07/20/2007

Rock violinist (really!) is home

Bobby Yang makes one stop in Traverse City

By GARRET ELLISON

gellison@record-eagfle.com

Bobby Yang

TRAVERSE CITY — Expect an unrivaled rearrangement of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Radiohead and Guns N' Roses when acoustic violinist Bobby Yang takes the anthems of rock royalty to new and "unpredictable” places at the Inside Out gallery in Traverse City.

Bobby Yang and the Unrivaled Players will play the gallery on Saturday at 8 p.m., Yang's second show in his home state in nearly a decade. The first was Thursday night at the Leelanau School in Glen Arbor.

"It's a kind of homecomIng,” said Yang, 31, who hails from the Upper Peninsula. "I haven't played in Michigan since I graduated high school.”

Yang's Unrivaled Players tour nationally, jamming out on songs like "Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin, "Eruption” by Van Halen, and "Creep” by Radiohead.

The band — upright double bass, acoustic guitar, drums and violin — perform instrumental jams that Yang says can go just about anywhere. No vocals, no sheet music or charts, just melody.

"One of the requirements for my band is that you be able to play by ear, on the spot and not get freaked out,” he said. ”

That improvisation can lead to a very unpredictable show.

"But it's also palatable,” he said. "And that's why we've chosen classic rock as our kind of staple food.”

Yang learned the violin at age 5 in Houghton, where his father taught at Michigan Tech University. He attended Interlochen briefly, and the Meadowmount School of Music, whose alumni includes renowned violinist Joshua Bell. Yang graduated from the University of Michigan with a master's degree in violin performance.

He spent "every summer since I could drive a car” in Aspen, Colo., woodshedding three hours nearly every night of the week on stage with the various rock and jam bands passing through.

"Within a few short years, I had the equivalent stage time experience as someone who lived in New York City for 10 years,” he said.

Yang was also a frequent soloist with symphony orchestras in Aspen, including a breakthrough Harris Concert Hall performance of Mozart's 3rd Violin Concerto with improvised cadenzas.

He plays with "an excellent classical fiddle,” and is fiddler in Kevin Costner's band, Modern West.

Touring with the Unrivaled Players, Yang said the audience spectrum runs from 5-year-olds to the elderly.

"I can say that we've had tables of senior citizens who don't even blink because they're mesmerized by the show ... and we're playing Black Sabbath,” he said.

"With a couple creative techniques, you can pretty much make any sound an electric guitar can make on a wooden violin,” he said. "But what's happening today, there's a handful of violin makers who are hawking these gimmicky devices like electric violins for thousands of dollars.”

It's taking the cheap way out, if you ask him. And it's the inspiration for the name of his latest album, "YANG IT! Live at Eddie's Attic” released last year.

"To 'Yang It' is the opposite of 'Wing it,'” he said. "It means to make every note count as if it were your last.”

The concert begins at 8 p.m. at the Inside Out Gallery on Garland Street in Traverse City. Tickets are $18. Call (231) 929-3254, or visit www.bobbyyang.com