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JOLIET – A lot has changed with members of the classic rock band M&R Rush since they last played the Joliet area.
For one, they have families. Second, the long hair is gone.
“We knew we had to cut our hair if we were going to get real jobs,” drummer Marty Mardirosian said about band members ending their 12-year run in the 1980s. “We all had long hair then.”
It’s been 30 years – back when band members still had aspirations of being the next group out of Chicago to go national – that they played the old Edifice Lounge in Crest Hill.
The band – with all five original members – will return to Joliet on Thursday when it performs at the Joliet Area Historical Museum as part of the history center’s Rooftop Summer Music Series.
“It will be excellent to play in Joliet again,” said Mardirosian, the “M” in M&R Rush. (Bass guitarist Roger Hirtz is the “R.” ) “We are going to be rockin’ the place.”
According to the band's website, M&R Rush has performed at shows that have included Blue Oyster Cult, Pat Travers, REO Speedwagon, Survivor, Kansas, Starship featuring Mickey Thomas, Head East, Uriah Heep, Foghat, Jim Peterik, the Temptations, The Buckinghams and The Cryan Shames.
Based on current ticket sales, the M&R Rush concert is expected to sell out, said Mike Brick, development director for the Joliet Area Historical Museum.
The show will be held rain or shine, Brick said. In case of inclement weather, the concert will be held on the museum’s indoor stage. Brick also said the rooftop venue continues to grow in popularity.
“When we started the rooftop concerts five years ago, we would get 35 or 40 people. People didn’t know what to expect,” Brick said. “But word has gotten out, and a lot of people come back again.”
Brick said the museum is open 45 minutes before concerts and stays open until after concerts end.
“We want people to take a look around, to come back again to visit,” Brick said.
High-energy, classic rock has been the M&R Rush style since the 1970s, when five high school friends from Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood formed the group. The band became popular in the Chicago area and had a Midwest following.
Mardirosian said the band averaged 250 dates a year and was on the cusp of following Chicago area legends Styx – which M&R Rush opened for frequently in high school and college shows in the region – and bursting on the national scene.
In 1980, a Chicago radio station produced an album and included M&R Rush’s “Rock & Roll Chicago,” which became the station’s most requested song off the album and finished at No. 45 at the station for the year, Mardirosian said.
“It was higher than songs by Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd,” Mardirosian said with a smile, “but they went on to sell a couple million records.”
M&R Rush performed at Chicago Fest and the International Amphitheater. In 1984, the band got a recording contract.
“We were signed by a subsidiary of Columbia Records,” Mardirosian said, “but the CEO of the company wound up being sued, and they pulled the plug on the deal.”
The band continued on – until music industry changed and clubs where they used to play turned into discos. Members called it quits in 1987 but continued to stay in touch and had an annual golf outing for the road crew and band.
“We would talk about getting the band back together,” Mardirosian said, “but nothing ever came of it.”
An impromptu jam session at the 2002 golf outing changed that. Re-energized, members decided to play a circuit of festivals and shows the next summer. M&R Rush will perform up to two hours at festivals and three hours in theaters without taking a break.
M&R Rush plays about 60 percent original music – including new songs written by band members – with covers from other classic rock artists making up the other 40 percent, Mardirosian said.
The band has good reason not to concentrate solely on originals.
“That’s a lot for the audience when you are doing two or three hours of music,” Mardirosian said.
Falling short of becoming national recording artists after 12 years of following the dream is easier now for Mardirosian and other band members to accept, with the distance of years buffering the disappointment.
“It was just not in the cards for us,” Mardirosian said. “It is a tough business.”
Band members now are sales managers, a recording studio owner and a sound engineer for a casino, Mardirosian said. Fame and fortune no longer are band members’ goals.
“We play for fun and the love of music,” Mardirosian said.
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IF YOU GO
WHAT: M&R Rush Concert
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Joliet Area Historical Museum, 204 N. Ottawa St., Joliet
TICKETS: $10 (general public) and $8 (museum members)
PURCHASE: Visit www.jolietmuseum.org or call 815-723-5201, Ext. 222.
VISIT: www.mandrrush.com