Parousia at Forest Lawn Cemetery, August 1980
A nice hot summer’s day and it was Marsha Falkowski’s idea to drive to Delaware Avenue and have band photos taken at the cemetery.
The band had recently signed with Backstage Productions and been introduced to Rick and Marsha Falkowski, who right-away wanted to take new photos of the band for use in promotional materials.
Gerry Cannizzaro, Patt Connolly, Kim Watts, Eric Scheda, Garth Huels, Robert Lowden and Barry Cannizzaro
It made sense; Parousia sorta-kinda had a “Gothic” look (way before “Goth” was popular) plus, our most popular set list at the time featured Parousia’s “Good vs. Evil” show-set. Our biggest success to date especially at a club we just became regulars at, Melanie’s Pub on Main and Transit. The “Good vs. Evil” show-set made the band stand-out and get noticed.
Parousia official promo-picture of choice from 1980-1982
Things were going well… The band just finished its recording session at Filippone Sound. Leaving the band with a four track mix of the first Parousia originals, “Revelation”, “Miss Ogyny”, “Malmedy” and “Oh My Love”, we submitted all four songs to the 97 Rock “home grown” album contest, and in February 1981, to our surprise it was “Miss Ogyny”, written by Kim Watts and Garth Huels, chosen to be on the album.
The band at the their second home: Forest Lawn Cemetery
But, that major boost in popularity was months away. For now, Parousia was working its way through the smaller clubs and schools, places like U.B’s Katherine Cornell Theater, D’Youville, Calasanctius, The Masthead, Frank’s Casa Nova and McVan’s.
The band was slowly building its equipment and entourage. Dave Styn and his brother Steve Styn were regulars on the road crew as was Tom and Keith Huels, Garth’s brother. We found a new lighting tech, Mike Carroll, the son of a union electrician. Mike built his own lights, light stands, truss, cable snake and control board. We alternated our live sound engineer between Gregg Filippone and John McGovern who also worked with the band Pegasus and at Unistage.
Parousia at D’Youville College, Student Center, November 1980
Marsha did a nice job with the photos. The Forest Lawn photo session captured the look and set the vibe for Parousia’s wardrobe during the next year of the band’s performances. Special shout-out to Marsha Falkowski for choosing the location and taking the photos.
Rick and Marsha Falkowski