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Show Gun-toting Salivas give rapid-fire show by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer Looking back at the entertainment during the Park City Arts Festival, one can come up with several images... the Kismet belly-dancing troupe wiggling to banshee yells on the PA system... the jazz groups playing mellow music which helping cool the crowds in the hot sun... the Salt Lake Scots marching down a crowded Main Street... the lead singer of the Oquirrh Ridge Drifters holding a note for an impossibly long time... and the Matt Flinner Trio singing bluegrass in a Ricky Skaggs style and introducing their slobbering slob-bering Newfoundland as the official "band dog." But I must confess that in the midst of the crowds, the art and the parked cars, I only was able to get a glimpse of the range of festival entertainment. A good rule for these festivals is "When in doubt, see the Saliva Sisters." The Sisters made their debut at the 1982 festival and have been big favorites here ever since. The Sisters have an irresistible singing style and funky, funny movements to go with every song. They start out with such classic '40s tunes as "Everybody Loves My Baby." From there, they progress to their '80s Song" an aerobic number called "She's a Cool Guy." They are also known to twirl batons, form a clumsy pyramid ("Grace and beauty go together, don't they?" says one) or dispense such advice as "Never blow your nose after putting on your lipstick." Oldest sister Bila is Rebecca Terry, who usually makes the wisecracks and provides the funniest stage business. But oddly enough, her voice doesn't carry well on the PA system. Kristen Merrill (Adema) belts out her songs and Michelle Nunley, as sister Vadine, combines a good voice with a funny stage presence. One of my favorite segments was their "terrorist" medley. The sisters dressed as Palestinians or Symbion-ese Symbion-ese Army cadres, salute the thugs of the world with such songs as "I Shot the Pontiff" and "Killing Us Loudly With Their Bombs." They conclude with the song "Revolution," where they decide to renounce their submachine guns, discarding them in their laundromat baskets. However, the political material may have been a little heavy for the crowd, which was more receptive when the Sisters launched into an old-time rock 'n' roll medley. (At all times, they were energetically accompanied by the Lymph Notes, who are soon to change to Al's Heimer and his band, said Bila.) They concluded with the song "Crazy People." It was an appropriate appro-priate tune to send the crowds away for another year, until painters, singers and food vendors once again congregate on Main. |