ELECTRIFIES

The Beatles and Pink Floyd are legends of rock music that can make even the coldest of hearts sing along to their music. For students in Joseph Baldassarre’s rock history class it is more than just music, such musings are their course work. "Well [the class is] called rock music: its history and performance," Baldassaree said. "We start with the prelude to rock music and we try to get as far as we can. In this particular case, we got to the ’70s. The last thing we covered was progressive rock, which goes beyond the ’70s. Since then we have been working on this project." The project he is referring to is the class’s rock band, Electric Havoc. Electric Havoc will perform a cover of the Beatles. "We are doing music from their entire career, starting with 1963 and going right to the 1970s when they broke up, Baldassarre said. "Once the students are in the class, we see who is there and what talents they have. Then we formulate a bunch of projects. Our last two projects were Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ and the expose on the Beatles. The students and a lot of people we interviewed thought the Beatles would be a better project." Baldassarre said the name Electric Havoc was kind of put together last minute. "First time we did the class, as we were getting close to the performance, the group decided they should have a name," he said. "Every band has a name. That is the name we came up with. Havoc because it was thrown together in not very much time and electric because most of these people are not used to playing electrically. So it seemed like a pretty appropriate name." "It was a fun name. Since that first time, the name has always been Electric Havoc. You can only take the class once, so there has never been any member that has come back, except for me." Electric Havoc wasn’t a planned project for Baldassarre’s class. Instead, a series of encounters shaped the professor’s course. "The first time the class was offered I wasn’t expecting to do a performance," he said. "I was in the halls, heading to the class. One of the students saw me carrying a bunch of records. I told the student what I was doing and they made a snide remark about the lack of skill needed to play that kind of music. So I thought it might be a good experience to see that there is no such thing as easy or difficult music. There is just music. And it’s all just about equal. There is good material in classical music and there is bad material in classical music. There is good material in rock music and there is bad material in rock music." Baldassarre feels the rock class is very important to music students. "Most of the students in the Music Department have had little to no experience with rock music, little to no experience performing electrically, little to no experience playing an instrument and singing at the same time," he said. "These are all skills that I think they should experience at least once in their lives." Students like Jessie Youngblood, a music education major, relish in the chance to learn about and perform such an influential type of music. "It is nice for me, I am a classical violinist," she said. "So I don’t really get a whole lot of opportunity to play in a rock band. So that has been nice. I enjoy rock music; it’s fun stuff. It gives me a chance to do some keyboard and sing a little and write quartet parts for a rock band." Youngblood is eager to get out and play with Electric Havoc. "It is fun music," she said. "I play violin and trumpet, so they’re not really rock-band instruments. So I played a lot on violin and trumpet. I haven’t played a lot on keyboard in a concert. Or sang vocals in a concert, so that should be interesting. I grew up listening to the Beatles and luckily we are doing a Beatles concert. I am really familiar with the music. It is not something that I am going to have to strive to learn really quick." Youngblood commented on rumor she heard about the class being cut. "I wish they would keep this class. Dr Baldassarre is an amazing professor. It is really sad if they were going to cut it." Electric Havoc will perform their expose on the Beatles in the recital hall of the Morrison Center Thursday, Dec. 11. Admission is free for students.

JULIAN RODRIGUEZ
Arbiter Journalist

Related Posts:

1. Tesla melts faces in Boise
2. Tesla to tear up the Knitting Factory
3. Bird flies into Boise
4. Boise Philharmonic to channel classic Vienna
5. Medieval music arrives via Academy of St. Giles