The Cringe
The Cringe – New Yawk Cawk Rawk at Gullifty’s Underground
By Gerry Ulicny
The Cringe is bringing their unique flavor of New York Rock to the
Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg. This high-energy foursome rightly compare themselves to “Hurricane Guido.” 
Of course, they are more than ready for Gullifty’s Underground. They may also appreciate Gullifty’s varied yet generous cuisine, as their lead singer, John Cusimano, is married to food maven Rachael Ray. Make no mistake, though, this band isn’t riding anyone’s coattails. Rotondi says, “Having a singer who’s married to a wildly famous TV food celeb means that we have a lot of fun and get to chow down in wonderful ways we might not otherwise, but it does cause some people to pre-judge the band based on their pre-judgments of the celebrity in question. We’d rather not be judged to the good or to the bad on that criteria, but on whether we cut the mustard (pardon the food pun), just like any other band, rather than who their lead singer is sleeping with.” In other words, this band stands alone and speaks for itself.
They actually do have a lot to say for themselves, and about themselves. In answer to the question “Why should people come to your show?” Rotondi answers, “Rock aficionados should routinely attend Cringe shows because -
A) Our singer J.C. has an excellent beard, an impressive vocal range, and sees nothing cheesy about wearing those ‘80s in-ear monitors
B) Our hipster-skinny bassist Jonny used to be in one of the coolest bands in New York—the Crash Moderns—and is now in, obviously THE coolest band in New York
C) Our shred-o-matic guitarist Roto used to play with Mr. Bungle, which means that Mike Patton has, on occasion, embarrassed him mightily in front of large audiences and
D) Our drummer Shawn Pelton is not only a recognized titan of the toms, but also embodies the “hep cat” musician thing like some gone-daddy transplant from 1956. Oh, and we’re pretty good, too, in a UFO meets STP kind of way.”
Perhaps obviously, they have worked hard to combine their backgrounds. They cite punk, progressive, power-pop, soft rock, bebop and electro-pop as influences despite admittedly not even knowing what half those words mean.
So, why do they do it?
“Death wish,” jokes Rotondi.
Catch The Cringe at Gullifty’s Underground located at 1104 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill 717-761-6692 starting at 11:30 pm on February 19th as part of MMC 14.
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