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Gene Casey and The Lone Sharks. COURTESY BAY STREET THEATER
Gene Casey COURTESY BAY STREET THEATER
Bay Street Theater will present the music of Gene Casey and The Lone Sharks who will return for “A Rock & Roll Dance Party Celebrating 35 Years of Rhythm and Twang” on Saturday, February 3, at 8 p.m. Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks will provide a rockabilly fix with their original hits and upbeat take on classics. The dance floor is calling and you won’t be able to stay in your seat.
In the latter part of the last century, Casey departed New York City and its punk rock/new wave scene for the East End. There, he formed The Lone Sharks, “the house band of the Hamptons,” where bars were plentiful and audiences — both the local and the celebrated — were robust and loyal. Over the next few decades Casey and the evolving line-up of Sharks “played — and tore up — every roadhouse, bar, and honky tonk from Manhattan to Montauk” (Bop Magazine), sharing the bill and backing legendary roots rock ’n’ roll acts as Wanda Jackson, the Band, Bo Diddley, Sleepy LaBeef, NRBQ, and the Ventures.
Casey’s original music met with great acclaim with local and international indie radio play. Several of his roots-drenched songs have been used in “A Prairie Home Companion” and on the soundtracks to television and feature films, including “Justified” and “Sons of Anarchy;” the 2012 thriller “The Tall Man” starring Jessica Biel, the 2013 release “The Killing Season” starring Robert DeNiro, and Rob Reiner’s “Being Charlie.”
In 2015 Gene Casey received the Long Island Sound Award by the L.I. Music Hall of Fame, “for contributions to the Island’s musical landscape.”
The “main men” joining Casey in The Lone Sharks are Chris Ripley, drums, Paul Scher, saxophone and Tony Palumbo, upright bass.
Tickets are $37 ($47 day of show) at baystreet.org or 631-725-9500. Bay Street Theater is on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor.
Staff Writer on Jan 13, 2024