Call them whatever you like – Manito Park, Gotham, Your Name Here – but this 1980s Spokane band just re-released some top hits

In the late 1980s, as Spokane’s music scene was beginning to blossom, a dynamic group of musicians with the the harmonies of Journey and the hair of Whitesnake couldn’t help but catch the eye of those at the bars they frequented night after night.

Between their electric sound, ability to seemingly play any request, and even the unorthodox origins of the name that would eventually stick, Gotham didn’t demand attention as much as it simply couldn’t help but attract the ears of music lovers. Even today, over three decades after the release of their singular LP cassette, Gotham continues to intrigue so heavily that a record label picked up the record for a digital remaster and re-release of their only recorded material.

Dave DuPree, who would become Gotham’s lead singer and keyboardist, was deep in the band lifestyle long before the group came to fruition. Whether it was playing Greek Row during his time at Washington State University with a band by the name of Smiler, playing major markets across the country with another group called Lion or being invited to write songs with established producers in Toronto, DuPree experienced a plethora of musical highs and lows before returning to Spokane in the mid-1980s.

DuPree left the fast-paced touring musician lifestyle with the intention of “hunkering down” to just “play and write music.”

Alongside fellow former Lion member, bassist Cary Bear, as well as guitarist Bob Burdett, they became music machines: constantly writing, churning out songs and playing any venue that would have them. They would pile into Burdett’s Cadillac that barely managed to fit the group, their instruments and PA system before spending most evenings playing bars across Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

“The three of us would just sit in the front seat and sing the whole way to gigs,” Dupree said. “They were just divey dives, but they were so much fun.”

It was on one of these drives that the band’s name was born. The three didn’t feel the initial need to title the group, since, in their minds, they were just three buddies having the time of their lives playing whatever and wherever they wanted. So, they would make up names on the spot every evening, never being the same band twice.

“We’d just come up with a new name every time,” DuPree said. “We didn’t even care. We’d just come up with whatever we wanted to, for whatever gig, for whatever night. Pretension zero.”

While driving to a show at the Gateway Marina and Resort on southern Lake Coeur d’Alene, they passed Gotham Bay and decided “Gotham City” was a fitting title for the evening. Although eventually shortened to just “Gotham,” it was the loud and loving reaction of a patron who had asked what their name that finally convinced them to be consistent.

“He’s drunk and he’s like, ‘Gotham City. We love it!’” DuPree recalled while mimicking the voice of the concertgoer. “So, it stuck.”

The group would take breaks during their sets to talk to patrons and would collect enough requests to create an entirely new setlist. Playing so many songs with so little preparation is much easier said than done – but they did it.

“We would just fly from song to song to song randomly, generally when Cary changed the bass key,” DuPree said. “We just flew into whatever he was doing. We became really proficient jammers.”

Eventually, the trio hired a drummer, Rusty Knorr, instead of DuPree’s drum machine he would work while singing lead, playing the keyboard and even adjusting the lighting with his feet. And then, they began recording their own music.

Gotham did their fair share of covers, but the group was also performing plenty of original work. Soon enough, the demand from concertgoers and fans of the group grew to the point of Gotham recording and releasing an eight-track cassette, “Home Sweet Home,” in 1989.

Not long afterwards, Gotham transformed into a different band, Manito Park. The group quickly achieved high praise and even turned down multiple record deals in Los Angeles. As Manito Park fostered their own hits and widespread fanbase, Gotham slowly faded into the past.

That is until Burdett’s nephew Tom Hicks, who had his own band named Torture and now lives in Los Angeles, realized the potential Gotham still has. There are some record labels that operate solely on finding and re-releasing hidden music of years past, and once Hicks impressively remastered “Home Sweet Home,” plenty of those labels were after it.

Gotham immediately connected with Andrew McNeice, owner of the Australian label MelodicRock.

“He really knows when something needs to be heard,” DuPree said.

The eight tracks on “Home Sweet Home” were rereleased alongside three of Manito Park’s greatest hits (including “One Last Look”) under a new title, “Pictures,” on May 30.

“Truthfully, it just warms my heart,” DuPree said. “I’ve separated myself from it, I’m such a different person … it just makes me smile.

“I listen to these tunes and it’s like I’m listening to somebody else.”