Review: Tiger rocks with ‘life’ music

Joelle Schumacher
Staff Writer
May 6, 2004, Page 5

They sang. They played. They told jokes. In short, life in general’s performance last Thursday in Tiger Inn was stellar.
After Doane band howie&scott – senior Chris “Howie” Howard and junior Scott Morris – opened the evening, life in general took over the stage. They played a couple of soft rock selections before the two men – Jason LeVasseur and Jerry Chapman – introduced themselves as a band from Greensboro, N.C.
The duo quickly launched into several faster-beat songs that had audience members bobbing their heads and tapping their toes. Between songs, LeVasseur made several comments about “The Doane Owl” and Chapman mentioned that, last time they were here, he remembered that the KDNE was nicknamed “The Kidney.”
The men’s warm voices blended well with the variety of instruments that they used. They both started on acoustic guitars, but LeVasseur soon moved on to play drums borrowed from howie&scott and Chapman switched off to play banjo for a couple songs.
Their talent on the assortment of instruments was amazing. The two smoothly transitioned from one to another, just as easily as they did from faster beats to slower songs.
The pair seemed to enjoy themselves, as did the small audience. Chapman and LeVasseur interjected off-the-wall lyrics spontaneously taken from posters on the wall or things that they had commented on between songs earlier in the show. The resulting songs had audience members laughing out loud at times. Other times, listeners were singing along with the lyrics because life in general has made several appearances at Doane.
To close the show, howie&scott joined life in general for a medley of songs including “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper and “Hey Ya” by OutKast. They blended well and almost the whole audience was singing along to the foursome spur-of-the-moment encore.
As people wandered in and out of Tiger Inn during the show, LeVasseur and Chapman greeted newcomers and said goodbye to those who left. Only around 15 people were at the show at any point, which did not do the duo justice. This great band played for more than one and a half hours and deserved better attendance.