Anyone who knows a working rock band is familiar with the term “roadie”, the intrepid members of a band’s entourage whose responsibility it is to break-down, load, transport, unload, set-up, connect, test, monitor, guard, disconnect, break-down, pack, load, and upon return to the rehearsal studio, (in Parousia’s case, the infamous Music Mall in Cheektowaga, NY.) unload and set-up once again, all in one night.

One might think that the roadie’s work is confined to before and after the show, but you’d be wrong. During the performance, the loyal roadie remains close by, ready to correct any on-stage malfunctions, (and in Parousia’s case, there were many)… 

The roadie helps to restrain overzealous fans from disturbing equipment or gaining access to the main stage, and preserving the integrity of backstage areas, (i.e.: restricted access to the fans and friends the band wanted or needed to see). Some believe there is very little glamour in a roadie’s job and while musicians receive thunderous applause for their efforts, the roadie’s work is mostly unlauded.

In addition, there is a high level of danger involved. Members of the road crew run a high risk of broken bones, pulled ligaments, cuts, abrasions, burns, electrical shock and vehicular mishaps. One might wonder, is there really an upside to such thankless overwhelming work?

Yes! Because In addition to getting paid, there is alcoholism, drug addiction, casual sex, …you get to hang out in the top clubs for free and during down-time, mingle with energetic fans and celebs, plus you are granted access to exclusive backstage areas. Who wouldn’t want to be a roadie??

So, here is a ‘tip of the hat’ to our dependable relentless roadies, without whom, the show would not go on: Gregg Filippone and Randy Filippone (Sound Engineer), Mike Carroll (Lighting / EFX), Dave Styn (Lead Tech / Sound), Steve Styn (Asst Tech / Sound & Stage), Keith Huels (Lead Tech / Lighting), Tom Miller (Lead Tech / Stage) and to the many others that assisted along the way, John McGovern, John Sullivan, Paul Miller, Lenny Kuczenski, Bobby Force, Rob Rader, Chuck Harter, Mark, Bill, Lydia and Eddie.

PAROUSIA’s Fabulous Road Crew throughout the years….

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU

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

The New Parousia: Kim Watts, Patt Connolly; Barry & Gerry Cannizzaro, Garth Huels, Robert Lowden, Dave Maltbie

Now that Garth Huels, Robert Lowden and Kim Watts joined Parousia, new photos of the band were desperately needed and wanted because this new line up was one that all of us could get excited about… even the indifferent Mr. Dave Maltbie showed renewed interest in the band.

Not having the money for a professional photographer, we decided to have the photos taken in Kim’s Watt’s basement. Kim knew someone that had a Nikon camera but didn’t know how to use it and wanted to learn. Since the price was right we took the deal. We had no time to look around; the photos were urgently needed by our new booking agency, Multimedia Attractions.

It was a very exciting time for the band and quite a story as to how we got to this turning point…

In the spring of 1978 the line up of Parousia consisted of Patt Connolly (vocals & flute), Sharon Pierce (vocals), Barry Cannizzaro (guitar), John McGovern (lead guitar), Billy Simms (bass) and Steve Soos (keyboards). Most of us were really itching to perform at a night club for the first time and break away from neighborhood gigs and private parties.

In an effort to ‘push’ that band in that direction, Patt and I booked the band’s first gig at McVan’s Nite Club on Niagara Street, scheduled to appear on a Wednesday night, July 19^th, 1978. But booking the gig pissed off John McGovern, who quit because he didn’t want to be seen playing on stage with us. Then, Steve Soos quit, attending college out of state, abandoning the remaining members, Patt Connolly (flute/vocals), Gerry Cannizzaro (drums) & Barry Cannizzaro (guitar) and Billy Sims (bass).

Right away Patt Connolly introduced Parousia to Dave Maltbie, a jazz-fusion pianist/organist who reluctantly joined the band, mostly out of his friendship with Patt. The five of us began practicing down in the basement at Billy Simms house on Depew Ave. in North Buffalo. After several auditions, we soon realized there was no way we could find a lead guitarist in time for the July gig. We’d just have to find a way to make a full show with what we had. For the next few weeks we began to learn and write new songs, some covers, some original, and somehow cobbled together a fun and interesting show including home-made props, costumes and back-drops.

“Green Slime” or “Parousia incognito”, July 1978

At this point, we thought it best to re-name the band and so, “Green Slime” was born (an unintentional punk band) for one show and one show only. We would bring back the name Parousia once we put together a new band with members worthy of the name.

In preparing for the Green Slime show, we learned a lot about entertaining an audience as well as entertaining ourselves. Why do it, if it’s not fun, right? Now with the Green Slime show behind us, the band continued its search for a quality lead guitarist and suddenly without warning found ourselves looking for a new bass player too. Billy Sims, suddenly up and quit the group to join a heavy Metal band. Go figure!

The “New” Parousia at Mc Van’s, November 1978

As fate would have it, Bob Lowden heard that Parousia was looking for a bass player. When we talked on the phone he suggested a guitar player, a guy named Garth, who happened to be right there in the room with Bob. Garth auditioned right there in the phone and played Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” the entire song, note-for-note. It totally blew my mind… The next day Bob and Garth joined the group and we started rehearsals, then soon after, Kim Watts joined Parousia as vocalist and percussionist. The result of all seven of us playing together was the sound of a professional rock band capable of aptly playing classic rock cover songs in the local clubs, good enough to competing with the big city rock bands, and so it began…

Parousia at King Factory warehouse, Rano Street, Black Rock 1979

Example 1: “Wild-Man” Hair – early 1970’s

Join me and the band Parousia as we explore the various hairstyles sported by its members throughout it’s fifteen plus year tenure on the rock music scene.

1970’s “we haven’t got a clue about looking cool” hair

What is our fascination with hair? Lord knows, we spend far too much time fussing over “what to do with it all” when we are young and then fuss over “how to get more of it back” when we are old.

“Still not giving much thought to looking cool” hair

Perhaps rock music’s obsession with hair began in the early to mid 60’s with The Beatles and their shaggy “moptop” style. Then, years later they went ‘all hippie’, influencing men to be rebellious, grow their hair long to freak-out the “norms” of society.

Men’s hair in the 1970’s was a ‘joy’ to behold. There was a little variation throughout the decade, from long to short, blow-dried and bouffant to spiked and bleached, with “overgrown” being the look that most people associate with the decade.

In the 70’s, for the first time, hairstyling and grooming was no longer simply for women – hair products were now marketed to men, and many musicians used these products to excess.

“Starting to think more about it” hair

Mustaches and mutton chops were the norm and in general full, thick facial hair was commonly worn and accepted. It was a very hairy decade!

The 80’s may be known the decade when massive hairdos were an exhaustive production fraught with much planning, product and toil.

Many hairstyles throughout the 80’s became a stereotype associated with heavy metal “hair” bands and new wave bands that wore it long, curly, spiky wavy, gelled, moussed, cut on one side but not the other. Other artists (Billy Joel, Joe Jackson, etc) wore any style of hair that fit with whatever story the song was visually portraying.

Once you had the image down, your band was ready to get out there and compete with thousands of other bands emerging throughout that decade, inspired mostly by music videos and MTV.

American Horror Story Cult leader hair

In the mid to late 1990’s grunge scraped away the smeared makeup from the face of hair metal-bands, trimmed back its flowing locks and with it, an endless parade of long-haired dudes doing their level best to destroy the ozone layer with hairspray. Oh, and, well, depending on the band, more sex and lots more drugs.

There is no disputing that hair, or a lack thereof, is a game of social politics as well as fashion that often happens in popular culture. Certain styles have come to define their time.

Psychedelic-rock band hair

Alternative progressive rock hair

Alternative modern rock hair

90’s eclectic rock band hair

Urban rock band hair

English pop-rock vocalist hair

1990’s Mullet Hair

1990’s grunge singer hair (1991)

“Inclusive global society” hair 1991

The Rock Band Parousia, Buffalo NY 1975-1976

In spring of 1975 we started practicing our songs in my garage on Baxter Street in Riverside.  It was Barry, me and Patrick jamming out music next to my Dad’s oil-dripping Chevy Malibu station wagon near an animal hutch that housed a squirrel a rabbit, and a skunk. It smelled like an auto-body shop inside a zoo but we had no where else to go at the time.

Parousia 1975: Mike Newell (bass/sax/vocals); Barry Cannizzaro (vocals/guitar); Gerry Cannizzaro (drums/vocals); Steve Soos (keyboards/vocals); Patt Connolly (vocals/flute/sax).

In autumn of 1975 when Mike Newell joined the band, we began rehearsing in his basement on Payne Avenue, in North Tonawanda.  It smelled a lot better there and we were indoors plus occasionally his Mom would make us popcorn and serve refreshments.

Mike Newell joins Parousia October 27, 1975

Parousia 1975: Photo session at Mike Newell’s, N. Tonawanda, NY

In spring of 1976 Mike Newell’s folks ‘had enough’ of Parousia and so we had to relocate back to Riverside in my Grandmother’s basement (for summer) and garage (in winter).   But not before John McGovern, lead guitarist joined the band, who’s knowledge and expertise on live sound changed a lot for us.

John McGovern (lead guitar/vocals) joins Parousia 1976

Parousia thrived in this new artistic medium. This was a particularly creative period. The band was growing artistically in leaps and bound, evolving in every way from song writing to performing. The art that surrounded the band became regular fixtures on stage. Video projectors and televisions, floor to ceiling backdrops, sculptures and painted mesh created a unique environment to compliment Parousia’s music and enhance the visual experience.

Robert Lowden visible on screen from the 5th dimension

…..H-m-m-m, some very strange yet somehow intriguing behavior?

The set of photos posted here were taken to include band member Bill (Frank) Simms, who recently moved from Los Angeles and joined Parousia to play keyboards. Bill and Parousia go way back. He played bass guitar for the band in 1977-1978.

Parousia veteran Bill “Frank” Simms, is back to play keyboards, 1986

This photo session reflects the band’s current willingness to open up and experiment with the band’s art-rock style both musically and visually.  Bill’s extra set of musical hands emancipated Patt Connolly, allowing Patt to move about the stage to sing and play flute like a free-range chicken, no longer ‘caged’ to one spot to play keyboard parts.

Could Parousia possibly be responsible for the devolution of society..?

With the addition of Bill, the band had more freedom to develop songs in new ways and fine-tune existing songs like, “Life Is The Real”, “Lie Awake”, “Egos”, “Northway/Vermont” and “The New Overture”.

Patrick Connolly- Writer, composer, Keyboards, vocals, flute

Gerry North Cannizzaro – Writer, producer, drums, percussion

We examined our early music roots and the bands that inspired us.  On average, we appreciated quality songs and musicianship above all.  It was especially intriguing to us when an artist developed an album of  songs into a show that told a story, like Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” and The WHO’s “Tommy”.  From a musical and visual standpoint, it seemed like a great idea and it became a concept that we adopted as artists; a challenge that we would strive to meet throughout Parousia’s career as a rock band.

The ‘Virtual Reality’ Press-kit for certain interested parties.

Now, it was time to re-think what we were doing. It was the early 90’s and hair-bands were still a-plenty around Los Angeles and all the rage nationally. We were going to steer clear of looking and sounding like a “metal-band” and went for a more diverse set of songs including progressive rock, pop-rock, hip-hop and heavy rock.

Patt wrote an outline for the plot. In it he weaved together a rock play that was themed around the latest buzz in technology, Virtual Reality.  We wanted something grand, with scenery, props, costume changes and catchy songs that weren’t lame.  Patt wrote the songs and we both wrote the lyrics. We worked on several times a week and It took us about three months to lay it all out.

We wrote and recorded a demo of the music in my studio at 1819 N. Berendo Street in Los Angeles.  Back then I used a Simmons SDS9 and Roland R8M drum module to lay down the tracks along with keyboards, flute and vocals.  After we had enough songs to tell the story we began to design the look and advertise for musicians that could also act on stage.

We wanted to remain a rock band first and foremost. We had envisioned something like the Tubes or Alice Cooper and how they incorporated their theatrics into their set of music and that’s what we had envisioned. Our goal was to attract audiences from both the concert-going crowd and the theater-going crowd.  To achieve this, the songs were written simply as you would find in any current Broadway play like “Wicked” or “Rock OF Ages”.

Pre-production Notes

Once we put it all together and ‘stepped back’ to take a good look at it we saw that we created a performance that fell somewhere between the WHO’s Tommy and “the Rocky Horror Picture Show”… (which at the very least is interesting and entertaining).

Finding the right artists to put the show together wasn’t difficult. Living in L.A. there’s no shortage of quality musicians although we did have to go through a handful until we found those with the talent and the chops to pull it off.

Initially we brought on board guitarist Iain Hersey.  We wanted to rehearse the music with the guitar first and then bring in the rest of the band. Iain picked it up in no time. He was a guitar teacher at the Guitar Institute of Technology on Hollywood, so this was child’s play for him.

Next we brought in bassist Kenny Gray and keyboardist Jeremy Yerimian, both excellent musicians who picked up the material right off the raw-demo tape.

The dancers were under the direction of Claude Connolly. She choreographed the girls and designed the costumes. She had the girls dress in layers so that costume changes can be done quickly on stage or behind a mini-partition next to the stage.

Some of my roommates on Berendo Street became the road crew, Rob Rader, Lisa Hendershot, Bill Simms and a mutual friend, Bobby Force plus, whoever else was hanging around… we put them to work!

‘Virtual Reality’ Program – front cover and back cover

‘Virtual Reality’ Program – page 1 and last page

Parousia and its entourage suddenly grew to the size of 15 people. We rolled into clubs like Barnum and Bailey’s Circus!    Since 1975 Patt and I dreamed of putting-on a huge rock-show and we did it!  Now, all we had to do was get it out there into the clubs on the Sunset Strip and see what the audience and the Music Industry execs thought of it.

Setting up the ‘Virtual Reality’ show was an art form all its own, we had 15-minutes max to get everything on stage, hooked up, tuned up and then go-go-go!  After we finished our set, we had about five minutes to break everything down and get it off the stage.  Otherwise if you didn’t, your stuff was being thrown-off by the house stage-crew.

PAROUSIA rehearsal with Dudley Taft, Venice CA. – October 1989

Following Robert’s departure from the band, we began the search for a new lead guitarist. That’s when Dudley Taft, a guy who just moved down from Seattle to Los Angeles, answered our ad in BAM magazine.

Dudley was a rocker, a real shredder.  He had a custom Fender guitar and a modified Mesa Boogie amp.  After performing with a few acts in Seattle he decided to check out the L.A. music scene now that hair metal bands were in fashion and the heavy guitar rock that went with it.   He wanted to get into a band where he could play intense guitar parts and Parousia was a match. Weaving heavy guitar into orchestral arrangements, we could give Dudley something challenging to chew on.  Dudley rose to the challenge and joined up in October of 1989.

Dudley Taft with Parousia (Performance at Club88 03/02/1990)

The band now comprised of me, (Gerry), Patt, Marty and Dudley started practicing right away in Dudley’s garage in Venice CA. We started with the basics like song structure, melody, lyrics, and timing. Next, we booked a rehearsal studio in order to fine tune the act.

PAROUSIA 1989: Patt Connolly (flute/vocals); Dudley Taft (guitar /vocals); Marty Leggett (keyboards) Gerry N. Cannizzaro (drums)

Dudley Taft with his special Fender Stratocaster.

Looking back, it was cool that we had Dudley as a guitar player for the time we had him with us, (October 1989 – April 1990).  After his departure, he moved up back to Seattle and joined the band Sweet Water and started touring the states with national acts, Monster Magnet, Candlebox and Alice in Chains.

Dudley Taft with Sweet Water

Dudley keeping his Head Down (Sweet Water).

Dudley Taft solos with Seattle grunge icons Sweet Water.

After recording two albums for Atlantic, he left Sweet Water for the band Second Coming. More touring followed with an album on Capitol Records and a hit single, “Vintage Eyes”.  In 2006, Dudley started playing blues rock in Seattle and released the album ‘Left For Dead’ in 2010. Dudley now makes his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Having Dudley in the band was fun and fresh; he was big “toker” and a joker. He was busting with self-confidence and never had any concerns about money and always seemed to have plenty (he was an heir to the Taft broadcasting mogul).

Performing at the Live Bar in Greenville, North Carolina – Sat. January 26, 2013.

Dudley Taft – Broken Down (live 1-26-2013)

Iain Hersey & Kenny Gray at the Ethical Pool, Silver Lake, CA

With less than two weeks until our big Sunset strip premier of Virtual Reality at the Whisky a go-go opening for Green Jelly (aka: Green Jello, another Buffalo based band) we hunkered down at a local studio near Hollywood to go over the entire show-set a few dozen times or until we got sick of it. (For us, that was usually about three of four times.)

Hamming it up at the Ethical Pool, 1991

We had the dancers ‘Untamed’ with us. They tried their best to rehearse their thing but had trouble considering the room was a long and narrow.  After this was over, we had to work harder at finding a studio equipped with a big stage and a huge dance floor with mirrors.  After all, this was Hollywood, there had to be a place out there like that, right?

Dancers Margaret Strickland & Karen Springer at the Ethical Pool 1991

The Ethical pool was good for rehearsing music; it had a nice P.A., stage lights and a functioning toilet. A big band like ours could line up against the wall in the same position we have onstage.  You could crank the sound and there were no neighbors around to complain.

Iain coming out of the functioning bathroom at the Ethical Pool.

By now most everyone in the band knew their musical parts inside out. What took up most of our time was working to co-ordinate the acting and the playing simultaneously and have it flow and look natural.  Then once the band had its stuff down, we had to merge all that into what the girls were doing in front of the stage.

Dancers Gina Raffel and Karen Springer – Ethical Pool 1991

Gerry North’s Drum Kit – Ethical Pool 1991

Patt Connolly & his magical MIDI sax

We were no stranger to the Ethical Pool. Parousia had rehearsed here before as a four-piece band, and we knew the ropes.  Parking and loading in and out of the place was a nightmare. No parking lot and no loading zone. There were no stores around so if you wanted food and drink you had better bring your own or be prepared to walk blocks.

The Parousia Group 1991: Front: Claudine Regian, Patt Connolly and Karen Springer. 2nd row:
Iain Hersey, Gina Raffel, Margaret Stickland, Gerry North Cannizzaro. Back: Jerry Yerimian and Kenny Gray.

Virtual Reality – BAM magazine Jan. 1991

“Virtual Reality” was a type of theatrical performance; a rock-play based on the technology of the same name.  Once we finished the writing and choreography we realized that the look and sound of the production fell somewhere in between “Tommy” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.

After Parousia’s “sneak preview” performance of Virtual Reality at Madame Wong’s back in November of 1990, we brought the show back to another round of rehearsals to enhance the performance and iron out any kinks in the flow.  The band members and performers in attendance: Downey Cane played by Patt Connolly, vocals and flute; Sebastian B. Brack, played by Iain Hersey, guitar and vocals; Justine Tyme played by Kenny Gray, bass guitar and vocals; Jeremy Yerimian, keyboards and Gerry North Cannizzaro, drums.

This was our last dress rehearsal right before our big opening-night gig at the world famous Whisky a–Go-Go on January 27.   Claudine Regian did an excellent job choreographing the girls and making it work on a limited stage at Uncle Rehearsal Studios in North Hollywood.

Uncle was the best rehearsal studio we could find that to accommodate the Parousia Group.  Uncle provided a room with not only a good-sized stage but a large dance floor lined with mirrors as well. That was exactly what we needed; to see what we were doing in real time.  Us musicians worked on our music and moves on-stage while the dancers worked on their performance both on-stage and in front of the stage. This was exactly the way we were to do it tomorrow night at the Whisky a Go-Go.

A word about Uncle Studios… over the years, Uncle had many top national recording acts rehearse there and this is just a few of them: The Dream Syndicate,  Devo, The Stray Cats, Circa, Conspiracy,  Yes, Weather Report, Corey Feldman, Billy Sherwood, Unruly Child, Lou Diamond Phillips, Scott Grimes, Mr. Mister,  Quiet Riot, Nirvana, Limp Bizkit, Weird Al Yankovic, Dave Davies, Player, Redbone,  Rat,  Angel, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Sallas, Tori Amos, Ronnie Montrose, Robin Trower, The Dickies, NoFX, Skinny Puppy, Boney James and so on!

It was a full house at the studio.  Our manager and booking agent Marianne Smith was there and so was former Parousia keyboardist Eric Scheda with his friend Russ, a professional audio engineer and studio musician.

We had the dancers, Claudine Regian (as the nurse), Gina Raffel, Karen Springer, Margaret Strickland and Lisa Hendershot, (as the inventor).  Helping us move and set up the equipment was our Berendo Street room mate Rob (Rex) Rader.  The band and entourage was so big; we decided to change the name of the band from “Parousia” to “The Parousia Group” to include everyone working hard at getting this theatrical-rock show off the ground.

After the rehearsal, we headed outside the studio on Kester Avenue and took a bunch of promo photos for the poster we would hang in the doorway of the Whisky at our performance tomorrow. The urban setting was grimy and gritty and kinda’ perfect for a background.