Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 7, 1992 TAG: 9202070087
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
BABY IGOR PLAYS MUSIC YOU CAN (SLAM) DANCE TO BY JOE TENNIS
Most bands in town will tell you there's not a lot of mosh rings at clubs and parties around here.Mosh rings, once a popular sport at heavy metal concerts, work like this: A gang of people runs, sort of like its members are skipping, in a tight circle. Each guards his or her face while another crowd slams bodies in the middle of the ring - a place called "The Pit."
It's really a rather bizarre and dangerous thing. People have a tendency to get slammed and hurt all the time.
Ed Brown, drummer for the Blacksburg-based rock band Baby Igor, thinks mosh rings are becoming outdated.
"The real moshing is getting passe," he said.
Guitarist Doug Wetmore added, "People are more violent now. They just run into other people."
Running into other people is commonly called slam dancing. But Baby Igor bassist Dave Carradine said, "It's not dancing anymore. It's just people freaking out."
Baby Igor - though trying to keep injuries out of the scene - expects people to freak out Saturday night when they headline a three-band show at Buddy's in Blacksburg.
Their gig starts at 10, with two more local bands, Pietasters (formerly the Slugs) and Confucious, opening the show. Cover is $3 (over-21) and $4 (under-21).
The guys in Baby Igor have a clear idea why they have played music for the past two years.
Brown said, "It's not the money. It's not the women. I think people reacting to how we play" is the biggest thrill for the band.
Back to the slam dancing.
Singer Hubert Tse, 22, a Virginia Tech senior from Alexandria, used to play with guitarist Wetmore, 22, a December 1991 Tech grad from Lexington, when Wetmore played drums in a band called Lockjaw.
Carradine, 21, a Tech senior from Woodbridge, later met Tse at a party. Brown, 23, a Tech senior from Bridgewater, N.J., was friends with other band members.
Since forming, Baby Igor has played at the Iroquois in Roanoke, Bailey's in Radford and at parties in Blacksburg.
The band says its booming, heavy brand of music, influenced by underground groups like Black Flag and the Rollins Band, is energetic, powerful and dynamic.
"It's got a metal edge, but I wouldn't describe it as metal," Carradine says.
Mixed with Carradine's pumping bass sound, Brown's drumming is rhythmic, churning and loud. It's a cool complement to Tse's unpolished, raw vocals and Wetmore's distortion-dripping guitar crunch.
"Not all of our songs are screaming," Tse said. "You can hear what's being said."
Wetmore and Carradine sing backups. But, says Carradine, "It's not a harmony duo. We just give it a little excellent oomph."
The band concentrates on originals. "I think playing covers is boring really. It doesn't say much," Wetmore said.
Tse added, "We'd rather write our originals than do covers."
One Baby Igor original is called "Quirk." Brown says it's a slam against people "who sit and whimper 'cause everything doesn't go your way."
Another one of the band's tunes is called "Impressions." Tse gets fired up when explaining this one: "It's about some people in Blacksburg. You look around and you see these people who are fake and trying to put on an image they are really not."
Brown, who pens the bands lyrics with Tse, says the two tend to write "stuff like where you don't turn out to be a zero, a waste case. . . . They're youth anthems."
The lyrics flow like a stream of consciousness.
Indirectly, Tse said, the band may be able to get its messages across to others. But, he added, "We're not gonna shove it down people's throats or anything."
Soon the band plans to release a single on a new label, Squealer Music, owned by Blacksburg resident Butch Lazorchak, 27, a manager at the Record Exchange in Blacksburg and drummer with the KAOS Jazz Quintet.