This was Parousia’s first time performing for the gifted students of Calasanctius. The band recently finished up a great week following our gig at “The Masthead” on Grant Street, a very crowded hip & trendy club near Buff State College, where Parousia rocked it with The George, a popular new wave band.
Parousia – welcomed among the intellectually gifted (we were their pets)
Parousia had something special planned this night for the ‘enlightened kiddies’ of Calasantius… our “Good vs. Evil” show set! We felt we had the right crowd to grasp the parody and various levels of sarcasm but suddenly, we were approached by the headmaster looking very concerned… He questioned one of our props.
A six-foot crucifix, with a window shade across the horizontal arm… and what was on the shade? My brother pulled on the string and drew down the shade to reveal a colorful drawing of an extra-large bingo card. I saw the headmaster make the sign of the cross, (Reverend Ted Podson was his name). He had a suggestion for us, “As this is a religious institution, I would prefer that you NOT do this on stage…”
Oh dear, didn’t the Reverend get the memo? No one told us what to do with our show. Or if you did, be prepared for a fight. We were against any censorship of our sarcastic wit and immediately shot-back at him, “but this is the show your students paid us to see.” He backed off…
We felt confident the students could handle it and understand the distinction between one’s own spirituality and the politics of religion. Although, in hindsight I guess we did intentionally embarrass and humiliate our host with stinging anti-establishment commentary. But hey, I’m sure we inspired some critical thinking along the way too.
PAROUSIA 1979: Bob Lowden, Patt Connolly, Kim Watts, Garth Huels. Gerry Cannizzaro, David Maltbie, Barry Cannizzaro
The Giant Crucifix was used on stage when the band played the song “Hymn 43” by Jethro Tull. My brother Barry Cannizzaro sang, “Oh, Father high in heaven, Smile down upon your son, hey, hey. Who’s busy with his money games, oh…” and that was the cue to pull the shade down the length of the crucifix to reveal a giant bingo card.
The students at Caly loved the show. Our music and humor struck a chord with them. We had the most compliments playing our own original songs; “Myron”, MissOgyny” “Lucifer’s Lament”, “Revelation”, “Cotton Holiday”, “Malmedy”… They got it, our wit and sarcasm wrapped up in presentation. The class of Calasantius liked us enough to have us perform for them once a year up until graduation. We loved it especially since they paid us $500 a show!
“He quietly replaced the eye in its socket…” WTH???
…One of the important features of the Buffalo landscape was an obscure private school founded by emigres and initially supported by them.
The Calasanctius Preparatory School was a hard-to-categorize place: not a “blue jacket” prep school, neither was it a diocesan Catholic school, though it was organized, run, and largely staffed by priests.
It was founded the year Sputnik went up in 1957 and in September, Calasanctius Preparatory School for the Gifted opened to students ranging from the 9th through 12th grade.
Its focus was on a new willingness to embrace learning, academic rigor, inquiry, or simply sheer brain-power as assets rather than detriments for the new age.”
Yes; I do remember thoroughly embarrassing “the good headmaster” by performing the Jethro Tull tune; Hymn 43 as I pulled down the bingo card in front of the cross when I sang the line “whose busy with his, money games” (hey; what can I say; The Doors said the word “higher” on their first and last appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show even though Morrison was told to replace “higher” with the word “better” which they didn’t and then some TV station “big wig” told them after the show, “you’ll never play Sullivan again!” Morrison didn’t care; he already made a name for himself and his band on national TV and with or without Sullivan they were on their way to the top. I too made a last-minute controversial decision and performed the despicable bingo card/cross act; but I was damn proud I did players! Like Eric Bishoff; a giant promoter of the WWF used to say: “controversy creates cash; baby”. So band mates; Hollywood, here we come! What can I say! Besides the bingo card incident, I remember distinctly how all the little Calasanctius braniacs went wild and crazy when we played ‘Suffragette City’, and ‘Rebel Rebel’ by David Bowie. They were all over the dance floor. What a parrrrrrrrrrrrty baby! Yeehaw! That about does it for this dim witted guitarist’s trip down memory lane for this gig. Keep on rockin’ all you turks! Peace! -Da dimwit!