 DON'T BLUSH CAESER PINK AND CREW TICKLE WITH CONTROVERSY - by Mark Correa - January 18, 1994 In a town where a "Brady Bunch" dance seems like a good idea and a decent non-cover band is a rare treat, Caeser Pink and The Imperial Orgy stands out like a blazing beacon of originality in the musical darkness that is State College. From a live show with costumes, dancers and videos projected on a screen, to being banned from a bar in Lewistown, this band gives hope to those who have been searching for real rock 'n' roll. "We're not out there just to play music, we're there to put on a show," said keyboardist Dave Surreal. "Our main goal is to shake things up." And they do that well. No rock band is complete without a controversy in its past and Caeser Pink is no exception. Last September, one of the band's shows was cancelled when religious groups threatened to protest if the Log Cabin Inn, a Lewistown-area bar, let the group play. "We started getting calls about two weeks before (the show) from churches saying they'd protest outside the bar," said Theresa Dubendorf, the head of booking for the Inn. Dubendorf cancelled the show when the bar began receiving anonymous phone calls from people threatening to riot if the band played. "The church..got a letter from a priest saying (the band members) were devil worshippers," she said. But Dubendorf said she heard later that the band members themselves sent the letter for publicity. Caeser Pink, frontman for the band, denied writing the letter. "Even if I did, I couldn't admit to that," Pink said. "They imagine that we carried out the whole thing, but we didn't." Dubendorf later received a letter from a church thanking her for not letting the band play. "I figured it was probably them guys from the band again," she said. "The incident in Lewistown will keep them from playing at the Inn again, Dubendorf said, but it doesn't seem to bother the employees at Stoney's Post House Tavern, 146 N. Atherton St., a local bar where the band will be playing at 10PM tomorrow. One employee, who wouldn't give his name, said the incident doesn't really matter but "it might increase our business." In Lewistown, the band was accused of "'Imitating sex on stage,' which sometimes happens, but it doesn't matter, and «handing out drugs to the audience,' but we can't afford that" according to Pink. They may not go that far, but the band does put on quite a show. The band - Pink, Surreal, Jamaican-born drummer Mhina Dada, bass player (and only non-film major) Ron Boi, guitarist Michael ("I don't like people who don't like mayo") Mordes and backup singers/dancers Samantha D. and L.A. Verbeque - certainly is not out to make friends with any fundamentalists. From Boi wearing next to nothing with glowing paint splattered across his body and Surreal being covered in blinking Christmas tree lights, to video clips of Ronald Reagan shown along with pornographic films and Elvis flashing behind the band, it's safe to say the show is a bit bizarre. The primary focus of the band's show is the high-powered funk/Don't Blush - The Daily Collegianmusical hybrid, but the video clips projected onto a screen behind the band, as well as the dance and costumes, are also a big part of it. The multimedia presentation the band uses stems in a large part from the fact that six of the seven band members were film majors at the University, Surreal said. "We were taught not to be literal, but to be abstract with our images," he said. Pink said he believes ideas can get across better with the "visual thing." "Sometimes a dunce cap on the head just says so much," he said. The band expects to have a compact disc out by summer and hopes to move to New York and find bigger audiences in August. And although the band members obviously enjoy playing, Surreal, for one, has set some lofty yet characteristic goals. "If I could see God, have an orgasm, and have people tearing down the stage at once, I'd be satisfied," he said. |