Story From Mark Passalacqua ’80

“During the summer of 1982 — I had just graduated, but was still living in the house. For the previous couple years, we had a “band” at the house that included Rick Neuheisal, Doug Dickenson and some rotating players – punk rocker Steve Layton, balladeer Bruce Hartley, David Lee Roth, and myself. We practiced downstairs in the basement (I think it was called the bratskellar?) and occasionally would play during parties (often to the under appreciation of the band that we actually hired for that event); and to be quite honest, we were not…..great…but people seemed to have fun when we played. We ran all the guitars and mics out of our amps, and the Chapter Room or the Quad was our stage – not the most high fidelity sound. But late at night, most anything sounds good…

One night, Rick and I took things to a different level – to downtown Westwood for a street performance. We packed our acoustic guitars, found a prime spot by the theatre, opened up our cases, put them on the ground for donations, and played (and sang) for a couple hours. It was actually a lot of fun – with passers-by stopping to sing along or make (some would take) a donation. We made enough cash for a couple rounds at Arnold’s (The Chart House). What’s funny is that, every once in a while, I meet or see someone who remembers that night — so it just keeps living on. By the way, I was just kidding about David Lee Roth.”

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