Bright Eyes? More like, there is poop in my eyes. Luckily, I came to the show last Sunday in disguise: Life & Art credentials, a pair of trusty black plastic-framed glasses, low top Chuck Taylors, and a classic, pretentious “scenester” attitude. I slipped into the enemy’s lair undetected; plus, I still had money to get drunk. But wait, they don’t sell beer. What a waste of the Sabbath. Bright Eyes, known in my circle as Donkey’s Ass, farted on stage for a good chunk of my Sunday night. I thought I was here to see a rock show, but instead, I was treated to a poor rendition of a high school band recital. Connor’s “rock opera” did little to stir excitement in my pelvic region, especially since I was confined to seats. Every word that came from the little prick’s mouth resulted in a massive uproar of laughter from the audience. I woke up after the fifth song and walked out of the show, expecting to find colleagues of similar tastes outside the venue, talking dung about the band. Nope. With the crowd safely seated at bay from the band, I didn’t have a clean shot to hit the lead singer in the head with my shoe. Trust me, I would have and become a hero for the ten people left in this city who still care about the values of rock. If you honestly liked this concert, you must either: A. Be a pointdexter, B. a XX chromosome under the age of fifteen or C. the mother of one of the band members. The “cred” this child actor has received has all gone to his noggin’. I must admit he has a wonderful gift, but it’s not yet developed to the level he may think it has. Throwing 15 people on stage does not equal a good rock concert – it just equals hundreds of little girls and wimps saying that it was.

Dan Ruth can be reached at druth@chorus.net.

Hailed as the “next big thing” in Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, Bright Eyes’ Connor Oberst performed last Sunday at Miami’s Manuel Airtime Theatre with a 15-piece orchestra. Is he worth the full-blown hype he’s been receiving? I can answer that with an astounding “yes.”

Due to the “orchestra feel” of the tour, the venue was hand-picked by the band. The plush, comfy seats were filled to nearly full-capacity with patrons wearing thick-rimmed glasses, in both the downstairs and balcony sections.

Noteworthy opener M. Ward has been alongside Bright Eyes for the entire tour. Ward plays an amazing guitar with slap techniques usually exemplified by only the most experienced bassists. His music would be classified by most as “melodic folk.” It was relaxing, and a nice compliment to the Bright Eyes tour. Oberst himself accompanied M. Ward for one song on vocals and guitar.

When the lights dimmed for Bright Eyes, several people crowded near the front but were quickly instructed to sit. This was an effort to keep the “orchestra atmosphere.” 12 musicians came out momentarily, and shuffled around as they played a variety of instruments including the baritone, cello, slide guitar (with e-bow), trumpet, violin, flute, harmonica, bass guitar, three percussionists, banjo, keyboard, oboe, and vibes. Then the music prodigy appeared -with two bottles of Rolling Rock, his guitar, and a quite obvious buzz.

He played a plethora of songs, both old and new. During one amusing moment, he forgot the words to a song and sought refuge from his band mates. He was quickly set straight and sent back to the mic. Between each song, at least one swig of Rolling Rock was poured down his throat.

But despite the intoxication, the emotion in his music was undiluted. Bright Eyes has some of the most amazing lyrics out there right now. He’s not just bitching about a girl (although there is the occasional song about relationships) – he deals with other issues that face our generation. Some of the songs were so powerful they ran chills down my spine.

As they played the last chord of their set and began to exit the stage, the crowd clearly desired more. The applause and cheering lasted a solid five minutes before Connor came back on stage with just a drummer and a bassist. The remaining audience crowded up to the front of the stage as he played two songs. The last two songs of the encore were performed with the entire band.

He ended powerfully with “Kathy with a K” off of Oh Holy Fools!, a split with Son, Ambulance, another act on the Saddle Creek records label. Connor then “stumbled” off the stage with his Rolling Rock in tow.

For more info: www.saddlecreek.com.

Kira Wisniewski can be reached at kira@punks.net.

A string of cars lines the street, ready to escort people to the funeral of a young girl. When her father settles into a car with his wife and would-be son-in-law, loud rock music plays and the driver quickly turns it off. The father simply asks him to drive, while the son-in-law tries to hold back laughter. From the backseat, the dead girl’s mother reaches to the front and cranks up the music, which accompanies them on their ride to the cemetery.

This early scene sets the stage perfectly for the rest of Moonlight Mile. It’s about a mother, father and their daughter’s fiance, and how they mourn the loss of their only child in the most unconventional of ways.

The mother, JoJo Floss, played by Susan Sarandon, throws self-help books like These Things Happen and Grieving for Grownups into the fire. She’s a writer who has trouble finding motivation after her daughter is murdered.

Dustin Hoffman portrays the father, Ben Floss, in an awesome performance that just begs for Outbreak to be locked in cinema’s quarantine chamber. He devotes his days to a real estate business, leaving little time to deal with his loss.

Indie-flick commoner Jake Gyllenhaal is the main character, Joe Nast. He was engaged to the girl before she was murdered, and is now living with her parents. He tosses and turns in his bed at the Floss’s home, struggling with weird dreams. He lazily agrees to partner Ben in his real estate business, despite no interest in the field and no prior experience. He’s simply lost without his fiance and his only real motivation throughout most of the film is to not upset her parents, whom he likes.

The saddest part of Moonlight Mile is the story behind it. Writer/director Brad Silberling based much of his screenplay on his own life. He was dating actress Rebecca Schaeffer when she was murdered in 1989, and he grew close to her parents after her death. Moonlight Mile is his first attempt at writing, and it is certainly a successful one, despite some shortcomings.

Silberling’s own experiences are much sadder than the actual film. For a movie whose trailer looks like it could make Vin Diesel bawl in the aisles, the finished product doesn’t have the timing and tempo necessary to evoke emotional reactions in most people. Overly-sensitive girls are still going to cry, of course, but most guys won’t be holding back the tears on this one.

Moonlight Mile is pretty unique in that it bypasses the opportunity for a cheap tearful moment when it doesn’t show the girl’s death or even the family’s reaction to finding out that she’s dead. It starts with the grieving period, which makes it rely heavily on the acting performances from Sarandon, Hoffman and Gyllenhaal.

Hoffman is superb as Ben, the sensible one of the trio, always thinking about the proper thing to do. If his role were a little smaller he might have garnered a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but his performance will likely be overshadowed by this winter’s sure-thing lineup to garner a Best Actor nom.

Sarandon is solid as JoJo, the perfect counter to Ben’s logical persona. She says what she means and holds nothing back. Joe is able to be honest with her, while he is still afraid of how Ben might react.

Gyllenhaal gives another strong performance as Joe, although this one doesn’t stand out as much as his roles in Donnie Darko and The Good Girl. Still, it’s nice to see him in a respectable mainstream role. His next film will be Roland Emmerich’s action thriller The Day After Tomorrow. Hopefully, Gyllenhaal’s cashing in on that one, because if it’s anything like Emmerich’s last project, Eight Legged Freaks, he’s going to need the money to buy himself a new career.

Shawn Wines can be reached at shawnwines@aol.com.

This weekend is looking rather sharp for Miami’s indie rock scene. On Sunday, we have Q and Not U launching their danceable D.C. punk sound at Churchill’s Pub; but before that, on Saturday, Bellini aims to pull an abstract meltdown over our sunny shoulders at POPLIFE, 35 NE 40 St.. Jambi would advise you to fly over the one-keg fatty islands and go drink your suds in front of live music that will, at the very least, transfer you from Bud Light shallowness into deeper waters sojourned by chicks in black T-shirts.

Bellini is offbeat, but incredibly on. The band consists of two Sicilians – guitarist Agostino Tilotta and vocalist Giovanna Cacciola (members of the band Uzeda), alongside bassist Matthew Taylor and much-revered drummer Damon Che. An ex-member of the reputable art rock outfit Don Caballero, Che has been noted for his chaotic, yet, meticulous precision and scholarly (though some past acquaintances might label it “incorrigible”) dedication. Bellini’s first LP, Snowing Sun, is produced by, drum roll please, Steve Albini (Nirvana’s In Utero, The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa etc). Judging from the three MP3s on Bellini’s website, Cacciola’s vocals haunt drugged territory roamed by the Deal Sisters and Salt, while Che and company construct fractured music that keeps you sifting for a way in. For more info visit www.epoplife.com and www.snowingsun.com.

This is a Life & Art interview with Che.

Q: So how’s the tour going so far?
CHE: Interesting. It’s been full of surprises actually. I guess things change so much over time, so you can never really count on things that used to be great, being great, and sometimes you’re surprised by a great set. I really like playing Florida myself.

Q: What was the Touch & Go scene like in 1993, right around when Don Caballero recorded For Respect with Steve Albini?
CHE: There’s less hard rock today than there was back then. I think a lot of people decided they grew up or something like that – that it was just kids’ stuff and they were all sophisticated. At any age you can make any kind of music, I think it’s silly to limit it. I was in a band with people who pretended they were into this new course of gentleness. For me it’s in my blood, I’ve got to fucking rock. It’s a blessing and a curse. I like all types of music, but if you’re going to put me behind a drum set, it’s not going to be mellow.

Q: Was Albini influential in hooking everyone up for Bellini?
CHE: He’s a friend and a preferred engineer for recording, but I wouldn’t say that we do what we do because of him to any extent. We like his work, so we recorded with him.

Q: How did you become acquainted with Agostino and Giovanna?
CHE: Agostino is a very unique concert promoter in Italy. He’s the type of booking agent that gets in the van with the band and goes with them to the show. He booked Don Cab in Italy, so he was there in the van. I’m also a fan of Uzeda (Agostino and Giovanna’s other band).

Q: In Bellini’s press kit it says that you play drums like an “eight armed octopus.” How do you feel about this statement?
CHE: Um, yeah. I fill up more space and find more texture patterns to put over top of one another than your average trap-set player. Whoever came up with the octopus thing was probably trying to describe this.

Q: When you played with Don Cab in Miami how were the fans?
CHE: I can’t remember because I’m an alcoholic and I drink so much – just kidding. If you go on tour these days, it’s just insane. I think there are more mediocre, half-baked bands out there than ever before, and they all have a record or a burnt CD – it’s a brigade of mediocrity.

Q: A lot of bands decide not to play in Miami because it’s such a long trek…
CHE: That’s bullshit. It’s nothing compared to being on tour and going from somewhere in South Dakota to Missoula, Montana. I don’t want to hear any band belly-aching about how far south Miami is.

Q: How do you feel about bands that consider themselves disco punk/electroclash?
CHE: Oh, you mean, “electroshock.” I’ve only read about it, but I hope it’s more than some dogshit shtick with people who have goofy clothing. Maybe I’m square. Are Yeah Yeah Yeahs considered electroshock?

Q: They’re garage revival. That band seems like they’re just selling sex…
CHE: Selling sex? I think they’re selling some barely passable, semi-attractive chick pouring beer all over herself and saying, “I’m pouring beer all over myself, look how crazzzzy I am, I’m crazzzzzy.”

Hunter Stephenson can be reached at hurricaneaccent@hotmail.com.

Art that steps across boundaries-e.g. creative experimentation involving multifaceted installations, peculiar video conceptions or digital, computerized “paintings”-have set the stage for the present-day, burgeoning avant-garde scene. Seldom does one see traditional canvases, photographs or sculptures that haven’t been modernized by the refurbishing of technology. So, is old-fashioned art outdated? Perhaps. The Biennial 2002 exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York in the past summer, which surveyed the “best” in American art during this year, showcased mostly mixed-media pieces and cutting-edge installations, such as two robotized silicone human heads that ponder existential questions, speaking and responding to each other.

Back here in Miami, artist Bhakti Baxter’s solo exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art slides down this up-to-the-minute avant-garde pathway, but strays from technological innovations to produce his works (besides one video piece), and rather utilizes natural as well as man-made materials and an organic working method (such as growing a vegetable or letting his other work evolve on-site at the MoCA) to produce innovative, offbeat creations, Baxter places, for instance, a fully blossomed broccoli flower in a watered glass jar to demonstrate the splendor of a plant whose beauty may be overlooked or relate the corporal connectivity of the broccoli’s body structure to that of other natural elements such as a tree with its bare trunk and dynamic, exploding foliage on top. This vegetable “sculpture” does challenge how we perceive aesthetics, but really, a broccoli flower as a successful piece of art?

A co-founder of one of Miami’s alternative art space, The House, Baxter seems to want to portray here the relationship between nature’s cadences and growth patterns with human rhythms and our affiliation with center and space within our surroundings. This is largely conveyed in his most engaging piece (which might attract your attention first because of its sizeable dominance in the showroom) entitled “An intelligible sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference is nowhere.” It’s composed of white round plaster balls, each separately stuck against a wall in a round circumference, the bigger spheres on the perimeter encircling the smaller ones as they advance towards the center. Though each round ball is a center itself, it becomes tricky for the viewer to find the true center of the piece since there isn’t a ball in the focal point, which is disorienting, but all the more stimulating for the eye. The obtruding white balls from an equally white wall help to accentuate the effect.

In the subsequent room, Baxter’s “INFINITE (video feedback)” shows a continuous loop of a blue spot transfiguring into disparate formations. The distortions gradually hypnotize the eye and the video does communicate a feeling of perpetuity as the transformations incessantly continue and entrance your body into a spacey daze, but soon enough your eyeballs will tear and you’ll make your way out and catch a glimpse of “Blueprint” crafted from a blue chalk snap line across a large white wall. The work is geometric, with a carefully constructed star outline, which would presumably be on the center of the line, but is located on the left, leaving the onlooker to mull over the intangibility of the center. The thin blue lines, however, feel empty and dull and, while the message of the piece is provocative, the design itself is lackluster.

The three more “traditional” pieces, consisting of the “Non-human sentient series (spider-web),” are close-up color photographs of spider webs entangled in vegetation and shrubbery. The prints have colorful green, blonde and olive hues and the proximity to the subject is conducive to the viewer’s understanding of the intricacy of this obscure environment, that of a meticulous arachnidan engineer. Simple details in the shots are charming, such as crusted, old fallen leaves that get ensnared within the web, yet the eye isn’t engrossed in these shots because something seems to be missing.

Even if Baxter’s “Brocoflower” exposes the beauty of plants and that we may ignore that something we eat can have the same liveliness as a blooming flower, it fails to absorb the audience as would a vibrant, forceful painting, for example. And this is occasionally true of other avant-garde works (though the broccoli is the weakest piece in the show). Progressionists may argue for this forward-thinking, experimental approach to new art, yet the line between innovation and significant creativity (i.e. art that disseminates their messages to the vastest pool of people it can) is sometimes becoming much too blurry.

The exhibit is on view at MoCA through November 17. Call 305-893-6211 for more info.

Omar Sommereyns can be reached at SOASIS@aol.com

When the word “Dischord” exits someone’s lips in a conversation about music, the conversation instinctively flips into solemn, survival mode. When the Dischord “logo” pops up randomly in a record shop, I tend to question the CDs competing for my mind and crumpled cash. Dischord Records’ name has become a synonym for “hard work” and “respect.” It recently released a three-disc set documenting its 20th anniversary – 20 years of sincere, quality DIY punk music. Dischord’s records are listened to worldwide, yet the label remains 100 percent independent. Its roster embodies artists in their ideal’ but quite real form. This is simply what “punk” is – a spirited antithesis of the $30,000 “modern punk rock” displayed on our UC patio last Friday.

Q and Not U’s second album, Different Damage, is set for release later this month on Dischord Records. It is filled with songs that snatch the rug out from under all of the bullshit and dance up a storm upon a clean new floor. Speed up the French Kicks and let them marinate in the influence of D.C. punk, and you have something that passes for Q and Not U in a wax museum. For the real McCoy, see them play Sunday night at Churchill’s Pub, 5501 NE 2nd Ave. The show is 18+ with a cheap cover. For more info visit www.qandnotu.org and www.dischord.com.

This is a Life & Art interview with Q and Not U’s guitarist/vocalist Harris Klahr (striped shirt) .

Q: Can you explain the dance aspect in the band’s work?
QNU: We’ve had an interest in dance music forever, and I think it was itching to get out. The catalyst was a “jammin’ oldies” station in DC that we always listened to. It played a lot of music that we knew from growing up, but we began to appreciate it more and more, and that spurred an interest into disco, funk records and then Afro Beat stuff. We’re into lots of bombastic and dynamic types of music.

Q: Since your music combines funk, disco and punk, what do you make of the “electroclash” scene and the New York bands that are encompassed by it?
QNU: I like that kind of dance music, and I always have, because it reminds me of my childhood. But all of a sudden it’s “electroclash” and it has a title, not that I necessarily blame the bands. It’s basically that way because the major media outlets are in New York, and most of the electroclash bands are from there, so anything from New York is great and has super relevance.

Q: How does it feel to be included on the 20 Years of Dischord box set? Now your music is in a piece of punk history.
QNU: It’s pretty…it blew my mind to be on there. It feels a little strange though, because we’re the only kind of newer band that’s on there, so we end up being the little “…” at the end of it. Just from talking to Ian and the bands on there, you realize that they’re just people, they’re not gods. You realize that it’s the everyday people around you who are the ones doing really amazing things.

Q: Ian MacKaye (Dischord’s founder, founder of Fugazi and Minor Threat) and Don Zientara produced and engineered your last two CDs -do you feel the records would have sounded different with other people on board?
QNU: Yeah, definitely. They foster a sense of calm and ease, and we’re a band that needs a firm hand on shoulders to guide us through the process. They’re both such incredible students of music, and it’s great to have them there.

Q: Does Ian dance to your music?
QNU: Yeah, he dances to our music, I guess. I think we’re a little too loud for him sometimes.

Q: Do you feel your music drives towards an abstract goal?
QNU: The one thing that we’d like to communicate is our personal excitement about the music, and we hope that it translates to the audience.

Q: Do you like to separate your political views from your creativity, or do you prefer meshing them together?
QNU: I think they’re together, in an abstract way. We get a lot of shit from people because of that. I kind of like to subvert what a song is supposed to be. You’ll never hear a hit song on the radio now that has a one and a half instrumental intro, and why is that, you know? A lot of bands that aren’t even pop, still go by certain formulas, and we we try to stray away from that.

Q: The band’s lyrics are like splashes of imagery. Do certain writers, poetry or drugs influence your writing in any way?
QNU: “Writers” [sic] is a tricky thing. A lot of my lyrics come from this experimental director Stan Brakhage, who does these non-linear, mostly silent films that are beautiful. He tries to reach the ideas that children have before they begin remembering things, and that had a huge effect on me, as a thinker first, and as a lyricist secondly. No one in the band uses drugs, but we’re not a straight-edge band, we’re just normal dudes.

Q: Do you feel that quality independent music in this country is on the rise or fall?
QNU: I think that it stays consistent. It’s the media coverage that is on the rise and fall. When I was a kid, I would get a new issue of Spin and read it like six times to absorb every nugget of information. Now, it really has no bearing on me.

Q: You guys parted with your bassist, Matt Borlik. What’s it like playing as a trio?
QNU: It’s great. It’s more direct musically, and it’s one less layer of democracy. The three of us are tighter than we’ve ever been, as people and as a band.

Hunter Stephenson can be reached at hurricaneaccent@hotmail.com.

Tonight
Pianist/songwriter Johnny Rogers performs at Christ The King Lutheran Church, 11295 SW 57th Ave, Miami, to benefit the Music Inside/OUT free concert series in March. Show starts at 8 p.m. and it’s $10. Call 305-235-9298.

Nuclear Valdez play the Factory, 2674 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, with guests Humbert. Call 954-566-6331.

Grand Prix Americas roars through the streets of downtown Miami all weekend long, starting today. Tickets run from $30-$100. Watch the speedometers hit overkill at over 200 mph if you got the stomach to handle it. 305-373-3333.

Treat your eye to colorful imagery with The Color of Time: Photographs of Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gomez, Silvia Lizama and Joe Tamargo at the Miami-Dade Public Library System: Main Library, 101 W. Flagler St. Call 305-375-2665.

Saturday, October 5
Monitor Records’ Bellini rips the stage for Poplife at Piccadilly Garden, 35 NE 40th St., Miami. $7 for ages 21 and up, $10 ages 18-20. Hit this shit up to hear some massive usage of accordions and keyboards-it might just blow your mind (and ears) away. 305-573-8221. Doors open at 11 p.m.

Beforehand, check out the listener party at Poplife for the new Jurassic 5 album, Power in Numbers. It starts at 9 p.m.

Train, who recently won a Grammy for their album Drops of Jupiter (we’re not sure why they deserved the award though), play the Bayfront Park Amphitheater, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, as part of the Grand Prix. You need tickets to the races to attend. Call 305-533-1033.

Sunday, October 6
Q and Not U serve their special brew of danceable punk music at Churchill’s, 5501 NE 2nd Ave., Miami. Don’t miss out ’cause you’ll be shaking your ass all night long if you go and it won’t be because of the beer swigging down your throat (though that might help too). 305-757-1807.

Tuesday, October 8
Stars Wars Episode II at the Cosford-time tba.

Thursday, October 10
Bassist Charlie Haden performs boleros at Coconut Grove Playhouse, 3500 Main Hwy. $20-$40. 305-442-4000.