Party Animals: CACGEC celebrates legal victory, boots band

Party Animals: CACGEC celebrates legal victory, boots band	by Buck Quigley

The Citizens Against Casino Gambling (CACGEC) held a party at the Niagara Frontier American Legion Post 1041 last Friday, to celebrate Judge William M. Skretny’s recent ruling that the Seneca Nation of Indians has no legal right to run a casino on the land they purchased in downtown Buffalo.

Since that ruling was handed down, controversy erupted when the Wendt Foundation—the not-for-profit that backed the CACGEC lawsuit—was discovered to have once made money from a years-old investment in gambling giant Harrah’s. Local blogs broke the story, and every news outlet in town covered it.

The outrage died down, mainly because it was discovered that the Wendt Foundation had divested themselves of that one small piece of their voluminous investment portfolio back before they decided to take a stand against the downtown casino. It was all an example of shocking hypocrisy to some; others saw it as “flipping the script.”

The party was well attended by various concerned citizens and politicians who had supported CACGEC’s fight. Still, I was unable to get a straight answer on who was paying for the free food, soft drinks, and beer. Was it the nefarious Wendt Foundation? And if so, wouldn’t our readers be shocked to learn that they were supporting an organization as suspect as the American Legion?

Alas, that’s all just conjecture. But here’s the real scoop: After a number of speakers took the mic to pat one another on the back, it was time for the music. Steve Balesteri and band were about to play, so I ducked outside to make a quick call on my cell phone. By the time I hung up, it was quiet inside, and the musicians were packing up their equipment. Turns out my call lasted for two songs. That was all the rock and roll the righteous baby boomers at the event could handle, and the band was unceremoniously asked to stop playing.

Eric Rovner, guitarist with Balesteri, had this to say about the free benefit show they had just played: “I thought it was a party, I didn’t know it was a meeting. When our manager said there would be a couple of rockers I thought he meant people, I didn’t know he meant chairs.”

—buck quigley

Reader Comments

Dan Bordz
21 Aug 2008, 11:51

What a kill man, I wish I was there for at least the 2 songs. E-Rock can shred your face off! Next time they should invite Shred Nugent to rock out his air guitar, it's a lot less equipment to pack up after 10 minutes!

Phil Anthropist
21 Aug 2008, 12:00

Hey, I just want to say that this is crazy. Why even invite a band to play if you are going to stop them 2 songs into it? I don't know this band or Eric at all but I can imagine that it was a bummer.

Dan Grillo
21 Aug 2008, 14:04

That's classic! I just can't figure out why there were rocking chairs at a party?

Mr. Bumble
22 Aug 2008, 07:59

I was at the party.
That band was too good for them!
They should have put their amps up to level 2.
It would have knocked a few of those old geezers over and saved medicare a bundle.

Twixt
22 Aug 2008, 08:54

I heard Balesteri sing at the Rich Renaissance Center after which a thousand people mobbed him. I also saw Eric Rovner perform in Kick Williams at CBGB's it was awesome! Who ever put these two together is an absolute genius!

Ang
22 Aug 2008, 13:24

E-Rock you are my GOD!!! Those people suck sooooooooo bad. Keep on rockin in the free world.

Mr. Cheech
23 Aug 2008, 14:04

This just makes me want to have E-Rock's children even more ;)

Joel Rose
09 Sep 2008, 20:55

Here's what happened, folks,

Regarding the band: we did in fact have a kind of misunderstanding or, if you prefer, a culture clash. Many of us hadn't seen one another in a long time, because it's a big group and most of us don't routinely attend meetings. So naturally, most of the people wanted to talk and share memories. The band was very good, but they were also very loud, and in a small space, it just didn't allow for conversation. We asked them to lower the volume, but with the music they had planned, it just wasn't workable. Some people were starting to leave, things got a little heated, and I have been told that some of our members were rude to the band. It was all unfortunate, and certainly rudeness wasn't called for. The band was doing us a favor in the first place, and they weren't charging us anything for their appearance. The next day, I apologized for the misunderstanding and for any rudeness on our part, both to the fellow who arranged the band's appearance, and to Steve Balesteri. He does indeed have a wonderful voice, by the way. I'm really sorry it didn't work out.

Now, as to who was paying for the food, drink, and (you forgot to mention) space rental: if you had asked me, or any other officer of CACGEC, we'd have been happy to tell you. It wasn't the Wendt Foundation, and it wasn't CACGEC. It was simply a few individual members of CACGEC that I asked to help out. It wasn't that expensive; the entire tab came to $770, split 5 ways. I'm not going to give you their names, because they have a right to privacy. I hope you enjoyed the party, now that you know no 501-C-3 funds were diverted to pay for it.

Party Animals: CACGEC celebrates legal victory, boots band

by Buck Quigley

Reader Comments

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