Yeah I loved that club..On the Grotto's very last night before they closed I played with my band Area Z and also with Bell System...we did like a 12 song set..I had very little time to learn where I was going with 12 new songs..like 2 brief practice sessions...those were done above Tifon Jewelers on Chapel St...in those practice rooms..We shared a room with the Bells..had a street end unit..cool with the windows and all...One night I showed up for an Area Z practice, the door was half open and all my cymbal stands were naked..No CYMBALS !!!!WE were robbed!!!an amp and a bass guitar, and more stuff too were missing ..one by one, band members would walk in and freak the fuck out!!!I had a new girl friend with me to meet the band...turns out it wasn't a good night for that...should've been an omen..she eventually ripped my heart out, along with some lung and abdominal aorta...Matt Laskowski our lead guitarist...did guitar tech work with John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown band...they felt sorry for us and the drummer gave me a set of his used cymbals...pretty COOL !!!.. I sold all my drum stuff before I moved back to N.C. in '91 ..but now I have a set in my basement bar..an Oyster blue pearl set of Ludwigs with Zildjian cymbals..I'd probably remember Barone if I saw him..I recall the name...It's difficult to limit my posts or replies to less than a zillion words...that was a hell of an interesting period for me...that 3 years in New Haven....Don

Ha! Rock on, Don!

You'd prolly know Michael if you saw him again. He's fairly distinct looking. MB is 6'4", looks kind of like a cross between Peter Buck and Marty Willson-Piper ...and that darn guy can play any damned instrument he lays his hands on ...THE BASTARD! ;-)

He still lives up there, on lovely Warren Street. Nice part of the Elm City there ...loads of great pizza w/in walking distance ...I miss them clam pies.

And ...pardon my French, but a bastard's a bastard a bastard.

Mark

I did'nt know the meaning of pizza till I moved up there..The white clam from Sally's..I still get very aroused thinking about it..I need to take the wife up there and show her what it's all about...Having a plain cheese slice passed to you thru the window at Yorkside ...the crispness ..oh, I should really stop now....Don