by: Michael Zabrodsky

The 10,000 Maniacs will give a benefit concert at the Reg Lenna Civic Center Tuesday night. St. Susan's Soup Kitchen, 10 Prospect St., will be the beneficiary of the concert.

"They serve about 4,300 meals a month. When people go there they get unlimited portions. They will feed anyone. There are many volunteers and anyone can volunteer," bassist Steven Gustafson said in a telephone interview from Boston, Mass. "With the money we will raise from the show the kitchen will be able to operate for about two months."

Doing benefits has become almost regular for the band. Gustafson said the 10,000 Maniacs recently played a benefit in New York City at the Beacon Theater for The Association To Benefit Children.

"It's an organization that Natalie (Merchant) is associated with. She champions their cause. They deal with many homeless children in the New York City area, caring for and feeding them. We raised about $25,000 for them."

As for tomorrow night, most of the funds will be directed toward the soup kitchen, while a small portion will be given to the Arts Council for Chautauqua County.

"That's a great thing for Jamestown in that they (city officials) didn't turn the Civic Center into a parking lot. Jamestown needs more reasons for people to go downtown. It's a wonderful jewel in our city. I am so glad that Reg Lenna had the funds to keep it going," Gustafson noted.

The band is in on the last leg of its brief Time Capsule Tour. "This past October we re-released our first two independent albums that we recorded at the State College at Fredonia in 1982 and 1983. Then, the first was called Human Conflict No. 5 and the second was called Secrets of the I Ching," he said.

"We have received many inquiries through the fan club as to where to get that music. There were only a few thousand copies pressed of each of those and they are difficult to find. Both discs are in one package called Hope Chest, with new artwork." Both albums were remixed by the band's vocalist, Ms. Merchant, and former member John Lombardo.

"Along with that (Hope Chest) we have gone into our film archives of the Maniacs over the last 10 years and put together a home video, Time Capsule," Gustafson said. The video is a historical look at the band and what life was like for the members as an early band. It depicts how they developed and evolved. Also, the video contains clips of Trouble Me, You Happy Puppet, Eat for Two, What's the Matter Here?, Don't Talk, Like the Weather and Scorpio Rising, that have aired on the MTV and VH-1 networks.

"There is also some old footage that we took and a film that Dennis (Drew) made that Natalie, John and I were in," the bassist added.

Gustafson said that after Thanksgiving the band will depart for London' for three performances, as well as one BBC radio program and TV program.

Lombardo and Mary Ramsey will be the opening act for Tuesday's concert, which starts at 8 p.m. Butch Amiot also will play with Ms. Ramsey and Lombardo, who also is going to perform with the Maniacs when the play their early songs.

"John will join us on stage when we do songs from that period. It's been fun going through the old songs again," Gustafson said.

As far as the future is concerned, the band will begin writing new material. "After the first of the year we are going to get back together and start writing songs for the next album," he said.