LI Sound: Supergenius reunites for 20th anniversary show

Port Jefferson Station's Craig Siegelbaum and Gina Cutillo will reunite their band Supergenius to celebrate the band's 20th anniversary. Credit: Wayne Herrschaft
Gina Cutillo says she was only trying to humor her Supergenius bandmates and their fans when she agreed to do a reunion show to mark the band’s 20th anniversary.
“For years, I was like, ‘I’m not doing this,’” Cutillo says. “I don’t go back. I go forward.”
After all, the Port Jefferson Station singer-songwriter has released several albums as a solo artist since Supergenius called it quits and just put out the rocking single “Christina” (Gina Cutillo) earlier this year.
But when guitarist Craig Siegelbaum, who now has a post-rock instrumental band Echoes Across the Sky, posted something about the band’s upcoming 20th anniversary on Facebook, the lobbying intensified for a reunion of the pop-rockers, who played CBGB and The Continental as well as nearly every Long Island rock club in the ‘90s.
“They just kept saying, because Craig and I are married now, ‘Craig, you need to talk to Gina’,” she says, laughing. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I'm being publicly shamed.’ So as a nice, empty gesture, I say, ‘Sure, I'll do it,’ not think we're ever going to put this together. Within two days, it was all together. Everybody was on board.”
Soon, Cutillo and Siegelbaum were going back over Supergenius material, practicing with bassist Chris Pearsall and talking to drummer Steve Caglianone, who now lives in Florida, about playing together for a reunion show at 89 North on Friday, Aug. 2.
“We accomplished quite a lot for a local band,” Siegelbaum says. “It's just fun to go back and re-learn the songs and enjoy the good memories.”
“It's like going back to your college days,” adds Cutillo.
In going over Supergenius’ old performances, Cutillo and Siegelbaum found new inspiration, reworking and recording an old song “Something Real” that they hope to release the day of the show to see whether there will be more Supergenius releases.
Siegelbaum says the band plans to play that, but finalizing the setlist is going to be tough. “We’ve already got a lot of requests for certain songs and we want to do all the songs that people want to hear,” he says.
“Everyone is asking if I’m going to wear Saran wrap because I did that once on stage,” adds Cutillo. “We’ll see what it will be. But believe me, it will be a good time. There’s going to be some fun surprises.”
Supergenius plays 89 North, 89 N. Ocean Ave., Patchogue, at 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2.