Welcome to theStompers.com - OFFICIAL website of Boston rockers....the Stompers!

Stompers Are Here!

Boston Globe - January 5, 1979
By Steve Morse

Sal Baglio was recovering from a cold. He had spent the day pumping himself with decongestants yet all he really needed to do was get out on stage. “Nothing can cure like that,” he smiled.

The 21-year-old son of an East Boston school custodian, Baglio is a guileless straight-talker with an authentic soul for rock’n roll. He plays with an urgency reminiscent of the very best, from Little Richard to Bruce Springsteen, and he has to be one of the most exciting emerging talents in this area.

He fronts the up-and-coming Stompers, who because of their name have been pigeonholed unjustifiably as a punk band. The name, however, is misleading, much as it is for other non-punk bands like the Werewolves and the Boomtown Rats. The Stompers did come out of local New Wave strongholds like Cantone’s and The Rat, but unlike other bands locked into those clubs they have variety and depth to lift them out of cult status.

Wednesday was their first headlining date at the Paradise, and it was a clear triumph. The band favors a clean, unadorned ‘60’s sound that was planted in Baglio’s head by listening to the records of his older brother, Tony. Baglio sought out musicians with similar interests and found them in drummer Mark Cuccinello, bassist Steve Gilligan and pianist Dave Friedman. They do remarkable covers of the Animals’ “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “Mitch Ryder’s “Devil with a Blue Dress,” Freddy Cannon’s “Palisades Park” and the Searchers’ “When You Walk in the Room”.

But the Stompers are more than a nostalgia band. Most of their material is original. Baglio, whose effervescent showman’s flair insures there is never a dull moment, imparts high-energy to teen anthems such as “American Fun,” “Break Out,” the Elvis-style “Love Letters” (Baglio prefers a lot of echo on his vocals, like Elvis) and “She’s So Fine,” which tells of a woman so high on her pedestal that “you can look but not touch”.

A propulsive guitarist, Baglio throws in a Chuck Berry lick at unexpected intervals, plus a host of other smartly-used fragments that even include a psychedelic solo on “Uptown” worthy of the old acid band, the 13th Floor Elevators. His likewise versatile voice has a pleading intensity that turns his ballad, “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”, into a Springsteen act of drama. He and the Stompers should have an extremely bright year ahead of them.