Feb. 2, 1980 review: The Roches in the Fillmore Room at UB

 


A show that also was a homecoming. As kids, the Roches used to come for summer visits with their relatives here.

Feb. 2, 1980 review

Roche Sisters Put Spark into Folk

         One is a harlequin in red, yellow and blue. One is a scruff wearing a Buffalo Blizzard T-shirt. And one is a vamp in black with feathers in her hair.

         They’re Maggie and Terre and Suzzy. Maggie and Terre and Suzzy Roche. Their name is spelled R-O-C-H-E. Along with Steve Forbert, they’ve been breathing fresh fire into the fallen form of folk music.

         Antic harmonies are one of their strong suits. Another is funny lyrics. In one song, they sing about begging to get a job back in a restaurant.

         “I’ll get down on my knees and scrub behind the steam tables,” they promise.

         Applause greeted songs such as “Married Men,” off their 1979 debut album. Nestled among the tables for their first local appearance Friday night were relatives – they have aunts and uncles in South Buffalo.

         The Fillmore Room in Squire Hall on the University at Buffalo Main Street Campus was sold out in advance. When more fans showed up, student promoters hurriedly put extra tickets on sale.

         The show was delightful, from the introductory joking to their show-closing rendition of Handel’s “Messiah.” Glory be to the Roches. Two encores to them as well.

         Opening was Kathy Moriarty, the best female folk singer in town. She chose pop tunes such as Elton John’s “Honky Cat” and mixed them with her own Joni Mitchell-inspired compositions.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: The Roches in a 1980 publicity photo. From left, Suzzy, Maggie and Terre.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: The Roche sisters were fixtures on the folk scene for more than a decade, continuing to release albums regularly until 1995, when they put their collaboration on hold. There was one final LP, "Moonswept," in 2007. Maggie, the oldest of the three, died 10 years later. Middle sister Terre continues to perform around New York City. Suzzy also remains active.

Two of their children – Maggie's son, Felix McTeigue, and Suzzy's daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche, whose father is Loudon Wainwright III – are singer-songwriters. Their local relatives include Sister Denise Roche, who served for 36 years as president of D'Youville College, now University.

The only accounting on setlist.fm of a full Roches concert in 1980 comes from Kane Hall at the University of Washington in Seattle on Jan. 12:

Factory Girl

If You Empty Out All Your Pockets

Golfin' Blues

Hammond Song

We

The Married Men

It's Bad for Me

West Virginia

Mr. Sellack

Clothes Line Saga (Bob Dylan and the Band cover)

My Sick Mind

The Death of Suzzy Roche

Pretty and High

Hallelujah (Handel cover)

(encore)

He Is the Boy

Runs in the Family

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jan. 13, 1980: Looking back at the 1970s

Image
  Nothing like a milestone to make us newsies look back at how far we’ve come. In the case of the ‘70s, those 10 years made quite a difference! Jan. 13, 1980 The Decade in Review          Virtually everything on the face of American culture since World War II came to a head and popped in the ‘70s. It was an era when popular music lost its innocence. The ‘70s were the decade in which the Beatles broke up and Elvis Presley died.          Presley’s death in 1977 was the most earth-shattering passage, but he wasn’t the only one to cross over to Rock ‘n Roll Heaven in the ‘70s. The obituary list reads like a Who’s Who: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Duane Allman, Keith Moon, Ronnie Van Zant, Jim Croce, Donny Hathaway, Mama Cass Elliott, Sandy Denny, Phil Ochs, Lowell George, Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan of the Grateful Dead.          For the record indus...
Read more

March 5, 1980 review: Pearl Harbor and the Explosions in UB's Fillmore Room

Image
  Another almost-forgotten Fillmore Room frolic. March 5, 1980  Pearl Harbor Blasts Are Right on Target           Look. Out in the lobby. It’s … no, it can’t be. The woman has to be a punk-rock refugee from McVan’s. It’s the hair – short on tip, straggly in the back. But wait, what about those gorgeous cheekbones? Even under all that makeup, they could only belong to Pearl E. Gates.           Once she’s up there in front of the band Tuesday night for a couple hundred kids in the Fillmore Room of Squire Hall on the State University of Buffalo Main Street Campus, it all falls into place. This is Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Their mission: Get you dancing.           Everything they launch is right on target. Short and punchy, their songs take flight on the bass and drums, soar on their harmonies and zero in with just the merest splash of rhyth...
Read more

March 8, 1980 review: Lene Lovich and Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club in UB's Fillmore Room

Image
  I suspect this review was longer and got cut due to lack of space.     March 8, 1980  Openers Steal Show           The sellout Lene Lovich concert Friday night was the main event of the season for Buffalo's New Wave rock crowd.           They were all there in the Fillmore Room of Squire Hall on the State University of Buffalo's Main Street Campus – the crowd from Rockers, the crowd from McVan's – standing in their tight satin pants and their striped hair and their leather jackets and their buttons.           But first they had to wait. They waited two hours in the lobby for a show that was supposed to begin at 7:30 p.m.           Sound problems were the reason – not enough mikes for Lovich. The sound check look forever. The crowd kept building. Extra tickets were put on sale.  ...
Read more