The Bogmen Set to Kick off Summer at The Rockaway Hotel

By Kailey Aiken

This Memorial Day Weekend, the Bogmen will play at The Rockaway Hotel on Sunday, May 25, as part of the “Greetings from Rockaway” summer concert series. 

Drenched in neon strobe lights and surrounded by eccentric, kaleidoscope visuals, the Bogmen hit the ground running with their performances and don’t slow down until the end of their encore. The beer-soaked floors stick to the shoes of hundreds of fans jumping up and down and the ground practically vibrates from the sound of the speakers.

At the center of it all, lead singer Billy Campion, decked out in a suit loud enough to match the music, breaks into the song “Suddenly” in a whirl of funky dance moves. The crowd, pressed shoulder to shoulder, erupts.

A Bogmen show is a musical experience like few others. There’s something very special about the smaller, intimate theaters they play in New York City, coupled with a dedicated fanbase that now spans across generations, resulting in an electric atmosphere where the crowd syncs with the band’s rhythm.

It’s not every day you see teenagers and fifty-somethings singing and dancing to the same songs, but it is commonplace at a Bogmen concert. The setup for that kind of cross-generational support dates back more than 30 years.

The Bogmen have been drawing crowds in Rockaway since the early ’90s, with one of their first gigs being hosted at the Rockaway Rugby Clubhouse. Since then, they’ve made their mark at bars all over town, and the upcoming Rockaway Hotel show adds a new pin to the map.

Campion and brothers Brendan and Billy Ryan originally formed the Bogmen in 1990, joined by bassist Mark Wike, percussionist P.J. O’Connor, and drummer Clive Tucker. Pulling from classic rock, new wave, world music, and a little bit from almost everywhere, the group’s sound is a fusion of genres that is unmistakably their own.

More than three decades later, that same unique sound continues to fuel the energy of their live shows: fired up, lots of fun, and unphased by time.

As is tradition, the band ends their shows with “Englewood,” and as the song winds down, Campion does his signature spin, turning so fast for so long that I’m always impressed when he doesn’t fall over and barely seems dizzy.

“Every time we play a show, I say to myself, am I going to do this thing again? When’s going to be the last time? And it’s probably going to be when I drop dead,” Campion said.

It’s a move he’s been doing since the band’s earliest days, dating back to one of their famed boardwalk shows in Rockaway around 1992.

The band was donned in grass skirts, the makeshift stage surrounded by tiki torches, and the crowd filled with loyal fans from the community. With some outside help, they used the electricity from the lampposts on the boardwalk to power their instruments, microphones, and speakers.

“Every time Billy Ryan would hit a power cord, the lights would spark because we were sucking all the power,” Campion said.

As he ended the show with his “Englewood” spin, his grass skirt caught on fire from one of the torches.

“I’m doing the spin. I’m on fire. Next thing you know, my mother came out of nowhere with a blanket and put the fire out,” Campion laughed. He hadn’t even known his mother was in attendance — she was surprising him — and she ended up saving the day by pulling off the ultimate mom-rescue.

While the Bogmen’s performance at the Rockaway Hotel may be missing the grass skirts and tiki torches of their illegal boardwalk show days, the crowd won’t be as far off as you might think. The Bogmen have built a loyal pack of fans in Rockaway over the years, stretching their original fanbase to reach their fans’ children.

“It’s the best,” Campion said. “I mean it’s a dream come true, because the death of a band is usually the audience just aging out. So now, seeing all these kids in the audience is freaking awesome.”

Seeing the new generation of fans in the crowd motivates him to keep the high energy up on stage, Campion said. “I can’t just be like some lame old guy on stage now,” he joked.

At their show this weekend, Campion says they will play a lot of their older music and some lesser-known stuff he knows the Rockaway crowd knows and loves.

“We’ll probably whip out some stuff that we used to play at shows that didn’t wind up on our studio albums,” Campion said. “The set list is going to be totally different at a show like Rockaway, because we know they would be bored stiff if we just gave them a standard show.”

That being said, the Bogmen have had a great reception from fans for their new album, “In My Kingdom,” released last May. It is the first album the group has released in over ten years.

Written in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and as a way of processing the loss of their close friend, Greg Kline, the Bogmen produced a poetic collection of songs infused with themes of grief, love, and rebirth. Some songs on the album experiment with mixing new electronic sounds, while others stick to classic rock melodies, but they all have the Bogmen’s signature touch.

“People are as excited about the new stuff as they are about our old stuff,” Campion said. At their recent shows, new crowd favorites include “Summer of Soul,” “Where the Goddess Goes,” and “Little Bird.”

As for future plans, Campion says he and his bandmates are always writing and pulling inspiration from all corners of the musical world, although nothing is officially in the works right now.

“Maybe we’ll come up with some kind of concept record, like we did at our show at the Tilles Center recently with a chamber orchestra,” Campion said.

The Bogmen show no signs of slowing down. Whether it be old favorites or new experimental pieces, the band is still writing, still playing, and still lighting stages on fire — sometimes literally.

If you haven’t bought one already, tickets are still available for Sunday’s show through the Bogmen’s website or straight from dice.fm.com. Doors open at 6 p.m. If you come down, you won’t be disappointed!