Attendees at the 149th Annual, Lehigh vs. LaFayette game, Bethlehem, PA 2013

Crafting Original Music, Spanning Three Decades.

Founding Members of The Progressive Shamanists on break in the Poconos.

The Live Performance at 227 Warren Square, Saturday, April 18, 1981

Author
Gregory Pichler
Date
Feb 27, 2023




The Lehigh University fraternity house group, The Shrooms, (a precursor to the group, The Progressive Shamanists) performed at the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity house at 227 Warren Square, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Saturday, April 18, 1981. The group opened with the song, Head Over Heels, to a packed audience of approximately one sixty spectators jammed into the living room of the fraternity house. As the group formed in late November, 1980, the band members, Jim Jordan (percussion), Keith Swanson (bass guitar, vocals), Huw Roberts (guitar), Scott Keller (vocals) and Greg Pichler (guitar, vocals), vigorously practiced in the basement of the Annex at 216 Warren Square over the course of the Lehigh University's Spring semester of 1981.

The Shrooms' performance at the fraternity house on Saturday, April 18, 1981 was the group's second live performance and was the last one with Huw Roberts as regular member of the group. In the case of Huw Roberts, Roberts transferred out of Lehigh University at the conclusion of the Spring semeber of 1981.

The performance at the fraternity house was in the contemporaneous words of percussionist, Jim Jordan, class of 1982 alumni, "an assault of the senses".

The group's more respectable renditions include Head Over Heels (Kevin Keagan), I can't Explain // Summertime Blues (P Townsend), Nine to Five (Eric Lefcowitz), Cities (David Byrne), and Twenty-One Years (Pichler). The contrasting guitars parts by Pichler and Roberts is particularly effective on the David Byrne's song, Cities.

Although Scott Keller was the group's lead vocalist, Pichler assumed the lead vocal duties on one of the songs he originally composed, namely the song, Hey Lis'.

Jim Jordan
percussionist, Jim Jordan at the Catacombs, Packard Chapel; Saturday, March 28, 1981.

Music Contributions

The following contributions were applied to the music video:

  • Jim Jordan: percussion
  • Keith Swanson: bass guitar, vocals
  • Huw Roberts: guitar
  • Greg Pichler: guitar, vocals
  • Scott Keller: vocals, percussion**

The list of songs from the performance in the order the group performed it includes:

  1. 00:00:02 (Track 1) Head Over Heels (Kevin Keagan)
  2. 00:02:16 (Track 2) I Can't Explain (K Townsend)
  3. 00:07:11 (Track 3) Incidental I
  4. 00:07:47 (Track 4) Nine To Five (E Lefcowitz)
  5. 00:10:57 (Track 5) Dear Prudence (Lennon, McCartney)
  6. 00:15:28 (Track 6) Behind Blue Eyes (K Townsend)
  7. 00:19:12 (Track 7) Cities (D Byrne)
  8. 00:24:42 (Track 8) Ode to Afghanistan (G Pichler)
  9. 00:28:33 (Track 9) Incidental II
  10. 00:28:44 (Track 10) Train In Vain (Joe Strummer, Mick Jones)
  11. 00:31:36 (Track 11) Incidental III
  12. 00:31:53 (Track 12) Day Tripper (Lennon, McCartney)
  13. 00:34:52 (Track 13) Hey Lis (G Pichler)
  14. 00:38:29 (Track 14) Twenty-one Years (G Pichler)
  15. 00:46:42 (Track 15) Incidental IV
  16. 00:47:09 (Track 16) Switch Me On (Huw Roberts)