Concurrent with the start of another fine RPI year is the beginning of all things UPAC. From comedy to lights, sound to films, I’ve always been a UPAC fan, with their continuously professional atmosphere, a UPAC presentation puts most commercial entertainment attempts around the Capital Region to shame. With all their glory, there is no better UPAC medley than the annual UPAC Mainstage, held last Saturday night, 8 to 11 pm, within the confines of the McNeil Room, and its painfully uncomfortable red plastic chairs.
UPAC mainstage is a chance for all the UPAC officers to wake up from their summer off and get back to what they do best: putting on a show! The night was filled with live music, live comedy, and live Bugs Bunny cartoons. The evening started with solo folk guitarist Wendy Woo, who filled an hour with her stories and songs—which would turn out to be the best music of the night.
Armed only with her six strings, her diverse music used many different chord structures reminiscent of a number of genres. Her vocal presence was strong, piercing through the McNeil Room as if the mike was not even there. On one song, she would use only three power chords, while her voice became the soloist. Then on the next, she turned her guitar into a drum set, using it to keep rhythm with her lyrics by tapping it, banging it, and evening hitting string harmonics in a way that seemed random at first, but was too consistent to be unrehearsed.
Her stage presence was strong, and balance between voice and instrument was finely tuned. Add these with periodic stories about her band back in Colorado, and her present adventures as a soloist in New York today, and you got one entertaining hour with this very well carried singer and songwriter.
But enough with artsy folk music for now, after a short Bugs Bunny cartoon (always a good time, and it brings back the good old days when the IED was drawn up in crayons and prototyped in Legos) from UPAC Cinema, it was time to get my laugh on. I have to admit, the comedy portion of UPAC Mainstage has always been my favorite part. UPAC Comedy usually always gets a pretty good comedian, and sometimes a really great one, and as always, it’s free! Saturday night’s comedic artisan was OK, but just about worth the price of admission.
Mark Saldana had some good jokes, a lot about his ethnicity as an Indian American, his “social” habits and the more raunchy subjects—you know what I mean. Overall, he had a few good laughs, but didn’t quite carry the crowd through his 40 minute set. Some of his jokes were total dead air, and he had to quickly recover with an, “I don’t know.” Or “Yeah, RPI!” But hey, that’s show business people. Unfortunately, the biggest jokes of the night were about video games, which, I suppose is expected from a school where the Playstation-to-guy ratio is higher than the girl-to-guy ratio. How about one more “Yeah RPI!” just for that.
After Saldana, UPAC Cinema filled the interlude with yet another old cartoon while the punk/rock band Spinning Images set up on the UPAC stage. Right from the get-go, these guys had a less than impressive set. Their first song was uneventful, and unexciting. Their chord phrases were trite, with little emotion, and even though the music was fast, it was creatively slow. The lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist did have a voice which held its presence, but the music had little foundation for his skill.
Their second and third songs were basically like the first, simple and uneventful phrasing, with rhythm and lead guitar playing the same thing most of the time. They did hold together well as a group, and you could tell they’ve had plenty of practice, but the creative energy, performance presence and pure appeal of the music was just not there.
In addition to the “eh” music, the band just looked less than enthusiastic to even be playing at RPI, but that may be because during an introduction, the lead vocalist stated apathetically, “Hi, we’re from Colorado, and we’re excited to be here in Seattle.” Maybe someone can e-mail me later and let me know where we are on the construction of the Troy Space Needle. Have we gotten city approval for that yet? I think it will really help the skyline, you know?
The vocalist then went on to tell the audience (with a snicker of pride in his voice) that he never went to college, or much of high school for that matter, because he was busy “doing other things.” Well, we know that time with “other things” certainly wasn’t spent with a map, and was most likely focused on learning three to five power chords and starting a crappy band. Overall, the performance was mediocre at best.
And thus ends another UPAC Mainstage. As always, the hard workers did a fantastic job, keeping it professional like always, and booking some good—and OK—talent for the start of the year. If you did miss the Mainstage, make sure to keep your eyes peeled for further UPAC events, and do yourself a favor, put the Playstation away and check them out. Overall, I was pleased with the night and can’t wait for the next UPAC surprise. I thank the UPAC officers for the Mainstage show and all their hard work, and much like the applause for the performers, I would just like to say “Bravo UPAC, Bravo.”
