After spending years in various different punk/rock and roll Joe Fitzgerald was thinking of giving it up during the summer of 2000.Instead he got sober, though this did not pay immediate dividends, though he did  start  taking things more serious. Years of taking the trip up to Lynn produced a few gigs and a lot of original material  i.e. “Triple-Deckers  and Beer”. Eventually a new keyboard player entered the scene and the band became King Crockpot and Joe bowed out. King Crockpot went on to record two C.D’s. and are currently changing personnel after the departure of two members. A couple of years of home recording and playing with different players left Joe with the desire to perform live.

At this time a co-worker/drummer, Peter Flynn, began pushing Joe to go to the open blues jam at Johnny D’s run by Mike Welch and Brad Haleen. Joe repaid this kindness by writing songs making fun of Pete. At the jam Joe began to collaborate with Boston Underground  Comic, Stash. Singing songs like “Sexy Legs” and “Don’t Drink Like I Used To” It was decided to hire a band and do some gigs.Through a connection to SomervilleCommunity TV Joe was able to arrange to bring the Sunday jam into studio with regular jammers Matt Robinson, Bob Ross, John O’Connell, Peter Flynn, Stash, Leo Fama, Rose and others. The cable show led to Stash approaching Brad and Mike. Much to the surprise and delight of Stash and Joe, Brad and Mike agreed to sign on .

The first gig for “The Sufferin’ Bastards’ was at The Emerald Ilse in Dorchester. The Band joined Rich Gustus’s  “Comedy Soup Kitchen” for a couple sets after the stand ups. Initially the locals were not too happy with the band bringing all the equipment in but this changed as soon as “Monster Mike “played his first riff. The night ,captured on video by JoJo LaRiccia, was a total success and was later broadcasted on Dedham Community TV.Two fundraising shows followed at The Fuji  and The Holy Ground. Both were memorable nights. The Fuji because the time the band went on,10pm, was the time a 30 person pub crawl was set to arrive. The band held up well considering the crawl had started at 2pm. Both fundraisers made money for Step Up 4 Kids,a charity caring for kids with mental illnesses.

In the mean time The Bastards returned to SCAT TV with a different line up to do a cable show. It became obvious to Joe that Mike and Brad where so much in demand that any further shows with them would be few and far between. Being a big fan of these guys Joe was happy to play with them when he could and is very grateful for the experience. As not to confuse people Joe decided to only use the name “Sufferin’ Bastards” when Mike ,Brad and Stash are involved. Thus The Dented Cans were formed. The name was provided by Joe’s son, Zane, who insists his pop is the most dented can of them all.The Scat show involved drummer Stevie Peabody who became the first official can. Later Pete Comerford was added on guitar and Bruce Mc Grath on sax. Johnny Blue Horn became a later addition.Bass playing duties have been split between John Bunszall,Rich DePietro and Bill Gildea in studio. A recent addition of Rich Ceaserini on piano and organ has seemed to fill the sound out.

After a few bar gigs The Cans performed for “ Joe’s Boys  Benefit” and then later for Health and Education Services at The Danversport Yacht Club. Each of these performances contained guest vocalists provided by the band i.e. Barrence Whitfield, Danny Vitale, Delaware Floyd Brown ,Cheryl Arruda,Kirsten Hughes,David Hanbury and Doug Bell.

The Cans are currently recording a CD of all original songs at Billy Gildea’s Reel to Real Studio and looking forward to playing for you. Hopefully the CD will be done by the end of Fall 2008.