Gusto Stories 1978

  For my astrological twin Jack Dumpert’s daughter Sam (a/k/a Dawn), this was her first rock concert. Jack has a story about running into Elvis Costello the next morning. March 23, 1979  Elvis Costello Survives Success           Will success spoil Elvis Costello? Well, it’ll take more than a couple weeks amongst the Top 10 albums, judging from what went down in Shea’s Buffalo Thursday night. All that acclaim has done is cloak the British singer-songwriter sensation’s harsh manners with a thin veneer of civility. And when it came to the music, there were no holds barred.           After being bowled over by last year’s model, one savored this year’s Elvis Costello for the nuances. No longer was he quite such a stiff, anxious figure. Decked out in his black-and-white checkered “My Aim Is True” jacket, black shirt and thin pink tie, he commanded the stage with an easy sort of assuran...

  Bob Geldof before he became the guy we all know from Live Aid. March 16, 1979 The Boomtown Rats           “I don’t know about you guys,” singer Bob Geldof said somewhere in the middle of the Boomtown Rats’ set Thursday night, “but this is the first time we’ve been in a disco, let alone played in one. Now what you people really ought to do is move into the center there. I find this place kinda inhibiting.”           England’s newest hitmakers were not at all at ease as they inaugurated Festival East’s fresh rock showcase arrangement with Uncle Sam’s in Cheektowaga, which most nights is a giant suburban disco. Though Geldof gave disco all due contempt, it wasn’t really the fault of the club.           If anything, this was a rock showcase as rock showcases should be. First of all, there was plenty of elbow room, more than sufficient for a ...

  Nothing beats the rush of a breakthrough moment. March 16, 1979  Spyro Gyra’s new album           Jay Beckenstein’s living room on Buffalo’s West Side has been transformed into an office for Cross-Eyed Bear Productions, which is the force behind the jazz-rock group Spyro Gyra. The advent of secretaries and filing cabinets, however, has not displaced the room’s central fixture – Beckenstein’s record and tape playing units. Back before the band went on tour, it was the one place to catch previews of Spyro Gyra’s second album, “Morning Dance” (Infinity INF-9004 MCA), which has just been released.           “I have no excuses on this one,” Beckenstein said one afternoon, lighting up a smoke as the music began. “This time we had the resources to go get the right player to do a particular thing. I’d like to think we’ve kept the identity. Conceptually, it’s still Jeremy and my and Rich...

One of Buffalo’s landmark music clubs in its twilight days. Feb. 2, 1979 Gusto nightlife story The Bona Vista           “Back in those days, I used to hang out at the Bona Vista almost every night,” the caller remarks. For this former Buffalonian, a singer who’s gone on to work in the record business in New York City, the little club on Hertel Avenue just west of Parkside was the center of the local musical universe. “Tell me,” the voice on the phone says, “is it still like it used to be?”           Throughout the ‘70s, the Bona Vista has been home base for some of Buffalo’s most inventive bands. It was one bar that didn’t succumb to the shift to big sound systems and disco deejays. Instead, it inherited the musical legend that used to surround Aliotta’s down the street. The Bona came to support a raft of white blues-rockers, a subculture that began seeing its fortunes sink with the fall of...

  A band that occupies a prominent parking place in Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Feb. 9, 1979  The Ramones at Harvey and Corky’s Stage One          The Ramones, as usual, look like cartoon characters Thursday night in Harvey and Corky’s Stage One as they face another sold-out club date in what looks like a triumphant tour of the rock showcases of the nation.          Joey Ramone, the scarecrow-like singer, wears a T-shirt from Toronto’s El Mocambo, where the group just sold out two nights and could have gone for a third. Here they simply could use a bigger place to play.          The tickets were all gone two days in advance, making this the strongest attraction to play Stage One so far. The scene is strictly wall-to-wall punk-rockers, colorful as a carnival midway and all jammed in so tightly there’s no room to slither down to the floor to d...

  Getting cozy with the late, great Harry Chapin. Jan. 26, 1979  The Good Part Is Reliving the Old Times          Going to a Harry Chapin concert is like spending the evening with a long-lost cousin. First you’re obliged to grin and bear the small talk and the updating. Then you get down to the good part – reliving the old times.          So it went in a sold-out Kleinhans Music Hall Thursday night. The affable Chapin strode out first, a casually handsome figure – tall, trim and curly-haired, square of jaw and broad of forehead. No superstar coyness for him. He plunked himself down on the traditional folksinger’s high stool and cozied up the mood by his lonesome.          “What you’ve got here is an opening act,” he grinned between tunes. “I’m gonna warm you up till the group comes out. Now there’s two things that an opening act can do – you can eit...

  Here’s a soundtrack to accompany the Love Canal documentary that’s airing on PBS this week. Jan. 19, 1979  The Vores          The Vores seem quite at home in the stark, studied essence of this white-walled showroom in the CEPA Gallery on Essex Street. The focus is uncluttered. Nothing is extraneous. Art is all.          “This is where we started to play, this very room,” says Biff the guitarist. “Then the neighbors started to complain across the street. Now we practice in a warehouse in Riverside. They still complain across the street over there.”          Next to Biff, behind their respective Foster Grants, are Raoul the guitarist and singer, Alfredo the bassist and Mike the drummer. Biff has a master’s degree in photography. Raoul teaches photography as a grad student at UB. Alfredo’s a student. Mike builds houses.     ...