The Cave Dwellers celebrate 50 years of rock

ELMHURST – Elmhurst resident Gary Goldberg, 70, has built a shrine that chronicles his short-lived music career in the mid-1960s with The Cave Dwellers, a five-piece classic rock band. A photo of 22-year-old Goldberg and his college-aged bandmates are at the heart of the shrine.

They are dressed in matching striped shirts, dark pants, dark shoes and furry, caveman-like vests. Their hair looks stylishly unruly, which matches the disdained look on their faces. Overall, the photo is a clear illustration of the image the band tried to achieve at the time – rebels without a cause.

Now, the band – with mostly new members – is preparing for an upcoming show June 17 in Stickney and the original group's 50th anniversary in August.

The Cave Dwellers were signed to Jim-Ko Inc. in 1967, a record label that prized itself as "the Chicago sound in records." Under that label, the band produced two songs, "You Know Why" and "Run Around," which ultimately became their biggest hit.

"I've mellowed out now," Goldberg said, who still remains true to his rocker self with untamed, salt-and-pepper hair and rose-colored glasses.

When Goldberg was invited to speak at a lecture on the evolution of rock 'n' roll hosted by the Elmhurst Historical Museum in 2013, he was reunited with former bandmate, known as the "British lead guitarist" Peter C. Budd, but the controversy that surrounded the lecture overshadowed their celebratory moment.

Before the lecture, Goldberg gave a detailed account that The Cave Dwellers opened for The Beatles in August 1965 at Comiskey Park.

"It was a stupid thing to do, and I shouldn't have said that," Goldberg said, adding he never expected the "white lie" to grow out of proportion. "We were in the same magazine as The Beatles, which was an honor."

The 15th edition of the August 1965 Chicago Sun-Times Midwest Sunday magazine is a piece of memorabilia Goldberg holds closely. While The Beatles graced the cover for their performance at Comiskey Park, a spread dedicated to The Cave Dwellers' history, local popularity and testament to fashion and attitude rests inside the magazine.

One of the photographs in the spread featured a young girl named Carmen Poulous, who stood alongside Goldberg and his crew. Goldberg said Poulous was the president of their fan club, and much like members of his band, he never knew what happened to them after they parted ways in the early 1970s.

“We weren’t superstars,” he said, adding after a few years of performing live, recording in studios and changing band members, he just “got tired of it” and spent the following decades enveloped in the first wave of the cellphone business with his brother.

Budd said attending the lecture gave the two the opportunity to pick up where they left off several years ago. Not much has changed between them, and their similar taste in humor and music are still in tact, he said.

"We just both look old, of course," Budd said. "Time had gone by so fast."

Goldberg and Budd said they have recruited new members to the band to complete The Cave Dwellers, including lead singer and rhythm guitartist Joe Krowka, bassist Gary Cleland, lead guitarist Cliff Killion and drummer Danny Mayor. Budd, Krowka, Cleland, Killion and Mayor are Berywn residents and previously met through other music endeavors.

The Cave Dwellers continue to perform at venues and festivals throughout the Chicago area.

Goldberg and Krowka said they maintain the "classic rock" vibe of the band by playing original songs by The Cave Dwellers and covering popular songs that appeal to their crowd.

As a new member of a restored band, Krowka looks forward to the camaraderie he and his bandmates share together as performers, he said.

Goldberg said resurrecting The Cave Dwellers and composing music "makes him feel young."

"I just enjoyed playing, writing and creating," he said. "And that's what I've done all my life."