I Remember Scorgies

Mutabaruka, May 24 1983

August 16, 2008 in My Favorite Shows, National Acts by ds | No comments

One of My Favorite Shows – Mutabaruka, May 25 1983

Jamaican dub poet, Mutabaruka, came to Rochester in support of his first album,”Check It”. His band was a collection of crack JA session players led by noted drummer Benbow Creary.

His style was a bit confrontational, lecturing the chattering audience between songs on subjects like apartheid & slavery, but as the sound clip will show, it was the real deal roots-wise. Paul reminded me that he entered the club & walked up onto the stage barefoot.

Personal Effects opened the show and Mutabaruka’s keyboard player borrowed Peggi’s keyboard. The track offered here is a killer version of “Angolan Invasion”.

Scorgies was a great sounding room for reggae as the clip will show. Its a pity more of the Jamaican acts passing by to Toronto didn’t get in there.

If anyone has good pix of the show, email them to me & I’ll post ’em info@click2vu.com

Duane

Mutabaruka Live at Scorgies
[audio:http://www.click2vu.com/scorgieMp3s/AngolanInvasion.mp3]

Tags: Duane Sherwood, Mutabaruka, Personal Effects.

THE RAMONES – May 9, 1985

August 16, 2008 in My Favorite Shows, National Acts by ds | 7 comments

One of My Favorite Shows – THE RAMONES – May 9, 1985

The place was oversold & packed tight, you couldnt squeeze another drop of sweat into the room. One of those shows that, if there’d been a fire everyone would have been a goner. Hot as hell inside, and once they went on the whole place just exploded into moshing & surfing under massive blasts of Red White & Blue light.

It was the Too Tough to Die Tour, which was considered a comeback album of theirs in the 80s. They had just played town a few months earlier, opening for Billy Idol at the War Memorial. Richie was drumming then, and thats a part of their career that gets overlooked. For my money he was the closest thing to Tommy.

They played like a fury and the body to body compression was so severe that it kept jamming my Walkman recorder. Only 3 songs survived on tape & I’m presenting 2 of them here: Blitzkrieg Bop and Rock & Roll Radio

If you want to get a sense of how crowded it was, compare the audience here with the other clips. Unbelievable.

If anyone has pix from this show, email them to me & I’ll post ’em. info@click2vu.com

Duane

RAMONES Live at Scorgies

[audio:http://www.click2vu.com/scorgieMp3s/BlitzkreigBop_Rock_n_RollRadio.mp3]

Tags: Duane Sherwood, RAMONES

Willie 'Loco' Alexander & the Confessions

August 16, 2008 in My Favorite Shows, National Acts by ds | 4 comments

One of My Favorite Shows – Willie ‘Loco’ Alexander & the Confessions, February 1982

It was chilly February of 1982 when Willie Loco & the Confessions heated up the Scorgies basement. A full house of fans who knew many of his songs, thanks in part to the repeated airplay of his catalog by Roger McCall & Kevin Patrick on the late nite ‘CMF show – Import Export.

Loco & his Boom Boom Band had played the area once before, opening for Elvis Costello in Brockport a few years earlier. Yet audience appreciation for him was so high that he received a standing ovation as he entered the club & made his way thru to the back stairs up to the dressing room.

The Confessions featured Loco’s former bandmate from his early days in The Lost, Walter Powers. It was good raucous show, loud but poorly lit (don’t blame me, I was shooting the video).

The youtube clip posted here is from the beginning of the show, the tail end of “Bebop a Lula” into “Home Is” With its great lyric “home is where the heart is, home is where the soft is”.

This messy tape should remind everyone why its so much better to record in todays digital age.

Duane