by | Feb 10, 2020 1:00 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Sperm Donor.
“Give me a minute and I’ll say something entertaining,” said Phil of Sperm Donor, the second act of a three-band bill at The State House on Sunday night that gave everyone who wasn’t in the mood for Oscar speeches a reason to leave the house and experience the kind of live music you feel in your bones.
by | Feb 7, 2020 8:50 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
GA-20
“We’re gonna warm it up like that coal-fired pizza,” said Steve Balkun, one half of Balkun Brothers, who were one half of a powerful two-band bill Thursday night at Cafe Nine that included Boston’s GA-20 and filled the misty February night with enough heat to chase the forecasted snow away.
by | Feb 3, 2020 1:02 pm | Comments (0)
Jon Kessler
It Takes a Global Village Idiot.
People walking by Artspace since December have been treated to It Takes a Global Village Idiot, the chaotic kinetic sculpture by Jon Kessler that serves as a gateway to the rest of Strange Loops, the exhibit running at Artspace through Feb. 29. Curated by Johannes DeYoung and Federico Solmi, the exhibit seeks to explore “the social and psychological impacts of rapid technological change, and the consequential ways in which contemporary notions of self might be transforming.” The exhibit itself just might prove to be as distracting as a constantly pinging cell phone — and that’s part of the point.
by | Jan 31, 2020 4:34 pm | Comments (0)
“Here Comes The Killers/Snake Oil,” the first song on Killer Kin’s Bad, Bad, Minds! starts with a grinding, strutting guitar, ominous enough already. Then the drums crash in, a distortion-drenched tremolo guitar, somewhere between punk and surf.
Even before the singer starts chanting out the first lines of the first verse — “here comes the killers / here comes the kin” — it promises danger. But it also promises something else: fun.
by | Jan 22, 2020 8:37 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Konrad Dziemian and Eric Porcheddu.
“We’re trying something new here,” said Konrad Dziemian from the Cafe Nine stage Monday night. He and Eric Porcheddu played the inaugural show for Blue Note Mondays, a new series presented by the New Haven Jazz Underground.
by | Jan 20, 2020 8:51 am | Comments (1)
Gregory Gagliardi Photos
Last Thursday at the State House, there was a line around the block to hear Lil B talk.
by | Jan 10, 2020 1:01 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
JanaeSound
“How about FaTE?” said Janay Woodruff — vocalist for JanaeSound — at beginning of her band’s set Thursday night at Cafe Nine. “We were destined to be together!”
It was a play on words, but also words of wisdom as these two acts with two powerful and enigmatic vocalists came together for one incredible evening of goosebump-inducing music.
by | Jan 8, 2020 8:45 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery
Serenita.
Singer-songwriter Steph Serenita announced that she would start her set at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night like she always did, and proceeded to pound out a beat on her guitar and belt out Janis Joplin’s “Lord Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz.” Her voice filled the room and ears of the audience who had come to see her on a triple bill with Hatfield and Outside Reality that proved to be a night of strong voices and reverence for the dead.
by | Jan 2, 2020 1:11 pm | Comments (0)
Allison Hadley Photos
Hintz.
Cafe Nine rang in the new year Wednesday with a tribute concert to Hank Williams, curated, emceed, and finished out by Nathaniel Hintz, himself decked out in a partial nudie suit and bolo tie, helping to channel the country legend in spirit — and in spirits.
by | Jan 1, 2020 7:10 pm | Comments (1)
Sam Carlson Photos
American Elm.
An enthusiastic crowd from throughout Connecticut gathered at Cafe Nine for one final Manic Monday this week. For over three years, the series — promoted by Manic Presents and hosted by Cafe Nine — welcomed national touring musicians and paired them with local artists, hot on the heels of Manic’s previous long-running free events at BAR on Crown Street.
by | Dec 12, 2019 12:59 pm | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photo
Blurr.
Mickey Blurr turned out to have a wicked deadpan. “The Beatles are next,” he said to the audience at Cafe Nine on Wednesday night. “I’m so happy to open for the Beatles.”
“Not a lot of pressure,” an audience member deadpanned back.
by | Dec 2, 2019 8:42 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Bella’s Bartok
“Did anyone get any good deals today?” asked Joey Mains, drummer for Sean Henry, right before the band’s opening set at The State House this past Friday. He was referring to Black Friday and its holiday sales, though perhaps the best deal going was this two-band bill that also included Bella’s Bartok — the Northampton, Mass.-based group known for their theatrically ecstatic dance-party shows — who had also played at this venue last year on this same day.
by | Nov 29, 2019 9:38 am | Comments (0)
Everyone on stage smiled when they locked eyes, mid-groove, almost as if they were getting away with something. But bathed in the cool purple light of the State House’s stage, the musicians in The Jam — musicians Jeremiah Fuller’s and Paul Bryant Hudson’s monthly gathering of the best of New Haven’s homegrown R&B talent — weren’t getting away. They were getting down.
by | Nov 25, 2019 8:32 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photo
Big Fat Combo.
“This song is about all of you,” said Tom Hearn of Big Fat Combo as he introduced the song “The ‘In’ Crowd.” By the look of the packed house at Cafe Nine Sunday afternoon, “all of you” meant a sizable portion of New Haven’s music community and fans. Which made sense: The bill of this particular Cygnus Radio Sunday Buzz matinee was made up of two beloved local bands, the aforementioned Combo and The Furors.
by | Nov 24, 2019 10:14 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Ceschi.
Julio Ramos, a.k.a. Ceschi, beamed from the stage at the State House at a floor dense with cheering people on Friday night.
“Feel like I haven’t been home,” he said. Over the next two and a half hours, he and Anonymous Inc. — David Ramos on drums, Max Heath on keyboards, and Jane Boxall on vibraphone — rekindled their roots in the Elm City and proved that they remain a vital force in New Haven’s music scene.
by | Nov 21, 2019 5:02 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photo
The water was gushing, the sheet of steel inserted. And the newest engine of New Haven’s innovation economy was ready to roll.
by | Nov 20, 2019 8:51 am | Comments (0)
Anna Luther Photo
Madame Thalia performing at Lyric Hall.
Zohra Rawling — professional opera singer and the creative force guiding the troupe of performers in Madame Thalia — will be celebrating the heyday of radio and New Haven’s own role in it at Cafe Nine this weekend, even though she had her own tenuous but amusing experience with that medium about three years ago at WNHH, when she and fellow Madame Thalia member/musician Gretchen Frazier performed as a duo during the station’s annual fundraiser.
Continue reading ‘Madame Thalia Brings Old Time Radio Show to Cafe Nine’
by | Nov 18, 2019 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Pasquale Liuzzi Photos
Fiction Kids.
The clock had not yet struck nine as familiar faces of New Haven’s music scene rambled into the State House. Karen Ponzio, one of the Independent’s arts reporters (off duty that evening) sat in the corner sipping a gin and tonic while Dani Capalbo occupied the merch booth and handed out slices of pizza from nearby Modern Apizza. In front of the bar, Alex Burnett, musician and frontman of Laundry Day, loudly explained to fellow bandmate Sam Carlson why the “H” in Jesus H. Christ stands for Herman.
They were all there to celebrate the release of new music from two of the city’s musical acts, The Fiction Kids and Daniprobably, with Spit-Take opening.
by | Nov 12, 2019 1:13 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Scruffy Pearls
“You know, 11/11 is supposed to be some kind of magical number,” said Laini Marenick from behind her keyboard on the stage at Cafe Nine last night. “I feel like playing here on this date is a cosmic event.”
It was definitely a manic event — Manic Monday to be precise — and Marenick’s New Haven-based band Laini and The Wildfire were the first on a two-act bill that also included the New York-based Scruffy Pearls. Whether it was the moon or the stars or just plain old connection, both bands grabbed the audience’s attention from the very start.
by | Nov 11, 2019 9:01 am | Comments (0)
Noah Macey Photo
Alexa Rose.
“Boy, it’s nice to play for such a quiet room,” folksinger Alexa Rose commented between songs on Friday night at Café Nine.
The club was full, but the patrons were more interested in hearing from her than from each other. The only real noise was the hoots and wolf whistles every time she finished a song or one of her musicians stuck the landing of a solo.
by | Oct 28, 2019 11:52 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Christoph Whitbeck of the MacGuffins howled into the microphone, blood streaming down his chest. A man in a white plastic mask played the saxophone. Someone caught the “man flu.” And crowd members learned to do the squid.
by | Oct 22, 2019 8:04 am | Comments (0)
Greg Gutbezahl
Flamin’ Groovies - Left to right - Chris von Sneidern, Cyril Jordan and Tony Sales (not pictured: Atom Ellis)
“I’ve never been one of those people who can think about life 20 years ahead,” said Cyril Jordan, founder of Flamin’ Groovies, the legendary rock ‘n’ roll band that continues to make its way through the world of music on its own terms since originating in San Francisco back in 1965 — and will make its way to Cafe Nine this week.
by | Oct 11, 2019 7:47 am | Comments (0)
Alison Hadley Photos
From the front man to They and the Children, to employees of Wallingford’s Redscroll Records, to many a jean-jacketed, patch-adorned holder of the proverbial ‘gansett tallboy, all came out to the State House to see Les Filles de Illighadad. “So many people from so many parts of my life are talking about this band!” exclaimed Sarah Prown, citing figures from celebrated fiddler Bruce Molsky to New Haven-based friends on Facebook. On tour from Niger, Les Filles were in New Haven for the first time, and a very broad swath of the Elm City’s musical community came out to greet them.
by | Sep 25, 2019 7:41 am | Comments (0)
Justin Bencivengo.
Chad Browne-Springer of Phat A$tronaut held the microphone in his hand and looked out across the crowded house at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night. People were laughing and chatting, but Browne-Springer had something to say.
“Tonight I feel heavy,” he said. The room began to quiet down. “A lot of members of this band and a lot of people in this audience lost a friend. So if we could, just raise a glass for Justin.”
by | Sep 19, 2019 12:07 pm | Comments (0)
Allison Hadley Photo
La Chamba.
At a recent La Chamba show at the State House there were two distinct senses: the sight of many smiling faces, and the faint scent of tequila.
The crowd went from Tuesday tepid to a party resplendent with a dance circle. And La Chamba, purveying the sound of Peruvian chicha, served as the mover and shaker of the evening.