My Final post! LOCKED

You'll be glad when I'm gone, but i felt the need to share this with you cause I know some of you like these bands and know some of the kids.

***Breakups and Makeups for The Reunion Show***

These days, The Reunion Show is far from united.

Two members of one of Long Island's best bands, bassist Brian Diaz and guitarist Derrick Sherman, have quit. But Mark Thomas, vocals and keyboards, and David "Skully" Sullivan- Kaplan, drums, remain and they plan to continue playing and recording - as a duo - under the band's name. Call it the revised, reconstructed Reunion Show.

"We're just going to try to start fresh," says Skully. "It's going to be a challenge, but a fun one."

Diaz and Sherman have moved on to bigger things, albeit behind the scenes: Diaz is guitar technician for Brand New (he and drummer Brian Lane are both from Merrick) while that band tours the United States. Sherman is serving the same function for The All- American Rejects.

"It's a good decision for me," Diaz says, speaking by cell phone while driving around Los Angeles with the Brand New boys. "I'm with my friends now, helping them out, watching them do something great."

Not long ago, The Reunion Show was "training to be a star," as the band once sang. Its upbeat, new-wave-of-new-wave sound set it apart from Long Island's legions of emo rockers, but that was a good thing - and the band seemed poised to get swept up in the excitement around Brand New and Taking Back Sunday.

So why split up now? "It was hard to pull away from that, because I gave three, four years of my life to it," says Diaz. "But things were leveling off. It wasn't growing any more than where it had been for a long time."

In fact, the financial picture has been worrisome, says Skully. "We were constantly broke," he says. "We also have a lot of debt we're trying to get out of."

In August, the band returned from touring but had little else scheduled for the rest of this year, leaving few opportunities to bring in more income. Soon after, Diaz and Sherman left the band.

Meantime, Skully and Thomas are playing as The Reunion Show with a couple of guests: T.J. Penzone on guitar, and his brother Rick on bass. Long Island is still a small world, musically: Skully is subbing on drums in T.J.'s band, Descendre. The Reunion Show plays its first Long Island concert with the temporary lineup Nov. 9 at Oil City Skate Park in Oceanside.

The band's next disc, however, will likely be written and played solely by Skully and Thomas, and they already have some new songs. "The music is a lot darker, more synth-driven," says Skully. "We're probably going to incorporate laptop computers live. A lot of the stuff sounds more like Joy Division and Depeche Mode than the older stuff."

Expect the album early next year on Victory Records. Skully says producer Nick Raskulinecz, who worked on the band's debut album, "Kill Your Television," is interested in producing again.

Skully says he has no hard feelings toward his ex-bandmates. "We all kind of got along kind of OK, to be honest - it wasn't like a best-friend relationship," he says. "It's cool, I wish them well, and I still talk to them every day."

bye bye!