History:

Dry Run was a hard rock / AOR band from Hellertown, Pennsylvania. The band consisted of Jerry Pandelios (often credited as Jerry Pandel) on lead guitar, Keith “Stick” Mathias on drums and percussion, Kim “Nimby” Loomis on bass guitar, Michael Krycia on lead vocals, and, initially, Martin “Marty” Wallich on rhythm guitar. Wallich referred to his stay in the band, when discussing his music career with my father and I, as “very brief”. The band essentially remained a quartet for the rest of their existence. Dry Run began performing together when they were still in high school and were led by Panedlios.

Though Dry Run recorded a multitude of original material, only two releases were distributed to the public. In 1984, the band ventured three short miles south to Springtown to record an album: “Dry Run”. The album only contains five tracks in which all were written by frontman Krycia. It was finished in July 1984 but not released until sometime in 1985. It’s unclear why this delay occurred. 

The group’s only single “The Way She Walks” / “I Close My Eyes”, was released in 1985 but it was at least written (and probably recorded) in 1984. The A-Side features a different mix and tempo than the album version and the B-Side features some prominent keyboard work though it’s unclear who played it.

Eventually, Dry Run stalled and the group decided to change their name to Dirty Blonde in 1986 or 1987. The band retained membership of Pandelios and Krycia. However, Pandelios began writing all of the original material and Krycia switched to 12-String bass guitar. The band also featured a new vocalist, Mike Stanley, a new rhythm guitarist and writer, Bryan Zimmerman, and Pete Pandelios, Jerry’s younger brother, on drums. Dirty Blonde was more successful than Dry Run had been and recorded several demos and CDs.

The Pandelios brothers now teach at Saucon Valley Music in Hellertown. The music store and school are owned by Jerry Pandelios.

Review:

Dry Run (Dry Run Records, 1985)

Rating: 5/10

A fine album with some good and some bad. The short run time is a negative as the band absolutely had a lot more to offer. The mix is pretty poor, with a very trebly sound and almost no bass and minimal backing vocals. Lead vocalist Mike Krycia was eventually switched to bass and this album is a great explanation as to why. 

Onto the good: “Unrequited Love” is a pretty solid track with awesome lead guitar work. “Debbie Debbie” starts off with a good Thin Lizzy vibe and has a nice solo. “Tommy Gun (She’s Just Like A)” has great drumming and is the only song with good vocals. Multiple copies I have found had the 45 inside the sleeve, so I’ll include the pleasant AOR track “I Close My Eyes” within this review. It has some corny keys and vocals but has that great 80’s vibe. Overall an okay album.