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TAKES A LICKING, KEEPS ON TICKING

February 1, 2024 in Local Heroes, Your Stories by Stan | No comments

The rumors about the death of the Scorgies Blog are exactly that, rumors. Waay back when, I rescued the Scorgies blog from the pits of obscurity when the Bop Shop redid their website. Luckily, I had *just* backed up the site right before Tom’s webmaster sent the old site to the cornfield. Only problem was that, at the time, I didn’t own the scorgies.com domain. I did, however, own rockinrochester.com and so I ported the site over to that domain. Flash forward *many* years later and Jimmy Filingeri had launched Rockin’ Rochester Productions and I, being a loyal supporter of all things Rockin’ in Rochester, felt that rockinrochester.com should belong to his dealio…
That said, reuniting the Scorgies Blog with the scorgies.com domain was not easy. I’ve got over a 100 articles to sift through, fixing broken links and updating context in some. We’ve lost a few soldiers along the way, and some of us are worst for wear but hey, we are all rock’n’roll survivors.
So keep on keepin’ on, folks. If you need to take a break from social media, peruse the pages. Should you have any artifacts to share, pass them on to our crack team of editors and help us continue to tell the story of the Rochester Music Scene!

All of the content in the Scorgies Blog is user-submitted. If you aren’t seeing what you want to see, that means that someone hasn’t shared it with us.

In the meantime, here’s video of the late “Sunny” Boy Willis (AKA Syd the Kid, real name Sydney Willis Anderson Jr.), Scorgie’s non-Samoan Indigenous American bouncer and musician, seen here opening for Personal Effects:

Update! Whither Goest the Neighborhood, There Goest Thou or “Gentrify This!”

September 29, 2019 in All Things Must Pass, Gone But Not Forgotten, Your Stories by Stan | 1 comment

It was September of 1984 that my first band, The Invisible Party, opened for the Neats at Scorgies (remember them?). That gig was also, believe it or not, the first date I had with my wife Lynne. And here we are, Sunday September 29th, almost 35 years later and Lynne heard through the grapevine that the club’s venerable site on Andrews street was a “crumbling’ down” (please pardon the John “Cougar” Mellencamp reference, slight as it is), dashing all hopes that the club would ever find a new owner. More than a few good folks have left us over the past few years, some noted here, some not. Could the stage that so many have graced will be truly obliterated, never to return? This needed to be investigated!

Lynne and I stopped by this afternoon to take a few pictures of the demolition in process. While it wasn’t apparent at first, given the security gates surrounding the area, Scorgies was not being demolished… it was the building next door at 162 Andrews Street. Whew! I took a few pictures and it wasn’t till later, after reviewing Google street view, that Scorgies appeared to be untouched, albeit showing signs of age and a few cracks. So far, it looks like the “glimmer of hope” I was searching for in my previous post still exists. Who knows. The building lives on, empty as it stands right now, still full of grit, grease, grime and asbestos. Still, I’d like to to retrieve a piece of the old building for posterity’s sake, much like some Liverpudlian entrepreneurs have; just saw an Instagram ad touting fragments of a Cavern Club brick enclosed in acrylic selling for $29 each. Probably no such luck here!

Mementos? We got your mementos, right here in these pages. Plenty of memories from those days. Paul Dodd’s Polaroid pictures, Kodak memories from a ton of folks, posters and (thanks Duane) bootleg recordings. Tons of physical media that has been digitized and shared, as well as the ubiquitous posts on Facebook. I guess for now, thanks to the wrecking ball limiting itself to 162 Andrews Street, we still have the building that housed Scorgies

Hopefully that’s the end of the story for now… here’s a few pictures of the demolition that’s occurring next door:

Road Closed

Image 1 of 3

Couldn't enter the site, for obvious (safety) reasons

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Remembering Alex Chilton, or Oh My (Big) Stars and Garters

December 26, 2018 in My Favorite Shows, National Acts, Your Stories by Stan the Man | 1 comment

There are few performers who leave me gob smacked and slack-jawed in a  really fan-boy way. I can usually maintain an intelligent conversation with a singer/songwriter that I admire, but there are some that just leave me babbling like a fool, I’m such a fan. Alex Chilton was one of those performers.

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R.I.P. Pattie (Schmitz) Pelitera

November 21, 2013 in Uncategorized, Your Stories by Stan the Man | No comments

Targets with Patti Schmitz

Patti was the second vocalist for the Targets, a band started by former New Math bassist Robert Slide and guitarist Sue Metro. The Targets reunited at the Scorgies Reunion in 2008 and played a few songs as an adjunct to the New Math set. Patti had been battling cancer for a number of years and had been in and out of hospice for a few months in 2013.  Patti passed away on November 16th, 2013. Services were held at the Metropolitan Funeral Chapel in Rochester NY . Calling hours were held on Friday, November 22nd.

Henrietta: Nov. 16, 2013, age 52. Predeceased by parents & brother. Survived by husband, Chris; step-father, Irv; children, Jennifer (Charles), Catherine, Caleb, Justice & Noah; former husband, Randy; grandchildren; 8 siblings; many nieces & nephews. Trish will be greatly missed & loved by many.


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R.I.P. Tony "Mayhem" Gerardi

November 7, 2013 in Your Stories by Stan the Man | No comments

We’ve lost another Scorgies veteran, Tony Gerardi AKA Tony Mayhem. Tony was a vital part of the Scorgies scene, working his friend Mike Marchese as a roadie with Personal Effects and provided the lighting design and videos for Absolute Grey’s epic “Uptight Exploding Plastic Inevitable” show. A talented photographer, Tony was a mix of many elements and was truly loved by many folks. He will be missed. There will be a non-denominational service at the Paul W. Harris Funeral Home at 7:00 PM, November 8th, followed by a funeral mass on November 9th at St. St. Kateri at Christ the King Church at 9:00 AM. You can read the full obituary here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/democratandchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=anthony-gerardi&pid=167900988 and visit his memorial page here: http://harrisfuneralhome.com/online-obituary/2013-11-anthony-gerardi/10074294

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In Search of Ancient Astronauts: The Antoinettes Demo Tape

January 25, 2012 in Your Stories by Stan the Man | 3 comments

The Antoinettes were the reigning girl group during the Scorgies era, playing out numerous times before venturing into the wilds of New York City to seek fame & fortune.  The band was fronted by keyboardist Meegan Voss, whose Syracuse band the Poptarts made some noise  in the CNY music scene. Meegan moved to Rochester with Margie Shears to start the Antoinettes and they were soon joined by Eastman School of Music student Kim Milai on drums  and Poptarts veteran Cathy Kensington (aka Cathy VanPatten)  on guitar.

Scorgies era Antoinettes

Photo posted on Magpie Waltz

Scorgies era Antoinettes, left to right: Margie, Meegan, Kim & Cathy

So, where are they now? Megan continues to make music with her husband Steve Jordan as the Verbs; Kim teaches music at the elementary school level and has a website devoted to music education and children’s music. Cathy Kensington works as an editor and lives in the Chicago area.  Margie Shears, according to Cathy’s blog, lives in the Westchester NY area and works as a graphic designer.

According to Cathy, “after we did that demo, I left the band to follow my (then) boyfriend to Boston. The Antoinettes then added a guitarist (Sue Veneer) to replace me and a keyboard player (Magda– I don’t remember her last name) to take over that role so Meegan could devote her efforts to fronting the band. That was the band that ended up going to NYC and becoming the darlings of CBGB’s.”  I’ve picked one of the best songs recorded in that demo session, “If I Were To, ” a plaintive lament  that captures a contemplative Antoinettes pining for a boy they could not have.

Click on the link below to play the song in a new window,  right-click or control click to download the file.

If I Were To

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Mark's Story

November 18, 2009 in Your Stories by mark | 1 comment

Scorgies was a place for music and community. I wasn’t allowed. Luke Warm hated me and I could see why. No one in that joint gave me the time of day. And none of my buddies ever wanted to venture into downtown at the notorious “Scorgies”. I remember driving my buds around town to every lame ass dance place in the burbs until I got fed up and got the complaining pricks out of my car and into mommies bed just before midnight. Not getting laid at 19 will get a kid a little ornery I guess.

Once in awhile I’d go downtown to Andrews Street and just hang out till last call. Later I hooked up with some WITR guys and eventually did a show at the station. I remember the John Cale show since we drove him to the gig in either an AMC Pacer or a Pinto after an on air interview. Saw the Press Tones a lot and Colorblind James and The Ramones and so many Personal Effects Shows. Caught a few of the earlier gigs like The Cramps and New Math. Was a semi-regular in 84-85 for awhile but most of the crew I hung with wasn’t interested in the downtown scene. Eventually I lost a few friends suffering through pitchers and Donkey Kong one night at The Vineyard at Pittsford Plaza.

I remember lusting after Andi and getting hammered with my WITR partner Mike Baldwin. Later I spent some years working with Uncle Roger at WCMF and watching a high school classmate play drums with bands like The Projectiles (Brian Goodman).

But like I said I wasn’t a regular. I watched bands all over town in all sorts of different venues, often with an eye towards getting laid. Scorgies wasn’t about scoring, although I probably stumbled out of the place taking a girl home a few times. For a time I lived pretty close to the place. Often I’d find a place to park (very hard at times) go in for last call and walk the couple of blocks home.

You’d always find a friend in that place and very often some good music. And you’d also find someone in there who’d like to cut you or spit in your drink. I loved it.

And now, side two of "Inna Gadda Da Vida"…

August 5, 2009 in Your Stories by PaleRider | 2 comments

Ever so slightly off-topic, but who besides me fondly remembers WSAY? 1370AM? It was the radio-station that was so bad it was good; so awful it was great? If there ever was such a thing as “underground” radio in Rochester, this was it! You’d be rocking out to, say, anything from Talking Heads to Van Halen, and suddenly a priest and two nuns would start reciting Rosary! Good times!

WSAY: By the 1970s, WSAY had become, in effect, a free-form radio station. Brown had little input into the music played on the station, leaving the choices in the hands of the DJs, who played everything from blues to country to heavy metal, interrupted promptly every night at six for the daily reading of the rosary (one of several paid blocks of time on WSAY).

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A Scorgies Discovery

August 5, 2009 in Your Stories by PaleRider | No comments

Here’s a brief but good Scorgies story.

First just a bit o’ history:  In the late ’70s and early ’80s I was a regular at Scorgies and saw many great shows there. (Good thing the drinking age was 18). It was the center of my friends and my music universe, to be sure. Myself and my college crowd considered ourselves “New Wavers” or at least aficionados of the latest music. We shopped at Record Archive and listened to WUWU, the great Buffalo alternative station, and wore CBGB T-shirts that we bought at House of Guitars.   We saw all the bands; Press tones, New Math (freakin’ trancendental!), Personal Effects (Peggy Fornier had been my high-school Spanish teacher), Chesterfield Kings, etc. I remember a number of times trading insults with the Country Music Rednecks that were going to the Country Warehouse (which shared the same parking area). Oh how they hated us leather-clad kids with mod haircuts and cigs hanging from our lips.

I was even in a very short-lived band with Beth Brown before she was in Absolute Grey. We were called “Seizure Salad”!

As always, I digress. On to the story…

So, one night in early ’82 I was hanging at Scorgies with my friend Lisa Button, and as often happened we were there until they pushed us out the door at two-ish. The bands were finished, and as we were guzzling last-call, a track came on the sound system. It was this mesmerizing, driving song with this great, drony guitar riff. It immediately caught my ear. I said “Wow! Who is this band?”

Lisa replied, “Oh, it’s this new band from England called… (wait for it)…..U2.”

That’s right, she said England.

The song was “I Will Follow.”

I went to Record Archive to find their LP the very next day. That was a lucky twist in-and-of-itself because Island Records US distribution was on strike, and I had to buy “Boy” as an import. $20!!! The import version had completely different cover-art  and was a much nicer package than the US version. It even had one different song. I still have it, and I think it’s worth a few bucks now.

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Turn Your Nostalgia Into Dollars

July 7, 2009 in Your Stories by Simon Ribas | 3 comments

In the spirit of the Little Rascals, as in, “Hey, let’s put on a show!” now comes your chance to turn that frown upside down, and start cashing in on the baby boomer nostalgia. Instead of just moping to your friends that, “hey, I used to play there,” you can now say, “Hey, I own it!” That’s right, the original temple of it all is up for sale. Anyone want to go in halves?

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