(T , 4 .-J . 1 Darrell Sapp Poet -Gazette John Zarra, owner of the Electric Banana. Punk goes the trend By Mike Kalina Post-Gazette Staff Writer New Wave rock 'n' roll hasn't really inundated the Pittsburgh music scene the way it has in other cities, but lately it's been lapping away quietly at a market here. One of the first nightclub entrepreneurs to latch onto the fad is John Zarra, a man who is to nightclub trends what Sammy Davis Jr. is to gold chains. Is the man who's promulgating New Wave (a.k.a. Punk) music in Pittsburgh essentially a musical esthete who wants to encourage new and broader forms of rock 'n' roll? Nope. It's all a matter of economics. "I'll try anything," said the gravel-voiced Zarra as he sipped a drink one recent evening about an hour before his club, the Electric Banana, 3887 Bigelow Blvd., was to open. "Punk, schmunk. It's all music to me. You've got to go with something new all the time. It's a tough business." Zarra is far from a newcomer to trends. His club, when it was called the Spotlite, pioneered the go-go girl movement locally in the 1960s. It was his club that featured the first go-go boy. When he saw the go-go movement going-going, he completely switched the concept of his club and turned it into a disco. Then he turned it into a black disco. "I even tried country music for a while," Zarra said. "But it didn't take off as well as I thought it would. New Wave was the next thing and it's working. It's crazy, I'll admit that. But there's a market out there." If you are interested in catching some of the decibels of New Wave music, the Cardboards and The Five will be performing at the Banana tonight. Tomorrow, the Raveups, direct from a tour of San Francisco, will take over. But if you couldn't care less about the weird sounds the groups will be thrusting from the Banana's bandstand, you may enjoy watching the (Continued on Page 22)