Last week, I wrote about a private reunion of 1960s Milwaukee band The Benders, a band that included Paul Barry, who later became a local musical celeb with his band Barry’s Truckers.
The reunion took place over the weekend and Barry sent me a note to recap.
"The Benders reunion this past weekend far surpassed my expectations," says. "After college both the lead player and I continued to perform. However our bass player hadn't performed since college so we didn't know what to expect. But Geno (Jansen) was totally excited about getting together so he went out bought a new bass and an amp and drove up all the way from Texas to be here. His enthusiasm for the project was so infectious it pushed Gerry (Cain) and I to give it our all."
Here’s more:
"Geno rolled in on Thursday and Gerry got here on Friday. We started jamming and it wasn't long before we were feeling really comfortable with each other. We put together two new original songs in my bedroom studio and then decided it was time to bring a drummer. The original band was me on drums and lead vocals, Gerry on lead, Geno on bass and Tom (Noffke) on rhythm. Tom passed away young. So, because I wasn't that great of a drummer I got a hold of one my old drummers, Scott Belhumeur, to play with us.
"We practiced with Scott on Saturday and Sunday we went into the recording studio. This was another reunion for me. The studio we used was Fly Studios in Cudahy. I built this studio when I taught and lived in Cudahy. I sold it to Guy Fiorentini about eight years ago. I designed the studio to be great for recording live so it was perfect for what we wanted to do.
"Our main goal was to record a remake of ‘Can't Tame Me’ and another rocker that I wrote just for the reunion. We ended up tracking four songs. Three originals and one cover. I very seldom toot my own horn but our new arrangement of ‘Can't Tame Me’ kicks ass. So I guess you're never too old to rock and roll.
"The boys left for home and I'm going back to the studio this week to work on final mixes. We've got a couple of ideas for the final product. One, because the interest of the record collectors, would be to press a 45 with the remake and the other original. Or we may just do a four-song CD."
Stay tuned, it sounds like The Benders’ story still isn’t finished.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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