Through the past, loudly
‘Towers of New London’ bands reunite tonight in NL
It took Marcel Proust six volumes and 4,211 pages to attempt to recapture “Lost Time.” He’d have been a lot better off just showing up tonight at the Hygienic Art Park in New London, with a stack of Marshall amps and a happy snarl on his lips, for an evening billed as “Towers of New London — Bands of the El ‘n’ Gee.” A half-dozen of the finest bands from one of the city’s finest musical eras — roughly 1978-1980 — will gather to lasso the sonic magic of the past.
On the bill are such not-forgotten heroes as New Johnny 5, The Whales, The Cartoons, Live Nude Girls, DOT and Vacant Lot.
These acts represented several of the wide variety of the alternative musical styles evolving at the time — from punk and new wave to synth-pop and college rock — and were part of an onslaught of original music pioneered locally by pub-rockers The Reducers. New London’s late El ‘n’ Gee Club, under the visionary guidance of owner John DeNardis, was the scene’s unofficial ground zero. DeNardis not only encouraged original music, but he also promoted plenty of all-ages shows to make sure younger fans were part of it all. Too, the energy was infectious. Clubs and venues popped up all over; Simon John, the DOT vocalist, for example, organized plenty of punk shows in area Knights of Columbus and VFW halls.
As the scene’s collective reputation grew, songs by almost 20 of the artists were included on two nationally distributed compilation volumes albums called “The Towers of New London.” Those recordings still resonate with collectors and fans today, and in fact spawned a second generation of “Towers” compilations that represented the next generation of musicians making music in New London.
The producer of those original LPs and founding Whales member Bill Dumas also curated tonight’s event. He says, “This show is, for me and I think most of the musicians and fans who’ll be there, a re-living of the spirit and excitement of the ’80s rock ‘n’ roll rebirth that was happening throughout the world — and where New London was our portal to the renaissance.”
For some of those musicians, the goals were ambitious but also seemed entirely plausible. In addition to The Reducers, New Johnny 5 (see companion story) came very close to a major record deal and certainly flirted with the big time. “When we were young, with hopes of rock ‘n’ roll stardom, it was a golden age of independent music, and it all really did seem attainable,” Dumas says.
Others, perhaps represented by the punk acts, were a bit more socially motivated. “The thing about punk rock is that it exists in an action by doing something,” says Greg Wharmby, bassist/vocalist/songwriter for Live Nude Girls. “In the ’80s, the action was pushing against dominant power structures within the music industry, slamming against its reinforcements within and throughout mass culture, or just fighting off the banality of suburban life in southeastern Connecticut. But it was also about the audacity of celebrating the very idea of being different than what would be a normal mainstream ideal. Either way, it was about doing something and not sitting around.”
Learning from the past
Ultimately and cumulatively, hundreds of gigs were amassed until, as always happens, culture and art and tasted evolve, musicians get older and priorities shift, and time moves on. For the bands playing the “Towers of New London” show, the lessons learned were equaled only by the fun experienced.
In fact, the efforts required to get these various acts ready for Saturday’s show might well have unanticipated consequences: It’s intriguing to revisit old material without the tension of ambition — and with the wisdom and chops accumulated since the bands broke up.
“Thirty-five years later, we’re playing music simply for the fun of it, and the friendship bonds are much stronger. The idea of rock ‘n’ roll stardom has a way of chewing up bands and spitting them out, and crushed friendships can be the collateral damage,” Dumas says. “I think we might all prefer today’s camaraderie of the ’80s’ pipe dreams.”
Live Nude Girls are combining the past and future inasmuch at New London’s Telegraph Recordings has just released “Look Back and Gasp,” a vibrant four-song EP of new LND Girls songs.
Wharmby says, “When Bill asked about a reunion show, I first cringed — thinking what a young me would think of a middle-aged me playing songs he wrote as a 15-year-old. But that young me was an idiot and the old me thinks that if there was anything good about the young me, it’s that he did it at all. He took action and in that moment time gives way to the now.”
It doesn’t get more Proustian than that. In fact, put that quote to machine-gunned major power chords and watch a mosh pit spontaneously blast into being.
r.koster@theday.com