The other day, I met the drummer for The Beaumonts
. He mentioned playing in Hypnotic Clambake and I knew that JoAnn Vaccaro also played with them (among a cast of thousands, I guess) so I had seen him again at the show last weekend. Well, we got to talking about The Beaumonts and Rochester people, and he mentioned that Marianne Buckley would be in town and would be playing with them today. I had known Marianne (and Steve from The Beaumonts) for years — they were among the first people I ever met in Rochester in the "music scene".
So today I'm at Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) to see the band. I discovered it was an event called Taste of the Gate by a group called Rochester A-List. Their deal is that if you sign up for the mailing list of the "best" events in Rochester and had RSVPed for the Taste of the Gate event, it would have been $10 instead of $15. I gathered that some or all of the money collected went to an adoption service which was there and had a raffle as well.
The event was — I guess — a way for restaurants at Village Gate to showcase their food. California Rollin' at Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) took it seriously and produced a great number of sushi rolls. Salena's (274 N. Goodman St., at Village Gate), I believe, provided a chicken wing tray with a kind of salsa sauce that was quite good. And although I only hovered near their table for part of the time, as best I can tell, The Gate House (274 N. Goodman St., in the Village Gate; formerly Salena's location) put out two sandwiches and (possibly) a pizza. Nonetheless, the $15 "buffet" wasn't much of a deal for the 200 or so people who were there.
Well anyway, The Beaumonts were excellent. They play a sort of rock with a ska-ish fluidity. Steve's influence in the band is at the forefront, and their CD is (so far) fantastic. Plus, I got to chat with my old pal Marianne — formerly of White Cotton Panties. I wore the T-shirt for the band that I had autographed at Norton's Pub (1730 Goodman St.) or some such place. It's sure been a while …