Former location of Melanie’s, 6861 Main St. near Transit, Williamsville, NY
Here are some live recordings from one of Parousia’s most revered and longest running venue’s, Melanie’s.
Parousia’s First Gig at Melanie’s July 20,1980
The July 1980 show at Melanie’s marked the beginning of Parousia’s new “Good vs. Evil” show set which brought into reality a completely new set of material including costumes, props and special effects. The show featured original songs as well as songs by Alice Cooper (“Second Coming” and “the Ballad of Dwight Fry”), Jethro Tull (“Locomotive Breath”, “Cross Eyed Mary”, “Hymn 43”), Kansas, (“the Portrait”), Yes, (“Perpetual Change”), Genesis (“Squonk” and “Abbacab”), Cheap Trick (“Surrender”, “He’s A Whore”) and Blondie (“One Way Or Another” and “I Know But I Don’t Know”).
The song “Hymn 43” featured a six-foot wooden crucifix with a window shade rolled up across the horizontal arm. During the show, we would pull the shade down to reveal a picture of a large bingo card. Man we pissed-off a lot of hard-core Catholic types with that one! During the song, “the Ballad of Dwight Fry” we would us dry ice to flood the stage and then Patrick would crawl out in a straight jacket holding a demented doll and then hurl a fake brain into the audience at the same time a flash-pot explodes during the words, “Blown up in my face”. Fun Times!
First gig at Melanie’s Flyer, Sunday July 20th, 1980
Bob, Garth, Gerry, Eric, Kim, Patt & Barry- Jump for joy to perform at Melanie’s Pub for the first time!
Patt Connolly – Flute, Vocals, Keyboards, Witty Reparte
Parousia’s Exciting Encore Performance at Melanie’s August 17, 1980
Buffalo Evening News ‘Gusto’ – Melanie’s Pub 08.17.1980
Parousia’s Encore Performance at Melanie’s; Flyer- August 17th, 1980
Parousia brings down the house at Melanie’s Pub August 1980: Front- Barry, Gerry, Eric. Back- Patt, Kim, Bob & Garth
Robert Stuart Lowden – Bass Guitar, Intensity
Parousia Returns to Melanie’s Pub August 31, 1980
We were Guaranteed $150.00 and one dollar a head after 100 people. We pulled in 200 people in Melanie’s on a Sunday night. We made $250.00! People heard about our new show set from the July 20th show and it really got their attention.
Parousia’s fab return to Melanie’s Pub, August 31st, 1980
Parousia; being Goth before Goth was trendy 1980
Gerry Cannizzaro – Drums, Direction
Parousia Rocks Melanie’s Pub on September 7, 1980
We made $164.00 this night. It was the first full week of school and our mention in the University of Buffalo’s “Band Survival Guide” which listed all the bands in the Buffalo area worth seeing.
This was also the night of the Bob Seger Concert and in spite of that, We still pulled in 116 people on A Sunday night. Seger was incredibly popular in Buffalo at the time. I remember we had to get dressed in the girl’s bathroom at Melanie’s because it was the only place with a mirror and we had to put on our costumes and make up. On the wall of the ladies room, girls wrote stuff like. “Bob Seger is comin’ to Buffalo and I am going to meet him and F*k his brains out.” Another comment written below that one read, “Stay away from him you whore, he’s mine!”
Parousia returns to rock Melanie’s Pub, September 7th, 1980
Parousia featured in University Of Buffalo’s ‘Band Survival Guide’ Sept.1980
Parousia and the mysterious glowing orbs of light – 1980
Eric Scheda – Electric Piano, Organ, Synthesizer, Space…
Parousia: Back Once Again at Melanie’s Pub, September 14, 1980
Buffalo Evening news ‘Gusto” listing: Parousia at Melanie’s Pub 09.14.1980
Parousia AGAIN at Melanie’s (Oye!), September 14th, 1980
Parousia: Front- Gerry, Kim, Barry. Back- Garth, Eric, Patt, Bob. Beam us up Scotty!
Barry Cannizzaro – Electric Guitar, Vocals, Wheels
Parousia’s Farewell to Melanie’s Pub October 12, 1980
Buffalo Evening News ‘Gusto’ ad: Parousia at Melanie’s 10.12.1980
Parousia’s farewell to Melanie’s October 12th, 1980
Parousia’s “plaything’. A prop used in our portrayal of the song, ‘the Ballad of Dwight Fry’ during our Good vs. Evil Show set. A favorite of our fans at Melanie’s Pub.
Official Parousia promo picture 1980. Hanging out at the crypt. Waiting for darkness to fall…
Kim Watts – Vocals, Xylophone, Harmonica, Tambourine, Attitude
This was Melanie’s Pub. 6861 Main st. Williamsville, NY
Melanie’s Pub T-Shirt
Garth Huels – Electric Guitar, Vocals, Mysticism
“We used to get good crowds at Melanie’s Pub at Main and Transit it is now the Buffalo Brew Pub. I remember one night there was a line out the door.”
*** Eric Scheda – Keyboards ***
Wow, what a blast from the past. I remember seeing Parousia at Melanie’s, they were like the house band for a while there. Great times, always entertaining.
Most of what I wanted to say about Melanie’s has already been said by the above. Except I used to love performing my Ian Anderson routine and wearing my beard, black top hat and my pointer/cane during the Jethro Tull song: “Cross Eyed Mary”, as well as wearing my mafia like overcoat and hat during Hymn 43. Our “Good and Evil” show set really went over big with the audience there; especially the ECC North student crowd. They were always pumped up, especially on a holiday. We literally could have played a rock version of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and the crowd would have “lost it.” What excellent memories and such a fantastic place to play. It was my privilege to play there for all our fans and friends
-Keep the rock ‘n roll faith pilgrims!
Barry (aka: the dim-witted)
Flashbacks to a good time.
This was the high point of old Parousia in retrospect. We were doing what we wanted to do the way that we wanted to do it. With extremely cheap props, the show set “Good vs Evil” actually packed this bar week after week. People would cheer when the old man came out and read from the Bible. The show set made sense. All the songs told a story. We thought we were hot shit, and that attitude became our downfall.
It was that last time we played when it happened. The owner of the bar asked us to turn it down, since there was some important sporting event on TV and the patrons couldn’t hear. We said we would but didn’t, and I was continually getting notes telling us to turn it down. My on-stage persona asked the audience, “Do you want us to turn it down?” “Nooo” was the reply.
Well, that was the last time we played there. After that, our management booking people only had access to bars way out in the sticks, and we were “advised” not to play the show set because these rural people wouldn’t understand it.
We never played the show set again.
Always enjoyed watching Parousia! I recall a gig at Franks Cassa Nova!
i loved it, was there many times
Excellent site, brings back memories!
I wonder, does anyone know the name of another performer at Melanie’s that sang “Dirty” but clever songs somewhere around 1974? His gig was solo vocals and piano.
I think you are referring to the artist John Valby, (aka: Dr. Dirt) He has his own website: http://www.johnvalby.com/