also allegedly promised to donate the proceeds from their 1985 and '86 shows to charity, which Schwartz says they did not.

And, to top it all off, the band is accused of reneging on a promise to give the National Park Service $100,000 to help pay security and clean-up costs for the Mall. Schwartz hopes the government will join him in his suit, but he is moving ahead on his own. What happens to the Beach Boys if he wins? They have to make nice-nice and Sharks (Elektra) for the first City Island concert in years. As part of Harrisburg's annual Kipona Festival, the groups will rock to Also Aug. 30 Profile recording artist Boys Don't Cry purveyors of the insipid dance-drawl tune "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" will play the Metron.

A short hop away, a bunch of other name bands will stock the first Downtown Carlisle 72 W. Louthor St. 249-3436 MJMall MJ Mall, 243-2024 "ifocals a certain are already They give far, and dont die In your glass, clear networks but many millions of advertising dollars for a cable operation. MYV statisticians claim a reduction in the number of teenagers included in Neilsen's previous sampling threw off the music channel's numbers. The new numbers indicate MTV regularly reaches about 2 million homes.

And although he didn't do anything for last quarter's ratings, let's still give a hand to this weekend. 4 A--. it 1 Dave Hawkins Alive By David Hawkins Staff writer A musicial heat wave is expected to hit central Pennsylvania this month. In coming weeks, at least eight major-label bands are scheduled to play in the Harrisburg area. This weekend, The Sharks will play the Metron Aug.

9 for adults and Aug. 10 for all ages. There's a twinbill dilemma Aug. 14, when James Taylor will play Hersheypark Stadium and Elektra Asylum artists Simply Red will hit the Metron. Taylor, a semi-socially conscious light rocker, is an attraction with roots in the early '70s.

Simply Red an English jazz-rock band from the Steely Dan mold is new and reported to be red hot. The group's two current hits, "Holding Back the Years" and "Money's Too Tight to Mention," indicate that's the case. Hie Hooters will appear at Hersheypark Stadium Aug. 20. These Philadelphians used to be intermittently available at clubs in this area, but the Live-Aid and Amnesty International concerts led to national recognition.

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