Once again the rock entourage Parousia set out on a road-trip across Western New York.  This time our destination was 79 miles away in beautiful downtown Jamestown to perform at a high-exposure club called the Melody Inn using the most obscure directions in the world to get there…  all we had to do was drive “one mile past the yellow blinking light”.  Oy!  It’s a good thing we had Patrick to help navigate.

The Melody Inn Jamestown was a venue equivalent to Uncle Sam’s in Buffalo.  It hosted local and national acts and by playing here, it exposed Parousia to an audience in a neighboring hip-town that loved live rock music.  The band saw it as a ‘stepping stone’ towards our goal to perform along the East cost on a college tour.

Parousia was paid $250.00 to travel to Jamestown to play at the Melody Inn.  Dave Styn, (Parousia’s designated “head roadie” and fill-in sound guy) was paid $55.00, Mike Carroll was paid $40.00 for the light-show. The road crew, consisting of Keith Huels, Steve Styn, Tom (Tim) Miller were paid $10.00 each for their services.  Barry pulled down $10.00 for Gas and Gerry scored $20.00 for some reason. The truck rental cost $154.00 but that cost was shared from last night’s gig at the Hideaway in Darien.  At the end of it all, the expense totaled $323.00.

 

The show at Melody Inn was part of a two-day road trip for the band that started on Saturday at the Hideaway in Darien Center, NY and then tonight (Sunday) in Jamestown. Both shows were just part of a busy August performance schedule that left us exhausted.

We started the Month off with a double-booking on Saturday, August 1st.   During the afternoon, the band played an outdoor concert on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo called “the Hertel Happening”. That same night, the band performed at a lakeside venue called the Eagles Roost in Olcott, NY.

The name Parousia started to appear in Buffalo newspapers for one reason or another.  Beginning August 2^nd when the Buffalo News published a picture of Parousia performing at the Hertel Happening and then again on August 20^th when the Riverside Review published a complaint about our July 4^th concert appearance in Riverside Park.

The outraged author, Matthew Gurnsey said he was “appalled by the vulgar language used by a member of a band called Parousia”.  (That ‘member’ happened to be our guitarist, Barry Cannizzaro).  Gurnsey claims he was so offended, that he had to “gather his children and leave the big stage area for fear of exposing them to such obscenities” and “the profanities uttered by some dim-witted guitarist.”  Oh well, we never held it against Barry because you know what they say in Hollywood… any press is good press.

After our gig at the Melody Inn, we wrapped up the end of the month performing at the Holland Willows in Holland NY, on August 21^st.  Then back to Buffalo on August 22nd at the ‘New York New York’ on Harlem Rd.  We closed the month on August 28th playing an all-age show at the Teenage Hot Spot in Depew, NY on Broadway and Transit, .

In spite of the long drive, It was cool to perform in classic Jamestown, NY.  After all, it was the birth place of Natalie Merchant and the 10,000 Maniacs.  Here are some other great acts that performed at the Melody Inn, Jamestown.

Metallica headlined at the Melody Inn with Raven as the opening band – August 2, 1983

Blue Ash (Mercury recording artists) at the Melody Inn, December 16 and 20, 1973