Gusto 1980-1981

A hot weather bonanza. Sept. 5, 1980 Western New York Musicians Churn Out Records Over the Summer Record releases from Western New York keep coming at a brisk clip. The past six weeks have seen seven new singles and two albums. One album is jazz pianist Richard Shulman’s wonderful “Wonder,” reviewed here a few issues ago. The other comes from Fargo, N.D., in Soft Thunder’s “Volume 1” (Coliseum Records PS-1YQ2 Fargo, N.D.), which introduces a quintet that includes brothers Tim and Pete Bristol from Niagara Falls. A band that’s successful in Fargo has to aim for an adult contemporary vein when they rock and that’s exactly where Soft Thunder is at. Most of their 10 original tracks are mellow romance, not too far from Christopher Cross, come to think of it. Same for their cover tunes – the Supremes’ “Back in My Arms” again and Jay and the Techniques’ 1967 hit, “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie.” Better than the average group of this sort, they even do a send-up of the Dirt Band...

  Second appearance in five months here for Chrissie Hynde and her original band. And just as memorable. Aug. 28, 1980 review Fans of Red-Hot Rock Get Real Thing From Pretenders          The Pretenders explode onto the stage in Uncle Sam's in Cheektowaga Wednesday night, quickening every heartbeat in the huge, hot, crowded room as they race into their defiant "Precious."          The sweaty, sell-out audience is on its feet, or perched on every available vantage point, bobbing to the beat. They cheer lustily as American-born singer and guitarist Chrissie Hynde spits out the song's most famous line -- "I'm too precious, **** off!" -- a message repeated on a select few of the Festival East staff's T-shirts.          "We're really packed in like sardines tonight," Hynde remarks as they finish the second song, "Kid," their newly-released single. "That's wh...

It felt like we lost a little piece of our collective soul when Brian Wilson died last week. "God Only Knows," which Paul McCartney described as the "greatest song ever written," has been bouncing around in my head ever since. I've taken in several Beach Boys concerts over the years, but I got to see Brian in person only once, when the group stopped here in Buffalo as winter was receding 43 years ago. March 30, 1982 review Beach Boys Discover Endless Summer on the Wane When Carl Wilson left the Beach Boys a year ago to pursue a solo career, he said he would come back when the band was ready to do more than relive the past. Carl, who formed the core of the group with his brothers Brian and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love and old friend Al Jardine, was conspicuously absent with the kings of surf rock swung their 20th anniversary tour into Kleinhans Music Hall for two near-sellout shows Monday night. With Carl away, the remaining Beach Bo...

  Before and after the Heatwave Festival Aug. 22, 1980 Gusto Events and Openings The essence of New Wave rock is quite the opposite of the peace-love-Woodstock syndrome that buoyed up the psychedelic era of the late '60s. The new rock is intense, ironic and very much the creature of small, seedy nightspots. As a result, it took the organizers of Saturday's Heatwave Festival in Ontario's Mosport Park better than two months to convince booking agents that a large-scale outdoor New Wave rock show could happen. Then they had to convince the bands. "The bands were interested," says Larry Weinstock, one of the principals in First Festival Productions in Toronto, "but they all held back to see what the other bands would do. They'd say if so-and-so commits themselves, then we'll commit. Some of the contracts guarantee that certain other bands will perform. Finally, Elvis Costello was the first one to jump in. Then came the B-52s and then Ni...

A hot August night with a couple of legends in the making. See the Footnote. Aug. 15, 1980 Gusto review Tot Rocket and the Twins, plus an early glimpse of Pauline and the Perils at Gabel's Like emissaries returned from faraway places, Tot Rocket and the Twins gave their New Wave debriefing to a hot and hearty crowd of about 200 in Gabel's Bar on Hertel Avenue Thursday night. It's been about three years since these one-time Amherst residents headed east to seek their fortunes and now that they've put out a single and gathered a few favorable fanzine and radio notices, they had stuff to show the old hometown. After several seasons of getting it together in Connecticut, they plunged into New York City's club scene last month. The seasoning showed around their eyes – guitarists Robert Poss and Andrew Halbreich having darkened their sockets for a somewhat depraved and degenerate effect – and in their cool stage manners, which struck a contrast to ...

Two more power pop hopefuls that popped for an instant and then fizzled. Aug. 8, 1980 Gusto review The Records and Quincy at Uncle Sam's "Too bad they aren't still backing Rachel Sweet," Dave Meinzer of the former Davy and the Crocketts remarked as the Records dashed offstage in Uncle Sam's in Cheektowaga Thursday night. The Records provided eminently superb support for the teenage belter from Akron, Ohio, on the Stiff Records roadshow tour in 1978. They're miles ahead of Sweet's current band, but even though they're seizing the spotlight for themselves now, they're still struggling to shed their chameleon-like anonymity. Their current set restated the problem. Despite the solid quality of their harmonies. the power of their arrangements and two albums worth of creditable material, the quartet suffered from a certain sameness of delivery. Every song had a way of sounding pretty much like the last. It was in their ...