Bravados Summer 1966, Riis Park, NY. From left to right: Larry Laufer, Gene Coggshall, Jeff Newman. Bruce Bergman and Mongo Booth

While garage bands of the 1960’s may merely be a cultural artifact of times long gone, thousands will warmly recall with fondness and excitement the sound of The Bravados, a five-man aggregation with roots in Long Island’s Five Towns dating back to around 1960. Those who will remember and to whom this will have the most meaning are the Adelphi University crowd who danced to The Bravados at Garden City’s Blossom Lounge, circa ’63-’64; the thousands who went wild at Lou’s in Atlantic Beach in the Summer of ’64; uncountable fraternity party revelers at Cornell from ’62 through ’66; all the St. John’s students who gathered at the Straw Hat in Mineola in the Summer of ’66; attendees at the Freshman inaugurals in New York City in ’66 and ’67 for Columbia, NYU and Fordham; various partygoers at Syracuse University and Ithaca College in the mid-sixties; those who visited The Hollywood in Cortland, The Travelers, The Boxcar and the Alt Heidelberg in Ithaca, The Cork N’ Bib in Westbury, El Patio in Atlantic Beach, Leone’s in Long Beach, the Silver Night, later the Shindig Lounge and then Bounty Inn in Hewlett, among more than a few others.

Who these guys were and the story of why so many will still remember a band without a hit record is the tale that follows, an excursion traversing some thirty-five years of the Bravados playing joyous rock music at countless venues.