When it comes to the old vaudeville adage, ‘The show must go on,’ quite possibly no one embraces that sentiment more than Bay State musical heroes Letters to Cleo.
Acknowledging the 30th anniversary of the band’s debut album, “Aurora Gory Alice,” Letters to Cleo will be performing the album in its entirety Nov. 17 and Nov. 18 at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, just two days after scheduling to do the same feat in New York.
“Aurora Gory Alice” still holds up as one of the greatest debuts of a Bay State band. The album sounds as fresh and alive as it did when it was first released on the independent Cherry Disc Records and re-released a year later on Giant Records.
While the week before Thanksgiving has become a celebratory homecoming tradition of sort for Letters to Cleo in the past several years, these weekend shows are also shrouded in deep sadness, for a few hours before they hit the stage in New York, Letters to Cleo’s singer Kay Hanley received unhappy news that the father of the band’s guitarist Michael Eisenstein had died unexpectedly.
“I’m sorry to tell you that Michael’s father died overnight,” Hanley said only seconds after picking up the phone. “We’re playing the shows and Dr. Eisenstein was thoughtful enough to make it so that his funeral would be on our day off tomorrow (Thursday) and Michael is determined to do the show. It’s (expletive) (expletive)! ... We’ve never tried to play a show on the day that one of our parents died.”
Eisenstein’s dad is not just the parent of somebody Hanley knows. Eisenstein’s dad is someone Hanley knew very well and loved deeply.
For all diehard Letter to Cleo fans know, Hanley and Eisenstein were once married, making Eisenstein’s dad Hanley’s onetime father-in-law. Although now married to other people, Hanley and Eisenstein are great friends and the parents of two wonderful, grown-up children they raised together.
In addition to having strong roots in Boston, the band has many ties to Worcester and Central Mass. Not only did Cleo hone its craft in the rock ‘n’ roll trenches of Ralph’s Rock Diner, the now defunct Bowlers and Worcester colleges, the band’s manager, St. John High School graduate Michael Creamer, is originally from Worcester and the cover of Letters to Cleo’s album “Aurora Gory Alice” was shot by Auburn’s multimedia artist and avant-garde photographer Rose LeBeau.
While the interview was already pushed back two days because I had to cover the trial of two people accused of running “sophisticated high-end brothels” in Greater Boston and eastern Virginia were in federal court in Worcester, when I got Hanley on the phone on Wednesday and heard the news myself, I repeatedly told her that if it is too difficult to talk, we can scrap the story, adding that I’m sure their manager (an old friend of mine’s) would totally understand.
Despite the loss of Eisenstein’s dad, Letters to Cleo had all intentions of playing all three shows, including the one that was a mere hours after hearing the news. And, Hanley was still committed to giving an interview about the two Boston gigs, as well as her involvement with “Subspace Rhapsody,” the sensational musical episode of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”
Even with all her good intentions to chat up the shows, Hanley’s thoughts focused on the loss of her former father-in-law, who she still spoke of in the present-tense.
“He’s a very good grandfather to our children,” Hanley said. “Dr. Eisenstein was so supportive of our band. And just a great, (expletive) dad to Michael and an amazing grandpa to our kids. And even after Michael and I split up…He’s just a good, good guy.”
Then we tried our best to conduct an interview, with me first asking, “Does it feel like 30 years?” in regard to the release of the album “Aurora Gory Alice.”
“It does feel like 30 years,” Hanley said. “We’ve done so much since then. We had so many experiences as a band and as people. It does feel like 30 years but in a very good way.”
The Dorchester-bred rock goddess and alternative-pop ageless ragamuffin said a lot of the songs that made it on “Aurora Gory Alice” was written when she was in her late-teens and early 20s.
“I was my son and my daughter’s age when I wrote these (songs), and Michael too,” Hanley said. “It’s kinda cool to think about.”
As for the album’s longevity and success and the fact that people still want to hear these songs three decades later, Hanley said that took her totally by surprise.
“Back then, I was completely blown away. People like our band? What?” Hanley said, “But, now that it’s in the rearview, I view all of that music from being from such an incredible period of time. All of the record, especially in the Boston music scene, it’s such a time capsule.”
Not only has Letters to Cleo been rehearsing this week for their big weekend gigs in Boston, they have dusted off songs that they never ever play and have gain new respect for, Hanley said.
“There’s a song called “From Under the Dust” and I was thinking in my head, ‘Oh, my God. I don’t want to play that stupid song,’” Hanley said. “And then we started playing it, I was like, ‘Oh, my God! I (expletive) love this song! This is a great song!’”
One song they have played a bazillion times that always works the crowd into frenzy is the band’s signature breakthrough hit, “Here and Now.”
“I still enjoy playing that. I remember what I was doing and what I was thinking when that song was written and it still has meaning for me now,” Hanley said. “That song was a life-changer. If that song was never written, my life would be completely different, which I … Hold on a second. My son is calling. Can I call you back? I will call you right back. Bye.”
We never did discuss “Star Trek” but I might call in a special favor for a year in review episode and do just that.
