This Is It! American Red Cross Fundraiser
Mohawk Place, Buffalo
November 26, 2005
By Kevin J. Hosey
Bob James, Master of Ceremonies
The This Is It! Fundraiser for the American Red Cross at Mohawk Place allowed a host of classic Buffalo punk, new wave and early roots rock bands, or at least many of their members, to get together to play some great music, have a lot of fun and allow some great friends to enjoy each other’s talents and company, as well as play with a few newer bands.
Organized mainly by Bob James, a guitarist, singer and songwriter who performed in many of these bands at times, including the Third Floor Strangers, the Restless, the Promise, the Rain, Big Happy Family and his current band, the Ministers of Love, the shindig was based mostly around bands featured on the This Is It! Greater Buffalo’s Greatest 1977-1984 CD, which came out a couple of years ago, featuring almost 50 songs by bands of punk, new wave, surf, roots rock, reggae, electronic and mixtures of all these styles. To add to the fun, local writer Elmer Ploetz previewed a documentary film he is making on the Buffalo music community from that time, and several studio and live videos were shown, including the classic “I Wanna Know” by the Restless, which received some MTV airplay
Indeed, James led one of the best moments of the night when he first performed “Just Give Me a Sign” solo with his acoustic guitar, and then was joined by former Restless bandmate and singer Terry Sullivan and guitarist/Bob Kozak, who has worked with Sullivan for years as well as James, on a couple of old Jumpers and Restless songs, first on “I’ll Be Thinking of You,” and then a fantastic, two-guitar and voices “You’ll Know Better When I’m Gone,” possibly the best break up song to come out of Buffalo. Sullivan’s singing was really good and James’ acoustic and Kozak’s electric guitars matched him. At this point, James left the stage and the rest of Sullivan’s band joined him and Kozak, including Don Farmer on guitar and “Chet” on accordion. Sullivan, who has been writing and recording more melodic, but not less powerful, songs, then performed a few tunes off his upcoming CD, including the wonderful “Blue Star,” written by Kozak, in which Chet supplied a fine accordion solo and Sullivan was able to stretch out and sing a bit different from his other, better-known shouting, bluesy rock and roll styles (which he can still do). He and his band also launched into Sam Phillips’ “Power World,” which kicked a lot harder than his poppier songs. As Sullivan introduced the band, he thanked Kozak for writing so many good songs.
Another highlight was former Riddlers’ guitarists and vocalists Adam Gearing (current Outlyer) and Kevin McCue playing acoustically and being joined by keyboardist (current Outlyer) Cathy Carfagna for two excellent songs, “I’m Sorry,” an Outlyers tune, and “It’s a Shame,” a really good Riddlers power pop song. Later, the Outlyers performed, opening with a revved up Davy and the Crockets’ song, “Long Time, No See;” Dave Meinzer, the Davy in question and a guitarist and singer for the Outlyers, did the honors. The band then played a Stonesy rocker from its upcoming CD, “Tumbling Down” (I think), and after a couple more Outlyers songs, the band did some switching, with former Outlyers and Riddlers drummer Jim Celeste and McCue coming on stage for a long, smoking version of the Riddlers’ “Rag Top,” on which McCue was just sizzling on electric guitar, impressing a lot of people who hadn’t heard him play that way before.
Terry and Bob
The Riddlers: Adam, Tom, Kevin and Jim
The Transonics
The Vores, with several original members (including photographer Biff Henrich and Gary Nickard) and being joined by Carfagna on keyboards, among others, also performed, and their disjointed, occasionally Gang of Four reminding sound worked at times, but there seemed to be a few sound issues. Guitarist and vocalist Henrich still can deliver pointed lyrics in a disjointed style that actually isn’t disjointed, and his guitar lines can be metallic and tentacle-like in a style that sometimes recalls early Wire. The Vores played a great version of “I Do Not Respond” from its new Moment of Uncertainty CD (which I swear I’ll review here soon) among other originals. The Transonics delivered a killer set, with Middleman drummer Carina joining them while regular drummer Blake Ellman played a previous engagement; the newer but not necessarily new band and musicians, most in previous/current bands, opened in honor of the This Is It! theme by playing the Jumpers’ “You’ll Know Better When I’m Gone” sung by bassist Mojo Philter/J. Borzynski.
After playing two songs off their Get On! CD, one a flame throwing 1960s-1970s rocker, the other a poppier rock song, the Transonics continued their tribute to the past by playing songs from two bands on the This Is It! CD, first “No Standing Anytime” by the SplatCats, then “Capital Idea” by the Enemies. Middleman followed with some pretty intense, jangly, occasionally harsh rock with hints of Steve Wynn and even poppy Sonic Youth, while sounding more conventional at other times. The Wheezing Stumblers, a young thrashy punk band including Meinzer’s nephew Matthew Meinzer, played to an appreciative crowd. The audience, especially the musicians present, moved, danced, bobbed and weaved to the music and gave the band a loud reception, especially when the band covered “Stage Zero,” written by Meinzer and played by Davy and the Crockets, an ode to the former club Stage One, which screwed the band once too often.
The night ended with James’ Ministers of Love, including Fritz Van Leaven on bass and vocals and John Brady on drums and vocals, as well as Meinzer sitting in on guitar, playing songs from several of James’ bands. The band started with “the first song I ever wrote,” “Break Away,” a very cool rocker, and also played songs by the Enemies (“I See No Reason to Go On”), before really hitting its stride with “Your Are the One,” which James performed with the Third Floor Strangers, the flip side of the “Lorraine” single. The only bad part of the night was that I missed Pat Kane (the Stains, the Elements) perform.
If you don’t already have it (I do and have played it an awful lot), the This Is It! CD can be obtained at www.cdbaby.com/thisisit.