by | Mar 23, 2023 3:45 pm | Comments (25)
Paul Bass photo
Preserved vibe promised: Cafe 9 at Crown & State.
The Ninth Square’s signature music nightspot will still be called Cafe 9 after next week — but with new owners, and maybe some ribs.
by | Mar 23, 2023 8:54 am | Comments (0)
Joseph Keckler’s video installation Ghost Song (which can be viewed in its entirety here) describes an erotic encounter with a spirit that is made hilarious by the multiple layers of incongruous media Keckler uses to create the story. It is funny enough that the encounter — “I had sex with a ghost,” the subtitles plainly read — is described in ludicrous detail (“different poses, like elderly aerobics. My ghost was a body worker. I held my arms in the air like a lost raver”). Funnier still that, after a more traditional ghost story opening, Keckler conveys the story in Italian, sung as light opera. The more seriously he emotes, the funnier it gets.
by | Mar 14, 2023 9:10 am | Comments (16)
Rendering of a new lab-and-office building ...
... to be built by Ancora at SW corner of ex-Coliseum site.
A North Carolina-based real estate developer has purchased the southwest corner of the ex-Coliseum site for over $10.6 million — furthering an already-city-approved plan to build up that part of the property into a new 11-story lab and office building.
Continue reading ‘Lab Builder Buys "10th Sq." Corner For $10M+’
by | Mar 14, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (15)
Brian Slattery Photo
Lloyd.
For Nick Lloyd, owner and chief engineer of Firehouse 12 on Crown Street, the announcement of the space’s spring concert series — kicking off March 24 and running every Friday through June 23 — is both a return and a rejuvenation. As in the past, the concert series features many of the leading lights of the experimental music scene, locally, regionally, and nationally. Those groups, however, will get to play in a renovated space that reflects, after two decades, Lloyd’s even surer sense of what a concert venue can sound like, and what it can do for players and audience alike.
by | Mar 13, 2023 8:59 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
The Jovial Crew.
Rick Spencer eyed the growing crowd at Cafe Nine Sunday afternoon after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, a healthy mix of parade-goers, families, and groups of friends, as The Jovial Crew took the purple-lit stage at the club on the corner of State and Crown.
“Good evening,” he said, gesturing toward the band. “I’m Shane MacGowan. This is Dolores O’Riordan, Bono, and Van Morrison.” The references to famous Irish singers drew appreciative laughter from the crowd, and set the tone for the show to follow, as The Jovial Crew turned Cafe Nine into a regular Irish pub, right on time for the holiday.
by | Mar 1, 2023 8:49 am | Comments (0)
Tom Hearn Photos
The Cadavers.
Before punk was a word people tried to define, before it was a movement and state of mind, there were the live shows that brought music to many who were hungry for more than what they were getting from sharing albums with their friends. Among those many were the few who carried it out of basements and back rooms and into people’s memories.
Larry Loud, local punk legend, was a teenager in Bridgeport when he played a show with his band in 1978 that would later be heralded as the first original punk music show in Connecticut. That show will be celebrated this Saturday night, March 4, at Cafe Nine with Loud’s band The Cadavers, the New York-based Live Ones, and Bridgeport’s own Bad Attitude.
by | Feb 16, 2023 8:25 am | Comments (0)
The Vultures had taken their places on stage, instruments in hand.
“Do you guys want to try something?” the sound person suggested, to make sure everything was working. None of the band members said anything.
“No?” the sound person said. “Okay!” She had read the band right, as the Vultures, with three words to say to the audience (“we’re the Vultures”) kicked into a set of fuzzed-out guitar, driving drums, and rumbling low end that immediately made the mood on Wednesday night, as the New Haven-based surf-punk heroes opened up for the skatepunk-dub duo Cardiel, originally from Venezuela and now on tour from Mexico City.
by | Feb 2, 2023 8:40 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Stefan Christensen.
The healthy-sized audience at Cafe Nine on Wednesday night found itself treated to a night of improvised music that was somehow both energetic and soothing, harsh yet mellow, as three performances and a DJ set offered a chance to trance out from the cold.
by | Jan 26, 2023 8:53 am | Comments (0)
The improvisational jam duo P(x3) was on the stage of the State House Wednesday creating great grooves to dance to. But the figures leaping and spinning on the screen behind him weren’t dancing; they were fighting, in kinetic and ludicrous ways — as is the style of Super Smash Bros., the hit fighting video game from Nintendo that’s now almost a quarter-century old and still going strong. The audience members gathered to watch were in rapt attention. On a couch pulled up close to the stage, two players, their eyes glued to the screen, were in mortal combat, though one that would end with a smile.
by | Jan 23, 2023 8:47 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
PULSR.
Four bands — two based in New Haven, two based in Philadelphia and New York City — rocked the crowded floor of the State House on Friday night. It was an indication of how both New Haven-based and touring acts are starting to find their footing again after the pandemic, making the connections among one another to bring the music scene back for live audiences.
Continue reading ‘Four Bands Range Across State House Stage’
by | Jan 20, 2023 5:30 pm | Comments (30)
Rendering of Phase 1C's new lab-office building.
Thomas Breen photo
Construction currently underway at the former Coliseum site.
The redevelopers of the ex-Coliseum site won city approval to build 120 more apartments, 657 new parking-garage spaces, and a new 11-story lab and office building — all as construction of another 200 new apartments right next door has already begun — in the latest chapter of the planned overhaul of a former-arena-turned-parking lot into “Square 10.”
Continue reading ‘More Apts, Parking, Labs OK'd For "Square 10"’
by | Jan 18, 2023 2:44 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
Coliseum site construction, now underway.
Dirt was on the move — and not just in a ceremonial fashion — at a now-bustling construction site that once housed the long-gone Coliseum.
by | Jan 18, 2023 8:36 am | Comments (1)
Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop, of Larry & Joe, positioned themselves close to one another on the Cafe Nine stage Tuesday night, surrounded by instruments.
“Buenas noches,” Bellorín began. Troop translated. “Good evening.”
As Bellorín continued, Troop translated.
The two musicians were delighted to bring to New Haven “the best of our music — the best of Venezuela and the best of Appalachia.” Also, “as you’ll notice, we’re twins.”
That last line drew laughter from the healthy-sized crowd, but it was the right encapsulation of what the duo were about, in the sincerity and depth of their mission, the virtuosity and emotion they brought to their playing, and the humor and big-heartedness with which they delivered it all.
Continue reading ‘Larry & Joe Fuse Venezuela And Appalachia’
by | Jan 17, 2023 7:43 pm | Comments (9)
Yash Roy file photo
Lisa Dent: Headed to Mass MoCA.
The head of one of New Haven’s leading downtown art galleries is leaving town for a new museum job in the Berkshires, nearly three years after she first stepped into the Ninth Square role.
Continue reading ‘Artspace Director Leaving For Massachusetts’
by | Jan 16, 2023 8:40 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
FaTE on Friday.
Three bands filled The State House with a multitude of sounds on Friday the 13th in another of Elm Underground’s lucky streak of shows that have been making New Haven music fans happy for almost exactly one year now.
Continue reading ‘Elm Underground Keeps Lucky Music Streak Alive’
by | Jan 13, 2023 8:18 am | Comments (0)
O.K. Company and Jessy Griz brought down the house and soothed the soul at Cafe Nine on Thursday night, with an evening of strong voices, deep grooves, and big emotions.
by | Jan 5, 2023 8:51 am | Comments (0)
The intersection of Orange and Crown can be quiet this time of year, as it gets cold and the street has opened up again to traffic. But there’s still foot traffic, a passing car, a man flitting by on a bicycle. And now, in the windows at Artspace, a series of projections, of shapes that move and change, looking first like crystals, then reflections in glass, and sometimes perhaps like physics experiments. They invite anyone to stop and linger, and maybe even get a little lost. But maybe the most intriguing thing about them is that they’re not films; they’re digital animations. They’re just lines of code.
by | Dec 20, 2022 11:46 am | Comments (14)
Greentown Labs
Founding Director Dings: "Addressing climate change is a moral imperative and an economic opportunity.”
A town-gown group is planning to launch a climate-focused tech start-up center in early 2023 in downtown New Haven.
by | Dec 19, 2022 9:44 am | Comments (0)
The Jam
Four horn mics, three drum sets, two keyboards, and one massive stage set up was ready Friday night to present The Holiday Jam, the season friendly version of The Jam, a now iconic New Haven music series and staple of The State House where it has found its home since 2019.
A musical mélange of friends and fellow musicians that come together to improvise and inspire, The Jam is the brainchild of musicians Paul Bryant Hudson and Jeremiah Fuller, who, along with a core group of musicians, typically play one set as a full band, and then a second set where they invite other musicians and vocalists to come up and have a turn at being part of the magic. The entire time, they intertwine their respective skills and sounds of jazz, R&B, soul, and just about everything and anything else, uplifting each other to reach the highest of heights.
by | Dec 19, 2022 8:51 am | Comments (2)
Kevin Saint James at Cafe Nine.
Sunday allowed music lovers to take in live music from the afternoon through the evening at Cafe Nine and the State House, in offerings that encompassed jazz to rock to hip hop, all within the space of a block.
by | Dec 7, 2022 8:44 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Ferrer.
Early in his set, Fernandito Ferrer issued a humble apology; he believed he was a little out of practice. “I haven’t had too many gigs lately, and it’s cold,” he said. There was no need to apologize, no evidence that he was out of practice, as his hands nimbly worked the fingerboard and strings of his guitar and his voice wafted through a room full of people at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night.
by | Nov 29, 2022 10:30 am | Comments (0)
Mike Marques Photo
Joey Batts.
“Year nine, can you believe it?” said Joey Batts, creator and organizer of Hip Hop for The Homeless, expressing his excitement about the annual live event, which begins on Thursday this week at The State House. It will go on to include seven shows at seven different venues throughout Connecticut, spanning the next two weeks. The event will focus on its yearly goal of raising money and collecting food, clothing, and personal hygiene items for specific organizations in each city where it is held, but it’s also focused on the local hip hop community.
Continue reading ‘Hip Hop For The Homeless Kicks Off Year Nine In New Haven’
by | Nov 21, 2022 8:50 am | Comments (0)
Lindsay Skedgell Photos
Asher Kai.
Along the walls of Cafe Nine, two trans pride flags framed the stage as a crowd began to gather inside from the cold. The room quickly filled, with art vendors and band merch tables lined along the wall closest to the front door. Crowd members walked around in clear earrings with black lettering, the name ’T4T’ dangling from their ears. It was the beginning of New Haven’s Trans 4 Trans music festival, and performers had come from all over the Elm City, and as far away as Oregon, Philadelphia, and Boston, to be there.
by | Nov 21, 2022 8:35 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photos
Marmol-Gagne.
Puppeteer and host Anatar Marmol-Gagne was trying to start the Pinned and Sewtered Puppet Cabaret at the State House on Sunday night. The problem: fellow puppeteer Madison J. Cripps, who attempted to hijack the audience’s interest with puppets, dance routine, and blazing harmonica. It seemed like chaos might reign for a moment, until he was dragged away by a giant red cane wielded by a silent stagehand. Marmol-Gagne smiled.
“Who invited you?” she said to Cripps, now offstage. “Oh, right. I did.”
Continue reading ‘Puppet Cabaret Gets Down To Monkey Business’
by | Nov 18, 2022 12:28 pm | Comments (10)
Noel Sims photo
Thomasine Shaw, Ernest Pagan, and Alder Carmen Rodriguez at Thursday's meeting.
The public space at the new Coliseum site redevelopment will be a true “gateway to the city” that is open to all — and not a fenced-in private courtyard like what currently sits one block away in front of the Knights of Columbus tower.
City officials and a Norwalk-based redevelopment team made that promise during the latest community meeting about a mini-city’s worth of rebuilding now underway in New Haven’s “Tenth Square.”
Continue reading ‘Coliseum Redo Promise: Park Will Be Public’