The cover of the upcoming Bongos album, “The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985.”
The Bongos — known for shaking up the ‘80s music scene in Hoboken and beyond with electrifying guitar grooves and cryptic lyrics — will release their first concert album, The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985 on May 23, on JEM Records.
They will celebrate the release at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, New York, on May 30; at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, on May 31; and at The Bitter End in Manhattan, on June 1.
Recorded on Memorial Day weekend at Tradewinds in Sea Bright, the album captures The Bongos’ high energy and originality at the peak of their career. They had just released Beat Hotel on the RCA label, and were on a tour that included more than 300 concerts across the United States.
Band members Richard Barone (vocals, lead guitar), James Mastro (vocals, guitar), Rob Norris (bass, backing vocals) and Frank Giannini (drums, backing vocals) were joined on this tour by percussionist Steve Scales. (Scales toured and recorded with Talking Heads in the early ’80s and is featured in the classic 1984 Talking Heads concert film, “Stop Making Sense”).
“When we recorded this album in 1985, we saw it as an important part of our catalog, a big part of our story,” said Barone. “The process of making studio albums had become elaborate experiments in layering guitars and harmonies, especially Beat Hotel. The live shows were where the songs could come to life, in front of an audience, and we wanted to capture that energy. So for me, it’s been a missing part of our story for all these years. Now, finally, people can hear it.”
“The Bongos always make great records, but our live shows are where we really shine,” said Norris. “I think this album is our finest moment and having Steve Scales on board for this U.S. tour really added to the fireworks.”
DEBRA ROTHENBERG
The Bongos (from left, James Mastro, Frank Giannini, Richard Barone and Rob Norris).
This album is inspiring with its uplifting mood and vitality. It’s a great break from the daily doses of Trump’s destruction. Does music bring Barone joy or a moment of respite during these trying days?
“Absolutely,” he said. “For all of us. Music can offer waves of hope and a unifying emotional lifeline during times of uncertainty, confusion and despair. Music has the unique power to bring us together and replace darkness with light, and replace chronic negativism with positivity.”
Co-produced by The Bongos and Steve Addabbo, the album contains highly danceable and infectious tunes and fan favorites, including “Numbers With Wings,” “I’ve Got a Secret,” “Mambo Sun,” “In the Congo” and “Barbarella.” “Splinters” showcases Mastro on sincere and introspective lead vocals, and Barone’s energy on “The Beat Hotel” is exciting and wild. The lyrical references to the Paris hotel where William Burroughs and other Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Peter Orlovsky gathered, remind me of clubs like CBGB in New York and Maxwell’s in Hoboken, where The Bongos performed.
Barone said the setlist at The Wonder Bar will be based on the Tradewinds setlist from May 24, 1985, “like a Polaroid snapshot of that moment in time. Plus, we’ll be adding songs that came after its recording. We will be doing songs from all of our album releases, from our first to last, showcasing each band member.”
Two other New Jersey-based JEM recording artists, The Grip Weeds and The Cynz, will also be on the bill at The Wonder Bar, “to help us celebrate the release of the CD,” Barone said.
The Bongos formed as a trio in 1980 with Barone, Norris and Giannini. Their groundbreaking 1982 debut album Drums Along the Hudson (PVC Records) brought them national attention. Mastro joined after its release. Nuts and Bolts (Passport Records) and Numbers With Wings (RCA) were both released in 1983. (Nuts and Bolts, released as a Richard Barone & James Mastro album, featured Barone’s songs on one side, and Mastro’s on the other.) Phantom Train came out in 2013 on JEM.
The cover of The Bongos’ 1985 album, “Beat Hotel.”
In 2021, The Bongos released an expanded version of Beat Hotel via Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings.
Though the group disbanded in 1987, they have continued to reunite occasionally, for boisterous shows.
The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985 captures the group’s youthful exuberance, as well as their raw talent. All four musicians have been involved in many others projects, since then.
Barone has released a series of soulful solo albums, including Cool Blue Halo (1987) and Glow (2010), and paid tribute to 1960s Greenwich Village music on his album, Sorrows & Promises (2016). He has published his memoir “Frontman: Surviving the Rock Star Myth” (2007) and 2022’s Music + Revolution: Greenwich Village in the 1960s, and teaches at The New School.
Mastro formed the band The Health & Happiness Show and has toured and recorded with many performers, including Ian Hunter, Patti Smith, John Cale, Alejandro Escovedo and Rachael Sage. He recently opened shows for Richard Thompson, Marshall Crenshaw and Graham Parker, performing songs from his riveting album Dawn of a New Error.
Norris performs with three Hudson Valley groups, including Shape Shifter, an instrumental band specializing in Afro-funk grooves. “I am also playing with my longtime collaborator Bibi Farber in Bibi & Rob and with my neo-psychedelic band Tulula!,” he said.
Giannini has worked as an occupational therapist for 25 years. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, and has recently been recording one song a week with Chris Tally (lead guitar, bass, vocals and keyboards) and lyricist Ian Ash (rhythm guitar and vocals) in a “makeshift studio known as The Shed.”
PHIL MARINO
The Bongos in the ’80s (from left, James Mastro, Richard Barone, Frank Giannini and Rob Norris).
What is next for The Bongos?
“Be on the lookout for some more Bongos reunion shows in the next several months,” Barone said. “And there may be a surprise reissue in the works for later this year.”
Here is the song list for The Shroud of Touring: Live in 1985:
“In the Congo”
“Apache Dancing”
“I’ve Got a Secret”
“Mambo Sun”
“A Story (Written in the Sky)”
“Telephoto Lens”
“Zebra Club”
“Splinters”
“Glow in the Dark”
“Blow Up”
“Come Back to Me”
“Brave New World”
“Totem Pole”
“Numbers With Wings”
“The Beat Hotel”
“Barbarella”
“Space Jungle”
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