Rockin Rochester U.S.A.

Presented for your listening pleasure and entertainment enjoyment… The Black Orchids featured Rochester’s Jenna McGrath on bass. Jenna went to to become a member of Da Willys among other bands.”The Lunatics Ball ” was a four-song 7″ EP released by Dave Amel’s Cryptovsion label (http://www.cryptovisionrecords.com/) in 1988. Here’s a poster from that era, playing with Rochester’s Lotus STP at the Pyramid Club in NYC.

Black Orchids with Lotus STP

And here’s the front cover of the EP:

The Black Orchids Lunatics Ball 7"

And the back cover, with Jenna McGrath in the foreground

BlackOrchids - The Lunatics Ball 7" - Back

1) Elevator Man:

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2) Darkness Hiding By

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3) Money Boy

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4) Mayfly Blues

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Got a message from Jenna with more band info:

“he band members are: Allegra Lucier, Guitar and Vocals. Jenna Mc Grath, Bass and vocals. Francis DiDonato, Guitar, Vox and I think harmonica? Pez Lopez was the drummer. Band Photos by Mike Linn who later became our drummer. Mike Linn put out this 45 on the label he shares with Dave Amels. I asked him about the possibility of reissuing this, he’s thinking about it i think.
I was invited to audition for the black Orchids when I met Frank during a show at The Strip at McCarthy’s bar on 14th street. I think the Optic Nerve played that night, maybe the Secret Service too. Blair Buscareno was definitely there! I hadn’t been in New York very long, a couple of months at most. Frank found out I was a bass player andasked me to come down to the music buildling so I went down there with that old Gretsch I used to play. They asked me to play some PIL basslines which I did, and I think Frank said something like, “If you can play that you can be in the band.” and so I was.
Someone just started a Da Willys fan site on facebook and theres an interesting flyer posted recently of a gig with Da Willys and Black Orchids together, you should check it out.
Clubs we played included CBGB OMFUG, the Pyramid Club, The Strip, 7A, and a bunch of other places whose names have faded from memory. Fun times. We also went on tour for a while, about six weeks as I recall. We booked this tour ourselves, well Frank did most of the work actually. Allegra bought us a van which actually didn’t break down except for once outside of Cincinnatti. We began our tour with the infamous Backstreets show in Rochester, during which Frank got quite out there on stage and was attacked by other band members (or maybe just me)….playfully as I recall….there was some kind of emotional issue going on I think, all I remember is Frank getting very drunk and contrmplatinf flying to Mexico from the Rochester Airport. I think this is when he got his nickname of “Fly Francis” which he maintained for a while before announcing that he was going to change his name to Valerian.
Anyway, we got past our rough patch whatever it may have been about and decided to continue on for the rest of the tour. We went up to Hamilton Ontario which was a crazy wild show, over to Hull, Quebec, back down into America to play in Louisville and somewhere else around there. Down to New Orleans where I think we may have played with the Phantoms, Rik Slave’s band (former member of pre-Da Willys Lynne Von project the Swamp Goblyns) however I gotta make the disclaimer that this could be a misplaced memory of another time…..played somewhere in Biloxi, MI and I think Alabama, drove up the coast to Charleston, SC and went back to NYC soon after that. I think we stopped some other places too that I forgot about. Carey Burtt (Carey’s Problem) was our drummer on that tour. He liked to tease me and at one point we almost came to blows when he invited me to punch him in the face in the back of the van. We became good friends later though and we were laughing about that incident a few years ago!
I don’t remember what happened after that or how the band broke up. I think we played some more shows after that, and there were some personal differences between other band members (not me this time). Someone else might remember why the Black Orchids broke up. Blair Buscareno probably knows, lets see if he has anything he can add to this article. Blair has a much better memory of those times than I do, due to the fact that he does not drink alcohol I surmise…..”