Gusto 1980-1981

  I always thought these underappreciated guys from Pittsburgh deserved better. Sept. 15, 1980  Iron City's Thunder Draws Trickle of Fans          Pittsburgh's Iron City Houserockers dropped in on their blue-collar cousins in Buffalo Sunday night, but less than 100 showed up at Harvey and Corky's Stage One in Clarence for a round of bar-mill boogie.          Nevertheless, the Houserockers didn't skimp on their delivery. They blazed as hot as an open hearth with all the workingman's anguish of their highly acclaimed second album, "Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive)."          Like Bruce Springsteen, they want to beat the death trap while they're young, but they're beyond running. They stand their bitter ground, snatching liberation from the pain of love and wisdom from the daily grind of hard work and hard drinking.        ...

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...