Jan. 24, 1976: Pegasus
High
concept from one of
Jan. 24, 1976
Pegasus – Music, Theater, Visual Allegory
FROM THE NECK DOWN, he strikes the figure of
your average, well-meaning everyman, just trying to cope with the ups and downs
of teenage life. But above his sport coat, shirt and tie … well, that’s another
matter.
He’s the Alien and his
troglodyte-headed form dominates a rock opera, “Alienation,” which moves across
two stages and a projection screen every Thursday night at McVan’s,
“We’re all aliens, really,” says Mark
Deane Freeland, singer for the group Pegasus and the guy behind the Alien’s
mask.
“When you’re growing up,” he says,
“it’s like everybody’s from a different planet. It’s like so much has happened
to Steve over there that hasn’t happened to me. Your own world is your own
world.”
* * *
WHERE MOST groups are content to just
plug in and make music, Pegasus and six of their cohorts stage the equivalent
of a senior class play, complete with printed programs to illuminate the
complexities of the plot.
This hour-plus of “musical, theatrical
and visual allegory” is impressive indeed for a band whose senior members are
only 18, despite Pegasus’ obvious creative debt to the British band Genesis.
Pegasus’ Alien touches all the rites
of passage as he wanders familiar local scenes on film. He drinks too much for
the first time, suffers his first heartbreak and, for being different, gets
beaten up by kids outside his classroom.
Freeland, for his part, dashes from
one stage to the other, shouting explanatory lyrics in a checkered jumpsuit in
front of the band, then wrestling with ultimate martyrdom (kind of a cosmic
mind sizzle) in Alien garb on the side.
* * *
THE REST of the group lays down
loud, thickly-textured progressive rock in the vein of Yes, Gentle Giant and
Genesis.
Steve Trecasse commands a world of
electronic effects – organ, piano, harpsichord, mellotron and Moog synthesizer
– at his fingertips.
Vince Cooper’s classical training
inspires a lengthy acoustic guitar interlude midway through the show.
“It’s not just runs all jammed
together,” Freeland explains. “It’s musical. There’s themes running through it.
“What inspired us,” he adds, “was
seeing ‘The Tales of Hoffman’ on TV. The orchestra, the acting, the props, it
was just all the arts going wild.”
“Alienation” was six months in the
making – Trecasse and Cooper writing the music, Freeland doing the words –
after the group started working up an “alien love” theme back in June.
Part of it was ready for a live
concert on WBUF-FM in October and, buoyed by good response, they took it to
McVan’s and drew a record crowd for their premiere three weeks ago.
* * *
THERE’S MORE to Pegasus than just
“Alienation,” which they conceive of as an attention-getter and a
crowd-pleaser.
Their deepest hopes for fame and
fortune are riding on their other compositions, which they mix with progressive
favorites to rock out the rest of the night.
“The reason I sank money into this
band,” says manager Jim Cornwall, basically a ZZ Top fan who nonetheless
invested in a new PA system and light show for them, “is because they’re young
and they’ve got so much going for them.”
Young they are. Trecasse and bassist
Kent Weber are just out of
Weber and Cavanaugh have been playing
together since fifth grade and the others have been with them nearly five
years, not counting a split over whether to do heavy metal or progressive rock.
And they’re heavily into rockstar
fantasies.
Freeland and Weber, in glitter garb,
are familiar backstagers at progressive concerts.
“Alienation” comes from the clash of
Freeland’s garish persona with high school conformism. Another concept piece is
due within a month or two.
* * * * *
IN THE PHOTO MONTAGE: The Alien (upper left),
who comes to earth from a faraway planet, is the well-meaning star of
“Alienation,” a rock opera composed and staged by Pegasus, a teenage band from
Amherst. Upper right is Alien’s father. Band members, from left, Mark Deane
Freeland, Steve Trecasse, Kent G. Weber, Vince Cooper and Chuck Cavanaugh.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: Kent Weber, a Buffalo Music Hall of Famer, was part of
Mark’s many projects and he’s continually upping his game on bass. His website
notes that he studied jazz theory and upright bass with Paul LaDuca, a Berklee
School of Music graduate, and has worked with a variety of notable people,
ranging from Iggy Pop to Billy Idol to the Psychedelic Furs. Lately he’s
been playing with John & Mary (of 10,000 Maniacs fame) and their band, the
Valkyries.
Steve Trecasse contributed not only keyboards to
subsequent Mark Freeland projects, but also production. He went on to work for
MTV and appeared regularly as a house musician on “Remote Control” in the late
1980s. Chuck Cavanaugh became a studio mainstay in
And I truly miss Mark Freeland. His
off-the-wall talents included the capacity to quote my reviews back to me
verbatim. This is the obituary I wrote for him after he died way too young in
2007:
Mark Freeland left an indelible mark on
Buffalo's underground art and music scene for more than 30 years.
Mastermind of two of the city's most
daring rock bands, Pegasus in 1970s and various editions of Electroman ever
since, and a collaborator in dozens more, he worked with a theatrical flair and
a rebel spontaneity that inspired a generation of younger musicians.
In recent years, he also gained renown as
a visual artist. He produced hundreds of vividly colored paintings, sculptures
and collages that drew their sophisticated simplicity from graffiti art, pop
culture and Native American themes.
A scene-maker at musical venues and
gallery events, he cut an outlandish figure in hats and Indian headdresses,
kilts and dresses, leather and pajamas.
"He was a walking art installation, a
painter whose greatest work was himself," News Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers
proclaimed in 2005 upon the release of his first art book, "Everynight Is
Different."
For two years, not even cancer could
suppress his spirit. He was on stage at the annual reunion of the Fems last
December. At his 50th birthday party in May, he was serenaded with tribal
drums. He died Thursday under hospice care in his apartment off Elmwood Avenue.
Born in Buffalo, he began showing his
talents quickly. His father, retired Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Deputy School
Superintendent Robert Freeland, a visual artist in his own right, recalled how
Mark would sneak into his studio and create works of surprising quality before
he even started school.
He also made an early mark as an actor,
winning the role of young Nick in "A Thousand Clowns" at Studio Arena
Theatre at age 12.
By the time he graduated from Kenmore West
High School in 1975, he found a way to unite visual arts, acting and his other
passion -- music, which he taught himself to sight-read -- in a rock band
called Pegasus.
"At Kenmore," he once related,
"kids would gather for assembly, sit down in the auditorium and watch
Pegasus cover (Jethro Tull's) 'Thick as a Brick' for 45 minutes. The whole
album. Absolutely perfect. That was fourth period, to us."
Inspired by the screen projections and
outlandish costumes of the British band Genesis, Pegasus and its high-concept
fantasy became a mainstay in a run-down Niagara Street show bar, McVan's.
Mr. Freeland's music evolved into punk,
electronica and rap in the late 1970s, which all found expression in two groups,
Electroman and the famously unrehearsed Fems. He also wrote a rock opera,
"Alienation."
The next decade saw him spend a year in
New York City, where he played with alternative rockers Our Daughter's Wedding
and collaborated with Japanese star Motoharu Sano. He was inducted into the
Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. He was a mentor for up-and-coming bands such as
Green Jello (later Green Jelly) and the Goo Goo Dolls.
"He truly appreciated people for all
their talents, large or small," said longtime friend Nina Garfinkel.
"If you made a great soup, he dug it as much as if you were a great
musician."
In the 1990s, he weathered a series of
personal tragedies. He was seriously burned in a fire at home. His younger
brother and musical collaborator, James "Jimbo," died in a motorcycle
accident in 1992. In 1995, he nearly died in a fall and was hospitalized for
weeks.
During that period, he returned to visual
arts. He accepted several commissions for graffiti murals. In recent years, his
works have been acquired by collectors around the world. Elisabeth Wilmers
purchased 20 paintings and donated them to Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where
they are on display.
He was a regular member of the lineup in
Robby Takac's Music Is Art festivals, and his work was exhibited in
Albright-Knox Art Gallery in 2005.
In addition to his father, he is survived
by two sisters, Ann Arnold and Ellen Hallahan, and his longtime companion,
Carla Levorchick.
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