Intellectuals/Barking Spiders Reunion @ Dry Rock Cafe 12/89

We had such a good time at the August Intellectuals reunion that we decided to do it again when we were all back from college during winter break. This time would also be a Barking Spiders reunion, too. Unfortunately, there's no audio or video representation from this show and if I didn't have photos from it, I'd say it never happened because I honestly can't remember a thing about it.

The only photo of The Intellectuals I have is the one of Joe and Hoff (above), the rest are Barking Spiders – which I still can't remember playing...

The Intellectuals Reunion @ Dry Rock Cafe 8/89

We'd just graduated from high school and we were all going off to college so The Intellectuals decided to reform for one last blast. The reunion show was at the Dry Rock Cafe (prior owners of La Serayña) in August of 1989.

The show started with the latter line-up of The Intellectuals with Billy and Dave...

The Intellectuals - "Speeding Car"


The Intellectuals - "Cheated"


The Intellectuals - "No Rules"


Then in typical Intellectuals shows they opened the stage floor for various special guests. First up was 3/5's of The Intellectuals...better known as The Paisley Scarabs...

The Paisley Scarabs - "How I Feel"


Then Steve Zielinski was called up to sing "Hollandaise Sauce", from Nude and Dismembered. The duo of Joe and Steve were known as Meringue...

Meringue - "Hollandaise Sauce"


And the Russo brothers' Bloodshot were in the house...

Bloodshot - "Live Or Die"


Then I took the stage for a couple of songs...

Joe/Frank/Kev/Hoff - "Deuce"


Joe/Frank/Kev/Hoff - "Whole Lotta Love"


Then the classic Intellectuals line-up with Art Licata took the stage to wrap things up...but first with special guest Jess Hoeffner...

The Intellectuals - "Paranoid" (with special guest Jess Hoeffner)


The Intellectuals - "Bloodlines"


The Intellectuals - "Too Loud Baby"

Barking Spiders - Diamond Lil's (1988)

After the closing of Bellmore famed La Serayña, the owners opened up a new dry bar called Diamond Lil's – later changed to Dry Rock Cafe. So being a non-alcohol selling bar they were friendly to a bunch of 17 years olds looking for a gig. December 17th of 1988 would be Barking Spiders first legit show.

Here's a few songs...

"All Talk, No Action"


"Watch Out!"


"Peace Thru Chaos"


"Power Struggle"


And here's a few photos...

Here I am wearing my Barking Spiders denim jacket that I painted. I painted so many murals on that jacket (ie: Metallica's Creeping Death single, 7 Seconds These Boots Are Made For Walking single, Dag Nasty's Can I Say) that it was so thick and stiff from all the layers.
Diamond Lil's were so grateful for the paying crowd that they asked us to come back two weeks later for a New Year's Eve gig. Two weeks was a little soon for another show so we drew about half the crowd from the previous show. I also remember feeling extremely sick that night. The next day I woke up with mono and was out of commission for a month.

Here's some photos from our New Year's Eve show...

If memory serves me correct... I believe that's Bobby S's cabinet with the upside down pentagram. He was in the audience, which pleased me because he was in The Elite, a band we all looked up to.

The Paisley Scarabs (1988)

When The Intellectuals broke up, Billy Kelly, Eric Hoffman and Dave S (not sure who the bagpipe player pictured above is, but he wasn't in the band) formed a new band...The Paisely Scarabs. They were one of the many short-lived Bellmore bands so there's not much to say about them. I only remember two of their songs: "How I Feel" and the instrumental "Ready, Set, Stop". In my opinion they sounded like a cross between The Beatles and The Talking Heads.

There are no known recordings of the trio but there is a tape from 1990 (two years after they broke up) of Billy and Eric jamming under the name Paisley Scarabs. I could be wrong but I think Eric's playing the bass on the first song? And years later, Billy will go on to record "All About Each Other", as his alter-ego Earl Pickens, on the EP When Earl Was 17 It Was A Very Good Year.


[DOWNLOAD] The Paisley Scarabs - Please Don't Sing (1990)
01- You Don't Ever Have To Be Alone
02- All About Each Other
03- Put Your Head On My Shoulder
04- How I Feel (cut)

And here's The Paisley Scarabs performing "How I Feel" during The Intellectuals reunion show at the Dry Rock Cafe in 1989.

Barking Spiders (1987-1989)

After Face Value broke up Jim and I still wanted to be in a band. The problem was finding other musicians who were into hardcore. We tried to get Hoff back but he was still playing with The Intellectuals so he wasn't interested. We jammed at Jim Conaboy's house one day but for whatever reason it didn't work out. So what do you do when you can't find musicians?... You make them. It didn't take much to convince Kevin Purcell – who'd left The Intellectuals – to learn the bass and John Hoffman the drums.

We already had two songs from Face Value so we started practicing on those. It was pretty shaky at first. Eric Hoffman was just an amazing drummer so John couldn't replicate the crazy tom rolls on "Watch Out!" – which was expected...but he still couldn't two years later.

We went through a series of names for the band (ie: The Cause, The Absolute, Panic, Tension). We settled on Barking Spiders (slang for "passing gas"), and for some reason we had also taken on stage names (Jim Bones, Johnny Stitches, Kevo, and The Lovely Frank).


Here's a funny video from the early days...playing a cover of Dag Nasty's "One To Two". Keep an eye on John throughout the song. This is why you don't see more drummers smoking while they drum...



And here's a recording...also from the early days...but by now we've gotten a little better. We were just figuring out our song "Separate Ways" so it's an instrumental, before Jim wrote lyrics...


[DOWNLOAD] Barking Spiders - Early Recordings Sometime In '87
01- Spin
02- Watch Out!
03- Peace Thru Chaos
04- All Talk, No Action
05- Find Some Time
06- The Barking Spider
07- Separate Ways (instr.)
08- One To Two
09- Street Fighting Man
10- Street Fighting Man (fast version)


During the two years Barking Spiders were a band, besides playing a few school related shows, we only played three legit shows – all at Diamond Lil's/Dry Rock Cafe. It's too bad we never went into a studio for a proper recording...towards the end we were actually pretty good.


Here's another basement tape...with more original songs..."One World" is my favorite...


[DOWNLOAD] Barking Spiders - Live In The Lovely Basement (1989)
01- The Barking Spider
02- Spin
03- Peace Thru Chaos
04- All Talk, No Action
05- One World
06- Find Some Time
07- You Can't Say
08- Watch Out!
09- Power Struggle
10- Separate Ways
11- Presidents & Kings
12- Watkinized (Lost Weekend)


The last song on Live In The Lovely Basement was the last song Barking Spiders ever wrote. It was inspired after a weekend of debauchery upstate in Watkins Glen, NY. My dad let me borrow his hunting/gunclub house he shares with his high school friends. Little did he know I'd bring 12 of my high school friends with three cars full-o-beer. "Watkinized (Lost Weekend)" was our most straight ahead rock song we composed. Feeling nostalgic one day I made a little video using photos and Kevin's illustrations from the trip...



And here's a wrap up of everything I talked about...plus a few more tidbits from friends and members of Barking Spiders...in video form...



BARKING SPIDERS
Jim Burns - vocals
Frank Fusco - guitar
Kevin Purcell - bass
John Hoffman - drums

La Serayña R.I.P.

This is either La Serayña after The Intellectuals show that ended in a riot, or the day it was torn down. Unfortunately, it's the latter.

La Serayña was there for us at the right time and right place (located right next to our junior high school). It was owned by two hippie women who intended the place to be a hang out for teenagers. No alcohol was served but that didn't stop anyone from drinking before they arrived. Of course a place like that couldn't last. They did, however, open another short lived place in Massapequa called Diamond Lil's – then quickly changed the name to the Dry Rock Cafe – which also hosted young music acts.


Above is The Intellectuals performing "Without Her" and "Too Loud Baby" at La Serayña on August 15, 1986 – the second time they played there. The crowd is a little thin but once school starts and word of mouth begins, future Intellectual shows will find La Serayña packed (see below).

The Joe Kollar Influence

The Intellectuals show at Newbridge Road school in '84 was similar to that famous Sex Pistols show where most people in the audience went on to form bands of their own. At least that's how I got my start. After seeing them I figured, "I could do that" and bought my first guitar the following week.

I knew Joe from shop class and he offered his guitar teaching services. So I went to his house one day after school. When I arrived, Billy Kelly was on his way out with his guitar he'd just acquired. Joe taught me "Purple Haze", plus he showed me a song he wrote called "Stoked". I later performed it with The Intellectuals at La Serayña. Actually, the only times they'd play "Stoked" was with me...probably because Joe played bass on the song and needed a guitarist.

But that's just my story. Here's some other members of the Bellmore music scene (including a recap of me and my story) commenting on Joe Kollar's influence in the early days...