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Show WEDNESDAY A RTS 4 62 NTERTAINMENT Daily Utah Chronicle Mr. Potter's lullaby "Harry potter and the 4 y t fi T' W 1 . r f u - T ' J. " .J S wall. Guess who won. Eryn Green Av,t. Ik, td:tor ery Furnaces and Azita played at In The Venue to a packed crowd of diverse ii;ivmr; a McDonald's commcrchil under your hell, hein;; referenced multiple times on teeiuie "The OX',." and "(ill more ( i iris" ;ind appearing on a summer-releas- e movie soundtrack would normally he more than enough to kill any hand's musical reputation. runny thing is, none of these faux pas even dented Suh-I'oRecords' fastest sellers, The Shins', solid-gol- d name and they did them all. The hand began in N.M. a Albuquerque, town notoriously devoid of an established rock "scene" and their sound is somewhere between The Beach Hoys and The Beta Hand. It's an amalgam of catchy hooks mat- concertgoers. At the show, there were as many people upstairs in the over-2section of the club as there were downstairs in the general ed to thought-provokin- lyrics. Lead singer James Mercer's voice is spicy and endearing. The Shins are everything you'd want in a rock band. Simply put, they're extraordinary. And people are catching on. So much was evident last Thursday, May 27, when The Shins, The I - Stars A&E r p .5 Wat- Foster Kamer I the of Warner Bros. Pictures Directed by Alfonso Cuanm Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma son Rated PC, The Shins The Shins, pictured here, fought limner 1 admission dance floor. This heterogeneity in attendance is a testament to The Shins' versatility and broad acceptance: It's almost impossible to dislike this band. Even the acts The Shins chose to open for them were a perfect mix of strange and sublime. Azita, the first opening act last Thursday, was kind of like Ben Folds with ovaries and backed by a blues-rocjam band doomed to only play the lounge scene. The band is essentially Azita Youseffi, who pounds emphatically on the ivory keys of her piano while tossing her raspy voice to and fro on songs from her most recent album, Life on the k Fly. While not quite polished enough to be phenomenal, Azita's noise is unique and inventive. Her stage show was just weird enough for people to not ask questions, but not quite good enough for anyone to really pay attention. far, far away. The coolest brother sister musical duo not married to each other or named after a color, The body came to see Azita or The Furnaces. While the crowd hap- Of course, though, no- hazardly applauded both openers, there was no real excitement until The Shins stepped on stage. The band appeared to e be of the high expectations set by the audience, and they didn't disappoint. With a set list consisting equally of songs off their first album, Fiery Furnaces, played a slightly better show than Azita. The story goes that Matt Friedbergcr bought his sister Eleanor a guitar for her birthday because he had no idea what to get her. Fie passed a store window with a on display, impulsively bought it and the rest, as they say, is history The Furnaces started soon after. The music The Furnaces play is a delightful mix of Casio synth beats, epileptic percussion and distorted guitar. The Furnaces sound like Jack White or Julian Casablancas plugged into a Galactica video game; kind of like the music on Tetris when you're playing expert mode really fast and crazy. Only, The Furnaces play songs (sung primarily by Eleanor) about losing pets and eating blueberries. And their transitions are solid. And The Furnaces couldn't be mistaken for anyone else on the planet, except maybe Mates of State, from well-awar- six-stri- Oh, Inverted World, as their second, Chutes too Narrow, The Shins hit all the high marks for excellence. Almost every song was a version of itself, and those familiar with the band responded Mercer enthusiastically. and company opened with a solid version of the "Know Your Onion," and played consistently until they concluded the encore with the MTV video-havin- g single, "So Says I." Highlights of the excellent set included an extended acoustic "Pink Bullets," a "Girl on the Wing" and a rocked-ou- t "Mine's Not a High Horse." non-albu- well-translat- egreen chronicle.utah.edu Editor In the case of "Indiana Jones," "E.T.," "Star Wars," and most recently, Peter Jackson's "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, there are certain films that go beyond impressing an audience with just a good story, great visuals, and solid acting the overall direction of the three elements combined (among numerous others) carries the unique ability of cinema to make grown adults feel like children all over again. Begin to pencil in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" to that list, as the third Potter film finally does what we've all been waiting for it to do: fill audiences with the same sense of wonder as classic blockbusters. In his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter now faces a few new challenges: harder classes, less Quid-ditc- h and some serial killer named Sirius Black who's the first to ever escape from the wizards' prison, Azkaban. Sure, everyone deals with serial killers on the loose. But Harry Potter deals with serial killers on the loose after him. This film wastes no time getting into the plot and doesn't dabble in unimportance - the Quidditch (Rowling's world's version of soccer) scene lasts only about 30 seconds, and gives the audience a better rush than it ever did in the two Potter films preceding it. Essential plot lines are given the most time and actors are given room to breathe instead of being dubbed over by a barrage of special effects. The first two installments in the film adaptation series of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books did well to recreate Rowling's world on screen, complete with almost all of the wizardry of storytelling, special effects and grand scaling that the books imply. Yet, under director Chris Columbus' wand, they failed to pull off the best trick of all translating the magic of Rowling's stories themselves. Themes, motivations, believ-abilit- y and most of all, the artful nature of Rowling's writing managed to miss the transition With "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," Columbus decided it was time for a break, giving himself a production credit and handing over the director's reins to "Y Tu Mama Tambien" director Alfonso Cuaron. "Smart move" would be a grave un- derstatement. Cuaron, who has previously dem- Music reviews Soillltls fl'Om Mai'S? Almost, try Mississippi nrt Ren ml Charlie Mars Artist Charlie Mars 2 liernnls Label f out of 5 stars His last name may be Mars, but he's not quite out of this world not yet, at least. In fact, he's from Mississippi. They like to drink in Mississippi, And, apparently, fall in love and hard to be Bono. Mars' songs arc memorable, the type you wake up to reverberating in your head even when the Y Tu Calendar Tambien June 2, 2004-O- h my God! Everyone stop what you're doing! Everyone! Right Now! EVERYONE LISTEN TO THIS! Enoch Tram and Kurt Bestor are playing together for the first time ever! Holy Kingsbury Hall! 25 Bones! Haiti! Amputees! Or, you could just get drunk and fall over (College Night a Port O'Call). It is a Wednesday, after all. gone) the Capitol Theatre once, but the only people who came to see us were the cops. actors will have Hopefully, these better luck. s"! June 2004 -- Sick from an overdose of Ridge's Rambo ramblings at the U's commencement? Kingsbury Hall has just the 3, other psychopathpolitical cure-so- nabe comedian. No, not Sean Hannity. Bring a poncho if you sit in front; tonight, The Daily Show's Lewis Black won't take well to the haunting the Capitol Theatre beginning today. We tried "haunting" (i.e., sleeping in the aisles when we thought everyone was ideals, for that matter. f s l distribution happened fast for Mars, and it's apparent he's not quite ready for it. May- "say it, don't spray it" ideal. ' Or any be after a few more this boy e from a town will knock one over the fences. Eryn Green s, one-hors- June 4th, 2004 -- Kool & The Gang will celebrate good times tonight at Franklin Covey Field. Just not like they did 20 years ago. Not at all. tonight, the guy behind movie cult classic Oonnie Darko's closing theme (a Also spellbinding cover of Tears For Fears' "Mad World") plays Friday night at In The Venue. Oh yeah, his name is Gary Jules. We think. wan- Also, some dude calling himself The Phantom of the Opera, in a creepy mask and cape (who is neither Batman nor Robin) will be Junctionals f Major-labe- fight. These are recurrent themes on Charlie Mars' self titled major-la-- J bel debut. He sounds like a mix of a Wall-- i flower and a Goo Goo Doll trying now-teena- CD player is off. But, there's nothing amazing about his debut. Each song is solid, few falter, but almost none save the album-openin- g rally cry "Gather the Horses," and maybe the tonal "White Out" are capable of standing out in a respectable singersongwriter crowd. Mars has potential for greatness, but he's just getting those training wheels off his pop bicycle. 1 1 3 onstrated a great sense of colorful, vivid aesthetics as well as successfully relying heavily on actors to bind a story together, is showing no signs of inconsistency here. The visuals fur the first time aren't relying on simply looking cool (special effects) so much as looking beautiful, and this in fact is all due to Cuaron, Transitional scenes, colors, layering and shot composition are actually here for the first time, and help highlight the new, dark elements in the series who said growing up was easy? Cuaron sure makes it look that way, though, blending all the ingredients together seamlessly and seemingly effortlessly. As for special effects, remember that this is a summer blockbuster-li- ke always, blink and you'll miss something. In Potter's world, there's always something incredible happening. This time, the special effects are a lesser priority, though, forcing the story to become much more human than ever before. Luckily, Cuaron and his cast are up to the task the third Potter film draws stronger, more mature parallels to reality than the previous films. Performances are no exception. Of course, the Potter series' supporting cast sprinkles the movie with a dream team of British New additions include Emma Thompson as the spectacularly fun and flaky Professor Trelawny, David Thewlis as the incredibly charismatic Professor Lupin and Gary Oldman as the prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius Black, who, despite being allotted barely any screen time, gives his character incredible depth and history. A new Dumbledore, played with zest by Michael Gambon, picks up any slack dropped off by the loss of Richard Harris, and then some by giving the role new energy by a younger (albeit barely) actor. The true surprise performances in this film come in the children. And oh, the children they're growing up in front of our eyes. For the first time, Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter shows signs of serious emotion and stress in dealing with his internal struggles of being the Great One, as well as anger, rage and a newfound dark side. Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson, in one of Azkaban's standout performances) have also grown up, and when the film falls on them, they carry it with ease. With a little help from Cuaron, the cast definitely appears to have done its homework, and it shows. Azkaban's only issue is that you're left wanting more, and that's not a bad thing. In fact, it's just what this series needed to get by. This is the best story of the three so far, and as it finally grows up, it gives its audience more universal accessibility. In a sea of loaded wands ready to wow the eyes and minds of Potter fans and newcomers alike, the biggest gold star here goes to Cuaron. Without his touch, this film might have just been another closed-doo- r "Chamber of Secrets." fkamerchronicle. utah. edu other A game of spin the bottle goes wrong in June 5, Movie Releases! and company. June 7, 2004-- Go steal a copy of last week's Daily Utah Chronicle, just to read the Also opening today...nothing. Looks like the other studios are too scared to compete with Potter's magic. All the more reason to get down with the movie multiple times. Over and over. Seriously, what else are you going to see? "Soul Plane?" calendar again. Piebald and The June 6, Cafe tonight. Jealous Sound play the Lo-These pretty-boballadeers have solid bands and everything, but just one gues-tioWas the pie ever anything but bald? Piehairy, perhaps? June 8, 2004-Spi- ce up your life, eat a taco. Preferably, from the taco carts at Sears on State and 800 South. South-sid- e tacos, represent! Calendar sposored by y The national Wizards' Pedophile Conventioneer, Harry Potter III opens today in dark, crowded theaters everywhere. 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