Marah could have made it big. They should have made it big.
The Kids in Philly had a great garage sound (they literally recorded in an auto garage), tons of street cred, and some pretty big-name boosters, including a guy from across the river on the Jersey side.
Marah first came to Bruce’s attention during the Reunion Tour. The boys were getting a lot of buzz, and in almost every interview, it seemed, they mentioned Bruce as an influence. Bruce got wind of the band’s admiration and invited them to the legendary final show of the Reunion Tour at Madison Square Garden. Serge Bielanko leapt at the offer, roped in a friend, and took in the tour finale from their seats in the upper tier of the Garden.
Halfway through the show, Dave Marsh found Serge and friend at their seats and invited them to attend the afterparty later that night. They accepted that offer too, of course, and when they reached the party, Marsh offered to introduce the boys to Bruce. We’ll let Serge pick it up from here, from his recent Conshystuff interview:
He leads us upstairs. This small room is dark, Christmas lights, smoky people could still smoke, and he pushes us through the packed crowd dancing, and I see Matt Damon.
Then the crowd parts like the Red Sea and I see Bruce. On a stool, smiling and drinking a beer. Marsh introduces us and the Motown music is so loud that I know Bruce can’t hear what he says, but whatever. He smiles at me, reaches out his hand. I smile back, shake his hand tight, feel an electric shock that I still feel to this day, and mumble things right into his ear that he does not hear.
I want to hang on, hang out, but that’s not how this works and me and Ed are being sucked back into the crowd; the tides are moving; the Godfather has other people to attend to. But just as we’re passing Matt Damon again…no lie…a hand grabs my shoulder and spins me around gently. It’s Bruce. And he leans in hard and says, real loud so I can’t miss it, “Hey man, I really like your band a lot! Let’s get together when you’re in Jersey.”
They did indeed get together in Jersey–twice in fact, just a few months later, at Light of Day in November and again at Bruce’s Asbury Park holiday shows in December.
So when the Bielanko brothers decided to leave their garage behind and embrace a bigger, bolder sound for their next album, they felt comfortable enough asking Bruce to make a guest appearance.
Bruce recorded his part for “Float Away” at The Hit Factory in New York City on February 11, 2002, right in the middle of the Rising sessions. The boys asked The Boss for a scorching guitar solo, which Bruce was happy to provide, but he threw in a bonus: if you listen carefully at the end of the song, you’ll hear his backing vocals as well.
Unfortunately, though, we really do have to listen carefully, because the production almost completely submerges Bruce in the mix. Over-production plagued the entire album, and Float Away With the Night Gods became a controversial, almost polarizing album among their fans.
The band recovered with their next album, but after a few years in the spotlight, the band broke up just days after the release of what was arguably their strongest album–their 2008 release, Angels of Destruction.
Marah never really went away–they just soldiered on with different line-ups (I was fortunate to catch one of their sets at HoagieNation a few years back.) But those original Kids In Philly sure had a great run–they got to record with their idol and wrote their chapter in the long, storied musical history of Philadelphia.
Float Away
Recorded: February 11, 2002
Released: Float Away With the Friday Night Gods (2002)
Never performed
