The remaining members of The Gestures (Tom Klugherz, left, and Dale Menten) reminisce at Two Fish Studios in Mankato. | John Cross Klugherz continued playing, highlighted by a stretch in the 1970s with The Blitz Boys, a popular bluegrass-western swing band. These days, when he’s not restoring and collecting Corvettes, he helps operate Two Fish Studios and occasionally serves as City Mouse’s sound engineer. “Whenever we have a big show, we get Zeeth to do our sound,” Steiner says. “He’s a fantastic soundman.” Menten became a major player in Minnesota music production. He ran his own recording studio, Cookhouse Studios, has written prominent radio and TV jingles, scored several feature films and TV shows and was the musical director of an Off-Broadway play, “House of Leather.” He recently released a solo album, “Download Me.” Steiner, a longtime North Mankato city councilman, is swift to clarify that The Gestures were primarily a North Mankato band. Only Klugherz grew up in Mankato. In 1965, when North Mankato faced a serious flood risk, The Gestures donated their vans to the Red Cross. The city held a celebration that summer to thank The Gestures. The event is now known as North Mankato Fun Days. “They really played a role in saving North Mankato,” Steiner says. “Those vans helped the Red Cross go around with walkie-
talkies and check the dikes.” “Run, Run, Run” appears on various 1960s compilations on different record labels in America, Europe and Asia. Some of them are sanctioned, but many of them pirated, much to Menten’s chagrin. “Catching these people is tough,” he says. “They’re really screwing us. They keep hiding, but I don’t care. I’ll find them, but it’s not easy.” Fifty years since four boys assembled in a garage to tackle a song about lost teenage love, “Run, Run, Run” remains fresh and vital, 2 minutes and 17 seconds of unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll power. “It still jumps out of the radio,” Steiner says. “Every time I hear that guitar lick, it sends me back.” “I tell you what, it had that sound,” Klugherz says. “We were far and above what those novelty bands were doing. People compared it to surf music, but it wasn’t surf music and it wasn’t Beatles music. We were doing original music.” M
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