18 Would-Be Elvi Crown The King

“Move those hips!” a girl in the audience screamed.

Channeling the electric spirit of the King himself, he did, circling his thigh in a near-royal knee-pop he had been practicing for over a week. 

So began A Tribute to Elvis, held this past Friday night at Cafe Nine to celebrate the singer’s would-have-been 80th birthday.

Singing to a packed house over roughly four hours, 18 musicians from New Haven and beyond performed from the King’s repertoire, from well-loved favorites to folksier staples that have not always gotten their due. The lineup, booked by Margaret Milano, featured artists that honored Elvis’s legacy and put their new spin on old standards. For Milano, the local aspect of fêting Elvis stood out as the strongest – – and most fun – – part of the evening.

“It’s like family. I think the show was a great turnout, and I was surprised too … like, random people came out. A lot of new faces. That people are supporting music and local places is really important right now.”

The family she was talking about included musicians like longtime New Havener and Rope member Sal Paradise, whose spot-on opening to ​“Little Sister” left several audience members’ jaws temporarily unhinged.

“I dig Elvis, and the song I performed tonight is a song I enjoy performing quite regularly. I first saw Elvis on TV when I was a little boy, and being involved in rock ​’n’ roll in my adult life … there’s no getting around it. As far as rock ​’n’ roll’s concerned, he was the king,” he said.

Country favorites and Cafe 9 veterans Bruce and LoraLee Crowder managed to pull off a belting, soulful ​“Love Me” with the Mississippi Delta lodged in their voice boxes.

Alex Burnet’s soft, swift vocals and twangy acoustic guitar set the stage for a calmer image of Elvis, the boy driving a truck out of Mississippi with a few hundred dollars in his pocket, a bottle of hair dye in the back seat, and big, loud dreams.

Performances like Burnet’s and Tom Hearn’s opened the night to several different takes on the King. There was some serious crooning and rocking it out.

And some instrumental additions that probably would have made Presley proud.

By the end of the night, Elvis wasn’t the only thing that the crowd — some members reeling at the news of Paul Mayer’s departure—were celebrating. Beer flowed freely and toasts were proposed to the artists who have made the venue so special. Stone, who performs with the local band 10,000 Blades and spends a good amount of time performing and listening at Cafe Nine, suggested that the evening’s momentum had less to do with Elvis and more to do with the venue.

“I think Cafe Nine is a gathering point for the old guard of the Connecticut rock scene. There is this ​‘50s throwback rock fetishism in Connecticut … this fits in with that. A lot of those shows are here. As far as the Elvis catalogue, I like the schmaltzy stuff, because I don’t think that it’s pretending to anything.” 

Inside, Lipgloss Crisis was finishing a stirring rendition of ​“Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

“I’m not going to say Thank you, thank you very much,” she said to applause and laughter. ​“There has already been enough of that.”

To find out more about live music at Cafe Nine, visit their events page.