on
Musicians hope to capitalize
on ‘new wave’ of nostalgia
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
Four original members of the 1980s Jersey Shore bar band NRG (l-r) Mark Orlandini, of Kendall Park, Ron Garcia, Lee Ottman and Bill Silvain will welcome Andres Guanco (r) into the band when they reunite at Denim’s, Route 33, Freehold Borough, on May 8.
Grab your can of hair spray and get ready to relive a time when America’s "Idol" was a Brit named Billy, a Flock of Seagulls was more than a nuisance at the beach, and Men at Work meant more than a street sign.
NRG, a former local cover band, is reuniting to reach a new audience and hopefully to bring back some old friends and fans to their anticipated monthly gigs.
NRG will make its comeback at Denim’s, Route 33, Freehold Borough, on May 8. Showtime is 10:30 p.m. The band will feature four of the five original members. Lee Ottman, 47, of Freehold Township, returns on vocals; Bill Silvain, 45, of Interlaken, is on guitar; Mark Orlandini, 47, of Kendall Park, will be on drums; and Ron Garcia, 45, of Union, is on keyboards.
Gary Vitale, the original bass player, is now a horse breeder in New York state. Andres Guanco, 42, of Lake-wood, will take Vitale’s place on bass.
NRG — Bill Silvain, Gary Vitale, Lee Ottman, Ron Garcia and Mark Orlandini — was a popular cover band during the new wave heyday from 1981-86, playing gigs at the Stone Pony, the Tradewinds, the Chatterbox and other Jersey Shore clubs.
"Come to Denim’s with some old NRG memorabilia and the band will buy you a drink," Ottman said.
Ottman said he and the other members of NRG are getting back together because the time is right for them and for the audience they want to entertain. He is optimistic that younger people will come, but he hopes his former audience will, too, once they know the band is back.
Ottman and his band mates stopped playing 13 years ago. Ottman went to work professionally for Jeffrey Craig Entertainment, Manalapan. He and his wife, Dana, have a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.
Ottman said even though his son always thought it was cool that his father works in the music business as a DJ, it was only starting to register that "back in the day," dad was a full-fledged lead singer in a rock ’n’ roll band.
Ottman said he got the idea to reunite the original band members from the wave of nostalgia for 1980s music that is now emerging. He said he is excited about the band playing again because there is definitely an audience now for the ’80s sound.
Hearkening back to the heady days of 1981-86 when the band was in its heyday, Ottman remembers with pride how NRG was a well-known, well-respected cover band. He reminisces about playing at Club Xanadu in Asbury Park and then going over to the Stone Pony to sit at the bar with Bruce Springsteen.
One night while performing at the Headliner, Neptune, with TLC, another band he sang in, Ottman recalls how thrilled he was to be joined on stage by Jon Bon Jovi, who had come to hear them.
He said NRG began playing the Shore circuit in 1981, playing cover music of the bands of that era. The New Jersey music scene was thriving then, Ottman said, with bars and clubs "on every corner," most featuring cover bands that played the hits of the day.
Ottman has the requisite wild stories of booze and debauchery that were the reasons healthy young menaspired to be rock stars. However, a favorite story of his is about the time the band played in Canada.
Ottman said he was met at the airport in Canada by someone he believed was an official greeter, only to find out afterward the fellow was a local character whose colorful tour was just the work of a fan.
Ottman said in terms of "bar band success," NRG took off by playing both the obvious ’80s sound that other bands were playing, but also by incorporating the less-used sound of the time — electronic music. He said the electronic sound was considered quirky for its time and is what set the band apart.
Ottman said NRG developed a loyal following. He thinks the band did that by "always staying one step ahead of most other bands by learning new songs before they were real popular and totally played out in some cases."
Ottman recalled that Monday night at the Stone Pony was NRG’s spot for a long time and that NRG even had its own "window" that ended up being saved for prosperity. Ottman said former denizens of the Stone Pony will understand the significance of those windows.
Fond memories also take him back to Tuesdays at the Chatterbox on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights.
However, he said the band’s most popular night and venue was the Tradewinds in Sea Bright, where NRG was featured on "College Night" on Thursday for years.
Ottman recalls that on one particular night, NRG opened for Cyndi Lauper. According to Ottman, Lauper was met with catcalls for NRG throughout her set. He said the band had preceded her and the crowd was not willing to let them go so quickly.
Less than one month later, Lauper’s new wave anthem "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "took over the world," in Ottman’s words. Had that gig at the Tradewinds happened a month later, things likely would have been different, he said.
One of the things that amazed band members most was that when they played the Canada venue and then later a Georgia venue, a good portion of their New Jersey fans showed up.
"That’s some devotion for a band that was really just doing other people’s music," he said.
Ottman said he and the other band members are looking forward to playing together again and hopefully seeing some familiar faces in the audience when they open at Denim’s.
He said that around 1986 there were some internal struggles within the band that led to the group dismantling.
Then, Ottman said, it was "fast forward to 2003, and the 1980s is all over the radio, clubs and especially VH1. Young adults, as well as the fortysomethings who used to come see NRG, were totally caught up in all the fun again."
He said it was in that spirit that the members of NRG decided to get back together.
Speaking of the new interest in the old music by the latter-day MTV-VH1 generation and of the band’s new enthusiasm for playing the ’80s sound once again, Ottman said, "They lived through that era; they’d been there once. Who better to do it now?"
Ottman said he and the rest of NRG are hoping not only the former fans will come, but that they will bring a new audience with them.
"Ultimately, NRG’s goal is just to get you back on the dance floor and have a good time," he said.