eli@uw-june (Eli Messinger) (11/02/83)
Hoboken, N.J. will probably always be remembered as the city that spawned Frank Sinatra -- at least until more people become familiar with their latest musical export, The Bongos. The Bongos are a four piece pop-rock band with two American record re- leases. "Drums Along the Hudson" (on PVC) is a compilation of their pre- vious EP and single releases on England's now defunct Fetish label. And "Numbers With Wings" (on RCA) is their latest EP release. It's been about a year since they last played Seattle (at the UW's home- coming no less) and they've only gotten better. They're playing tighter as a quartet these days, but still with a sense of spontaneity that keeps all of there songs sounding fresh. Probably one of the most inventive bands on-stage that I've ever seen. No need for flash pots or other high priced gimmicks -- Richard Barone can do more with a tambourine on his guitar strings (or a maracca for that matter) than anyone I know. Unfortunately he's had to give up the Slinky (R) solos due to high costs (or as the bass player told me, "It's getting hard to find real Slinkeys... all you see are those plastic ones -- and they're just not rock Slinkeys"). They're still performing two covers in their set, "Mambo Sun," which appears on "Drums..." and "Sunshine Superman" which appears no where that I know of. All in addition to material from both of their American disks. They played here Saturday, Oct. 29th, and apparently in Bellingham (north of here) the following night. Then they were supposed to fly back to New York to work on a video, then back to California (my hometown, Berkeley) to continue their West Coast tour. See 'em! ... uw-june!eli