Kansas City's Pendergast keeps working despite setbacks
By JJ Duncan
RockKansas.com
February, 2005

Life recently threw Tony Ladesich a few curveballs that threatened to break up his band Pendergast, but the resilient Kansas City native has taken it as a cue to evaluate where he stands in his life and his music.

Getting laid off and losing bass player Matt Erwin in December was a double whammy for Ladesich and his band. It made him think about the future of Pendergast and whether or not it was worth sticking around Kansas City when there were job opportunities elsewhere. But Ladesich said Kansas City and the people there have become too important to him to leave.

" This is my town, these are my people," he said. "I'm a neighborhood guy. This city is my heart and I love my life here. I've got my girlfriend and I have a great place to live, great animals, great friends, and a great rock band."

Luckily for Pendergast, bass player Rich Burgess quickly filled the vacancy left by Erwin and Ladesich has decided he wants to stay in Kansas City. But that doesn't mean Erwin's exit wasn't puzzling.

Ladesich said Erwin was going through a rough time with a divorce and after he stopped returning phone calls, Ladesich found out through his ex-wife that he was leaving Kansas City to tour with a band he met playing at the Ameristar Casino. Ladesich said it was frustrating to lose Erwin that way, but there's no bad blood and he doesn't hold anything against Erwin.

" The thing is it's fine, it's just fine," Ladesich said. "If he would have called and told me, I would have asked him if there was anything I could do to help. Life is bigger than Pendergast.

" He's my friend and I know how bad it hurts to be left by someone or leave someone, but he just turned up missing. That part of it is extremely frustrating, but the thing about it is if he called me up I would just want to know how he is. I'd ask him why he didn't at least call, but I just want him to be doing OK."

Pendergast has been working on it's country-tinged rock sound since the spring of 2002, but Ladesich said he never went into the band meaning to write alt-country music.

" I did everything short of threatening to cut off fingers and toes to make sure no one referred to our music as alt-country," Ladesich said. "No one refers to Neil Young as Americana. These are just the kind of songs I write. I'm not trying to write Americana."

Of course after losing his job, it helped Ladesich to have friends like Manhattan club-owner Jeff Denney who gave him a solo show at Auntie Mae's Parlor in early February to help him score a little extra cash.

" That was Jeff earning his spot in heaven," he said. "He gave me a night and got me ridiculously drunk and helped me pay my rent.

" I can't say enough about Auntie Mae's. I've played all over the country -- and I'm not talking like I'm big stuff, because I'm not -- but I've toured all over and it's very rare to run into situations like Auntie Mae's Parlor. It's just one of the greatest experiences I've ever had and a lot of it has to do with Jeff Denney."

As far as the future goes, Ladesich said Pendergast will go into the studio soon to record a follow-up to "The Truth About Saturday Night," and after that he'll be working on a solo album.

In the spring, audiences will also likely have an opportunity to see some of Ladesich's filmmaking ability at the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee where his short film "Crate Diggers...A Love Story" will probably be shown, he said. The short is about fanatic record collectors and Ladesich is currently working on a documentary on his father and two of his close friends from the army.

Pendergast's next two shows will be at Auntie Mae's Parlor Friday, February 18, and at Davey's Uptown in Kansas City Friday, February 25, for a Johnny Cash Birthday Bash complete with a chili cook-off and Johnny Cash covers. As far as playing in Manhattan this weekend, Ladesich said it's always a good time.

"Folks in Manhattan love rock 'n' roll and love whiskey and don't fuck around about either one so if you didn't come to show them a good time you shouldn't come at all."

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