October 12, 1998

ARTS

Over The Edge Page 11

Out with Out of Alba

By Nicole Larson

A local music scene in
Prince George does
exist. Places like The
Urban Coffee House and
Galitas Tapis and Wine
Bar strive to give local
artists a stage on which
to perform. Galitas is
where you can find “Out
of Alba” a local Celtic
Band with its own unique
sound and flavor.

On October 2, Out of
Alba, was out in force at
Galitas. They played for
three hours to a full
. house and at the end of
the evening you could
tell they could have
played for three more.
The energy of this band
is amazing and it is evi-
dent in their music.

They played a number
of songs off of their
album “Stepping Out”
but did not limit them-
selves to that. In fact
they started the evening

with a cover of the song
“Behind Blue Eyes” by
Pete Townshend. Later
they interspersed some
of their songs such as
“Kitimat Mountain” and
“Black is the Color’ with
covers of
Chumbawumba’s
“Tubthumping” and the
traditional Celtic song
that Great Big Sea made
famous “Mary Mac.”

The diverse back-
grounds of the members
of Out Of Alba is reflect-
ed in their music.
Containing a mixture of
Irish, Scottish, Welsh
and Canadian blood the
rich vocal and instrumen-
tal sound of Out of Alba
incorporates some of
everything, without the
end product becoming
muddled. Out of Alba
consists of Tom Young,
Margaret and Jim Coyle,
Carolyn Kelly and Alan

Point of view...

Nicole Larson, News editor
CBC Radio, not just for old people any more.

| could listen to the CBC
all day everyday. Well
maybe not all day, and
maybe not everyday, |
need time to sleep and
eat and that kind of thing,
but what | am getting at is
| like the CBC, radio 1
and radio 2. | like to hear
different points of view
and | really like to get
more than 3 minutes of
news in an hour.
| appreciate that not
everyone in Canada
wants to hear about the
systematic categorization
of carrion insects for the
purposes of forensic
entomology (looking at
the bugs that eat dead
things and then determin-
ing how long those things
have been dead for), but
some people do find that
kind of thing interesting.
The CBC isn't just infor-
mative, it’s also fun to lis-
ten to. Where else can
you hear Thomas King
perform in “The Dead
Dog Cafe Comedy Hour”
(which by my calculation

‘lowing — the

lasts about 15 mins).

Radio 1 is a mix of
music, almost entirely of
Canadian origin, news
and interviews. In one
hour long block it is possi-
ble hear a comprehen-
sive news cast that cov-
ers local, national and
intemational events, lis-
fen to an interview with a
grad student from UBC
talking about the feeding
habits of a Western
Grebe, and then round
out the hour with
“Definitely not the Sports”
and the musical stylings
of a folk band from
Ontario, that you would
never heard on one of the
local mainstream _sta-
tions.

Radio 2 is a different
matter. The slogan
“Classics and beyond,”
explains their program-
ming. The music played
on Radio 2 is diverse; fol-
Montreal
Symphony with a string
quartet from South Africa
is not something usually

O'Reilly. They may all
come from different
backgrounds but it is
obvious that they are
friends and enjoy each
other’s company.

Going to see Out of
Alba is like hanging out
with a bunch of your
friends: the music is
good, nobody takes
themselves too serious-
ly, and everyone has a
good time. From time to
time the members of the
band (especially Alan
and Tom) would even
tease each other. Tom’s
rendition of one of
Gordon Lightfoot's hits
was especially for Alan,
because as Tom intro-
duced it, “I've been trying
to sneak in a Gordon
Lightfoot song for years,
but Alan has always
stopped me. He missed
a practice.”

The atmosphere at

seen. While stopped a
light this summer, |
watched the woman in
the car beside me stare
at my truck with a puzzled
smile and then tum her
radio dial until she found
Radio 2 and the sympho-
ny | was listening to.

Now | suppose that | am
not the only person in the.
world who has tumed off
the local radio stations in
disgust after listening to
the same song three
times in an hour, or
flipped the dial to try and
find something different. |
found the CBC (actually it
was a radio play), and so
have many others. When
an unofficial poll was
taken in one of my class-
es, almost half of the stu-
dents admitted to listen-
ing to CBC on a semni-
regular basis.

CBC is strictly very
Canadian, there are no
commercials, and the
programming is both fun
and informative. | just
love the CBC.

Galitas was perfect for
Out of Alba. With local art
on the walls and a com-
pact environment,
Galitas was the perfect
venue for this perfor-
mance and as they usu-
ally do, Galitas supplied
a specialized menu tai-
lored specifically for Out
of Alba.

A concert with Out of
Alba is guaranteed to be
a good time, and perfect
for a student budget with
tickets only being $10
each. Look for more per-
formances by Out of
Alba in the future, they
are going to be playing
Galitas on New Year's
Eve and may perform
here at UNBC in the
future.

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