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The Day - November 25th, 1999

Reproduced below is an article that was published in The Day, a local newspaper in New London County, CT.

It's Rock, Rock, Rock for the Home Team

by Rick Koster
Day Arts Writer

Reducers the perfect post-Thanksgiving fare at the El 'n' Gee Club

Remember the Norman Rockwell painting where the Reducers are standing around a barber pole on State Street - the one where guitarist Peter Detmold is waving the San Francisco Giants pennant and bassist Steve Kaika is pouring pints of Narragansett Beer for drummer Tom Trombley and guitarist Hugh Birdsall?

Or maybe it's just that New London's Reducers, now in their third decade of cranking out glorious and prototypically original pub-rock music, are so much a part of New England lore it seems like Rockwell painted them. In any case, their traditional post-Thanksgiving concert is as inviolate a holiday rite as Santa shimmying down a chimney.

This year's show takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, as always, at the El 'n' Gee Club in New London, and the ol' home-week feelings will be intensified by the presence of Roger C. Reale on the bill. The Roger C. Reale Band performed regularly with the Reducers back in the early days when the two groups were at the forefront of the original material movement in Connecticut. Reale, whose new band is called the Manchurians, has kept musically active over the years despite a career as a schoolteacher, and his songs have been covered by Buddy Guy ed. - "Midnight Train") and Robert Cray.

Tickets for the double bill are $5.

"Obviously, we've all slowed down, but we take pride in the Reducers having been around this long," says Detmold from behind the bar at his Dutch Tavern. "We don't play as much anymore, but the gigs are still good and we're extremely grateful for the following that we have. And we try to keep it interesting for everyone by writing new material."

In fact, the Reducers will debut several new songs Saturday night, though of course fans will also be treated to an extensive playlist dating back over a career that has resulted in such albums as "The Reducers," "Let's Go," "Shinola," and the archival collection, "Redux." Originally drawn to the wit and melody of bands like the Kinks, and inspired by the do-it-yourself ethic of punk-and-drunk-rock groups like the Jam and Brinsley Schwarz, the Reducers formed in 1979 and were named "The Best Unsigned Band in America" by CMJ in 1985. Along the way, the Reducers traveled America for years, playing hopscotch with fame before maneuvering the band onto the respective back-burners of their lives.

Not that the band has, er, reduced themselves to nothing more than their own musical scrapbook to be pulled out on Thanksgiving or at Sailfest and leafed through with moist-eyed nostalgia. There are still projects for the future, Detmold says, confirming that the long-rumored live CD is an eventuality and that an album of all-new material is also likely - at some point.

"It's just that sitting around listening to old tapes to find material for the live record is brain-numbing work," Detmold laughs, "and we end up more interested in playing and writing new songs. A CD of new material is always in the back of my mind; we'll see how well we all get through this Y2K thing."

Detmold appreciates that, though their fans are getting older as well, they've continued to support the band through years of upheaval in the music business. While the Reducers as a unit is no longer an odds-on force of the future of rock 'n' roll it once seemed to be, the band is yet a treasured aspect of the musicians' lives.

"It's a different playing field now," Detmold muses. "There's a Buzzcocks song on a commercial now (ed. - It's a Toyota commerical that uses "What Do I Get?"), which is pretty indicative of how things have changed. I think about that a lot. But our goal when we started was to open people's eyes to a whole world of music they didn't know existed. Our mission is accomplished here. And there are plenty of great bands who never got the acclaim they deserve, still playing in corner bars because they like it. And that's legitimate."

Copyright 1999 by The Day