July 18, 1970: Gold Coast (and another life-changing event)

 

When I woke up on this date, my 28th birthday, I was a working musician. Except here it was, Saturday, and we weren’t working. Me and my bandmates waited and waited to see if a last-minute gig would materialize. Occasionally it would. Mostly it didn’t.

Around the time the sun started sinking, my then-wife Laura and I decided the two of us had waited long enough. We went to a movie. As fate would have it, a call came shortly thereafter for that last-minute gig. I missed it.

Lavender Hill found a new bass player. My nights and weekends suddenly were free. I hung up my Hofner. Within three weeks, the calluses on my fingertips had disappeared.

Meanwhile, in the pages of TV Topics, attention turned to another struggling band and a gig that got interrupted by an infamous event that happened a month earlier: 

July 18, 1970 

Gold Coast

Like It Loud 

Jack Solomon’s Court at Elmwood and Allen was packed from wall to brick wall June 14 when Gold Coast became the first Buffalo band to have a concert postponed because of tear gas.

        A lot of people were there because of the way the music was crashing off the walls. A lot more jammed in because things were getting tense out on Allen.

        Up until that point, Gold Coast was playing in what was Solomon’s contribution to the festivities of the Allentown Art Festival.

* * *

THAT Saturday night they had such a crowd that people were standing all over the raised terrace in the back corner of the court, where they were playing. So many that they couldn’t see each other.

        They solved that on Sunday night by roping themselves off in a corner in front of a seven-foot-high wooden fence. A lot of listeners from Saturday night were back, plus a few extra.

* * *

AMONG the extras was Herb Feuerstein, a Buffalo-grown UB musician (South Happiness Street Society Skiffle Band) and newly-started rock entrepreneur.

        “I went past the court and thought somebody was playing The Who’s ‘Tommy’ record really loud,” Herb recalls. “So I went in and I saw it was these guys. I wanted to talk to them that night, but I didn’t get a chance.”

        The session ended abruptly about 8:30 p.m. when tear gas sailed into the court.

* * *

TALKING with Gold Coast in singer Don Rexinger’s mother-in-law’s house out on Sweet Home Road (they practice in the garage), it seems they view the gassing with concern and a bit of humor instead of anger.

        “We don’t personally have anything against the police,” guitarist Tom Dessault asserts. “We’re not radical hippies. We got long hair ‘cause we play in rock bands.”

        “A couple kids came up,” organist Bob Dreyer remarks, “and they said: ‘Hey, why don’t you guys stop playin’ and get the people out of here.’

        “We said: ‘Hey, radical, go away, get out of here.’ We thought they were troublemakers.”

* * *

THE BAND was playing when the gas came. At first, Tom says, they didn’t know WHAT to do:

        “Me and Dave (singer Dave Lassick), we were so amazed that we were digging it, I mean, I just couldn’t be-LIEVE it until the gas hit ME.”

        Most of the crowd pushed right through the band – knocking over microphones and amplifiers – and scampered over the fence into neighboring back yards.

        The group scattered. Some wound up in Solomon’s place. Others wandered over to bass guitarist Norton Kinsley’s apartment on the West Side. Half an hour, 45 minutes later, they came back for their stuff.

* * *

“IT WAS amazing,” Bob says, “but nothing was stolen. About 20 or 30 people helped us load the truck. But we couldn’t just drive away. It was about 12:30 before everybody found their families.”

        Damage was limited to a smashed truck windshield and one of drummer Phil Bluhm’s tom-toms, burned by a canister.

        The band hasn’t had repercussions from the incident and maybe it’s because they try to avoid too much connection with it. They don’t feel it’s something to identify with.

        “We could call ourselves The Old Allentown Tear Gas Band,” Tom suggests, “but we’re not into all that politics. We’re entertainers.”

* * *

HERB FEUERSTEIN finally caught up with Gold Coast five days later in the C Lounge.

        He got them into the UB outdoor rock concert series and a road show of his own which includes his group plus the Lucky Peterson Blues Band (featuring Sam Lay), Jepherson Green from Batavia and Mondo Bizzaro (with Mondo Galla, brother of The Raven’s Tony Galla).

        Gold Coast’s next UB appearance is July 27. They’ll also be in the soul-fest in War Memorial Stadium Aug. 8.

        Other bookings come through Mrs. Connie Stypowany’s Great Sounds in Music (she put them in Youngstown’s Club Lakewood next Friday and Saturday) or through Bob, who is road and equipment manager, too.

        Herb also had them over in the Cardinal O’Hara High School auditorium to tape a couple songs Tom wrote – “Make You Feel Good” and “Gift to God.”

        “We have a lot of original tunes,” says Tom, the group’s musical arranger, “they’re all arranged, but we haven’t figured we’d gain anything by playing them live.”

        “It’s the Buffalo bar syndrome,” Herb says. “Everybody wants a band to be like a jukebox.”

        The two songs they taped, however, are going into their repertoire. And the tapes are going to New York City. In return, Gold Coast will get 1,000 records (paid for by the group) which they’ll sell at gigs and try to get distributed in record shops.

* * *

THE BAND warms up for a garage practice with “Summertime Blues.” They play loud and hard. It gets inside you like Creedence Clearwater Revival or, well, The Who.

        One of Don’s daughters walks through with her hands over her ears. She disappears somewhere, then comes back through again. This happens maybe four times. Neighbor kids come and watch through the screen door.

        “We just believe in rock ‘n roll,” Tom says as the garage stops ringing. “We’ve got our old age to dig jazz.” 

And here’s the box/sidebar: 

Go Their Own Way 

Pertinent and impertinent information about Gold Coast:

        Don Rexinger, 23, singer, Virgo, Sweet Home High School, installs insulation, married, two children.

        Dave Lassick, 21, singer, Leo, Kenmore East, motorcycle repairman, married, a daughter.

        Tom Dussault, 21, guitarist, Aquarius, Kenmore East, the only bachelor.

        Norton Kinsley, 23, bass guitarist, Sagittarius, Wilson Central High School, Boston University graduate, married, a son.

        Bob Dreyer, 25, organist, Gemini, Riverside High, Dave’s boss at the cycle shop, married, a daughter.

        Phil Bluhm, 21, drummer, Aquarius, Depew High, married, a daughter.

* * *

TOM AND PHIL, together four years, both were in Black Smoke and The Moneymen. Phil briefly was with Pharmacy Jones (now Saint Hill).

        Don and Bob were with the Paramounts (the second Paramounts) four years ago. Dave formerly worked with The Mood and The Barons and Norton was with the Random Sample in Boston, Mass.

* * *

THE GROUP, a year old, plays about half of The Who’s “Tommy,” plus Three Dog Night, Joe Cocker and blues.

        “This is just to establish ourselves as musicians and people of taste locally,” Tom explains.

        “People in Buffalo,” Bob adds, “tend to relate to a band on how well they copy. But we try to fit a song to ourselves rather than fit ourselves to the copy.”