The Badlees leader singer Pete Palladino, right, sings alongside bandmate and principal songwriter, Bret Alexander, left, during their performance at Pittston Prohibition.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Attendees for the first annual Pittston Prohibition lined up to enter the 21-and-over event featuring the reuniting of national recording act, The Badlees, on Sunday afternoon at the Pittston Tomato Festival lot.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
The orignal lineup of The Badlees reunited for the first time since 2014 at Pittston Prohibition, Sunday afternoon.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Dupont resident and founding member of national recording act, The Badlees, Bret Alexander, left, plays alongside violinist Nyke Van Wyk.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Reuniting after seven-years, The Badlees had the crowd on their feet dancing chart songs such as, ‘Fear of Falling’ and ‘Angeline is Coming Home’ on Sunday afternoon at Pittston Prohibtion, a wine and beer festival.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
PITTSTON — The City of Pittston held a grand finale to summer on Sunday afternoon when Pittston Prohibition, a wine and beer festival was held. National recording artists The Badlees reunited for the first time since 2014 to perform.
Sunday’s event was two-fold for the city. It was a trial run on how the city would manage musical events in the future and the second was the reuniting of The Badlees who had two smash hit, “Fear of Falling” and “Angeline is Coming Home” back in the mid-1990.
Pittston’s Mayor Michael Lombardo came up with the idea of having a musical festival a few years ago, when the pandemic hit in 2020, it pushed back any idea of a three-day festival.
When COVID numbers began to improve this past summer, it was decided to hold Pittston’s annual Tomato Festival in late August after having to postpone it in 2020. The festival was held safely and with Lombardo deeming it a success, it was time to turn the city’s attention to the last event of the summer.
Pittston Prohibition, an outdoor event held at the city’s Tomato Festival 2nd tier lot, featured local licensed beer crafters and winemakers as well as food vendors.
“Once we started to see our way out of COVID, sort of, we started talking about event and since a lot of the (food) vendors show up at are Art Walks, the microbrewers and wineries,” Lombard said. “So we thought can we do an event that was sort of centric around the microbrews and distilleries? Then we thought, why don’t we amp it up and I reached out to Bret Alexander, of The Badlees, to see if they would be interested in playing together again.”
Alexander, who resides in Dupont with his wife Kelly, a founding member of The Badlees, left the band in 2014. This past summer, the band was elected into the Central Pennsylvania Music Hall of Fame and it was the first time since Alexander’s departure that the band reunited for the Hall of Fame event.
Lombardo and Alexander were college friends dating back to the mid-1980s and the Mayor had a desire to see the band reunite. Feeling the timing was right after the Hall of Fame induction, he asked Alexander one more time to get the band back together to play at a Pittston function.
Alexander polled the band’s original lineup of himself, Pete Palladino, Paul Smith, Jeff Feltenberger, and Ron Simasek, along with violinist Nyke Van Wyk, who has been a band member in the past, were in.
Lombardo said from the Pittston Prohibition conception to event was approximately 10-months.
“There are numerous opportunities here (at the Tomato Festival lot) having people getting together is something I feel really good about and then the backstory on The Badlees getting together for me, kind of makes this fun,” Lombardo said. “It’s great to see them on stage and I hope something will come out if for them. The city has been focused on the art in and around the city, so now it’s time to work on the music aspect.”
Even though the event was a wine and beer fest, the majority of those attending were there to see The Badlees play.
Lisa Tricarico, Pittston, attended the concert with her daughter Aly and Tricarico’s sister Kelly Wrubel.
“I’m here to see The Badlees, I was a big fan of theirs when I was in college,” Tricarico said. “I’m excited to support Pittston and all the great things they are bringing to the city. I got to see The Badlees play and we got to celebrate my daughter’s 21st birthday.”
James “Didge” Connors and his wife Paula enjoy live music locally were looking forward to seeing Bret Alexander and his bandmates reunite.
“We came to see Bret and The Badlees and to take part in Pittston Prohibition,” Paula Connors said.
“People around here love live music and I think if Mayor Lombardo wants to do a musical festival, people are going to come out for it,” Didge Connors added.
Pete Palladino, The Badlees lead singer, walked away from the show feeling excited and invigorated.
“For me, my goal is, if we were going to do this, if we are going to make music together again, we’d have to be great or not do it,” Palladino said. “The challenge was to get together in a room and when we rehearsed, I left that day totally encouraged, totally excited by making music with these guys, it is something that’s special when stars align. You can replace the players on the team but it’s not the same as the original team.”
Palladino said going into rehearsals, if the band was not cohesive and sounded terrible, a reunion show would never take place allowing their legacy stand on its own.
“I’m all for making great art for the sake of making great art so if that is it with these guys, then I’m going to be 100% into it,” Palladino said. “As long as it is positive and it is great and I feel like tonight, we got there. Today was a great day and people are still have interest in us, I think it’s pretty cool.”
Palladino and Alexander believe with the reunion show being a success, they will move forward to see there the journey takes them.
