Benny Mardones sings to his fans Saturday, Aug. 3, at Sharkey’s. (Photo by Karen Miller Bialczak)

One good look around the grounds at Sharkey’s Eclectic Sports Lounge in Liverpool, N.Y., Saturday proved that the spirit for Benny Mardones lives.

Inside and out.

The Syracuse area still brings out the best in Benny. Get him up on stage with his band the Hurricanes in Central New York, and rock ‘n’ roll happens in a big way. Mardones opens up like a flower in the best sun.

His fans sing along and party, vowed to make the most of that concert time.

An estimated 3,000 or so people gathered on the grounds of the bar and restaurant Saturday night, some in pink to support the cause of the fundraiser for the Carol M. Baldwin Cancer Research Fund, some in Mardones T-shirts from over the years. My favorite was the one that said Benny’s on the front, in a style that mirrors the sign of the always-open restaurant that begins with a D instead of a B. The back paid tribute to Benny’s two-time Billboard hit, “Into the Night.”

When the sweaty crowd left the grounds, everybody was handed a leaflet with a letter of thanks from Mardones.

“No matter where I go, I always tell people that Syracuse is my home,” the message reads. “I am so proud of all the people who stepped up to help make this event happen. My Syracuse family deserves all the credit. They make me look good.”

The page also includes a prompt about the pending recording of a new Mardones album. It will be titled “Timeless,” an idea right in so many ways.

The album will include songs that he wrote decades ago with early partner D.L. Byron. Mardones found a batch of old reel-to-reels in storage in Woodstock, and decided these old songs needed to be recorded in a new fashion with his longtime Syracuse band, the Hurricanes.

There also will be songs he’s writing these days with Robert Tepper, his co-writer on “Into the Night.”

There’s a kickstarter.com campaign to raise money to record the project. Mardones says that he had record company offers to back the sessions, but doing it this way will allow him to control every aspect of the album.

The goal is $10,000. And it’s already been met.

As of this sunny Monday morning, $10,215 have been raised. There’s early support in the $20 and up levels, where pledgers will receive a deluxe edition of the CD.

One backer has pledged in the $5,000-and-over level. The prize is a show by Mardones and his keyboardist, Andy Rudy, in a city outside of his two hubs, Syracuse and Los Angeles.

Timeless. For sure.

The fans welcome Benny Mardones and the Hurricanes to the Sharkey’s stage.