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Brian Slattery |
Dec 17, 2021 1:15 pm
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A new 50-year retrospective exhibit displays works by artist Bruce Oren (below), including the above sculpture of Moses.
Artist Bruce Oren renders the face of Moses in fine detail in marble, from the wrinkles worn into his face to the weight of his eyelids. He conveys the heaviness of the tablets on his shoulders by the angle of his elbow, the definition of the muscles. But as we move away from Moses’s face, the details begin to grow coarser, until we see the edge of the block that Moses came from.
The figure emerges from the marble, but Oren leaves room for the stone to have its say, too. We get to see not just the finished figure, but the path Oren took to get there.
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Courtney Luciana |
Dec 16, 2021 3:26 pm
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Rapper Dustystaystrue back at Barnard Thursday after a national tour.
Five hundred students gathered in the courtyard of Barnard Environmental Science and Technology School roared with excitement Thursday morning as Dustystaytrue’s “Never Change” blared from the speakers — and the rising rapper himself arrived on scene.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 16, 2021 9:25 am
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Sketch Tha Cataclysm
Four indie hip hop acts connected with the New Haven-based Fake Four record label made good on Cafe Nine’s nickname of the musicians’ living room by holding a show Wednesday night that felt personal and familiar, even as the acts themselves hailed from as close as the Elm City, and as far away as Dallas.
Now they want to add beer to the list. Neighbors turned up to show they love the store — but area package store owners had reservations about new competition.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 15, 2021 9:31 am
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Before the electric guitars, before the bass, before even the drums, vocalist and guitarist Travis Shettel of the beloved Boston-based emo band Piebald opened the band’s set Tuesday night Space Ballroom alone, with a quiet rendition of Mel Tormé’s and Bob Wells’s classic “The Christmas Song.” It was a small moment of calm in a night filled with raging rock. But in the sincerity of its emotions, and its connection with the audience, it fit right in.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 14, 2021 9:14 am
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From the start of Junk, the debut album from The Problem With Kids Today, it’s all wrong, and that’s what makes it right. Four chops from an electric guitar at the beginning of the first song, “You’re In Love With Junk,” are supposed to set the tempo, but they don’t. The drums insist on a faster tempo, the guitar falling in. What follows is just over two minutes of building mayhem, as a heavy riff gives way to barking vocals. It’s pure party. But there’s something else going on, too.
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Karen Ponzio |
Dec 13, 2021 9:14 am
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The Hulls
Celebrating tens: That is what a slew of local music fans did this past Friday night at The State House for the 10th anniversary of Deck the Hulls, the annual holiday fundraiser event hosted by local punk legends The Hulls.
The tradition began at Rudy’s and proceeded to Three Sheets. It ended up this year at the State Street club, where the band was joined by two always-ready-to-party New Haven bands, The Simulators and The Right Offs, to raise money and collect food for a good cause while also gathering friends to get the holidays off to a spirited start.
Monetary donations as well as canned goods were accepted at the door for CT Foodshare (formerly know as CT Food Bank) while Christmas music played overhead and attendees greeted each other after a year off due to Covid closures.
First to the stage was The Simulators, six members strong and ready to get the audience good and warm. A fun and feisty set of rocking reggae-ska-punk felt like a party that welcomed any and all to attend. Guitarists Kevin MacKenzie and Julian Wahlberg traded off vocals and riffs while Frederic Anthony and Zachary Yost kept the beat tight on drums and bass and Cody Freedom and Brian Koopman shared saxophone duties. Together they melded into a smooth sweet sound that got the steadily building crowd to move around, though MacKenzie also egged the crowd on by telling them to “shake your booties.”
MacKenzie also thanked The Hulls for “putting this on,” to which Wahlberg countered with “you just thanked yourself, I think” — in reference to MacKenzie being a member of The Hulls as well. The crowd laughed, loving every minute of this set, which Wahlberg had mentioned earlier marked the band’s first show at The State House. And the celebration had only just begun.
“Good evening. We’re The Right Offs. How you doing?” said Maxwell Omer, guitarist and vocalist of the hard rocking trio, rounded out by Than Rolnick on bass and vocals and Robert Breychak on drums. The band immediately exploded into a stellar set of beloved originals that felt fresh and new again, complemented by a couple of holiday tunes that sparkled with the band’s indelible sound.
Omer mentioned he was having a “hard time getting into the Christmas spirit,” but you would have never known that given the way he stomped and strutted through Chuck Berry’s “Run, Run Rudolph.” The band was joined on bells by The Simulators’ Cody Freedom, dressed in an elf hat and holiday sweater, adding a healthy dose of cheer to an already super-fun tune.
With some of the hardest driving beats around, guitar licks that sailed into the stratosphere, and lyrical songs like “Fire in the Theater” and “Post Bone Savvy,” the Right Offs’ set felt almost celebratory and definitively anthemic. The band mentioned recently on social media that they have only a couple shows left before they take a break. I suggest getting to one of those if you too are feeling the need to be rescued from the holiday blues.
The Hulls came to the stage decked out in holiday attire. Guitarist and vocalist Jess Corbett had on a colorful tree-studded suit, bassist John Meah wore a Santa hat and sweater, drummer Robert Breychak (fresh off his explosive set with The Right Offs) also sported a Santa hat, and guitarist and vocalist Kevin MacKenzie was decked out in a full Santa suit. Smiling and laughing from the get-go, with audience members shouting out to them even before a note was played — “watch what you wish for,” MacKenzie yelled back as requests were being made — the band immediately cemented the holiday tone even for those of us not quite there yet by beginning the set with Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” Freedom, now dressed as an elf, joined the Hulls on saxophone for this one and came back to play bells on a few other songs, including Wham’s “Last Christmas,” which in their hands became a pulse-pounding punk rock proclamation of loss.
The band added its own spin to a multitude of classics, such as Tom Petty’s “Christmas All Over Again,” Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad,” and The Kinks’ “Father Christmas.” They also sang originals, including a holiday song called “Christmas Time on the Picket Line,” which Corbett said he wrote years ago for union members; he added to not forget those out there on the lines right now.
For that one the Hulls were joined by Michael Cooper, who also delivered a spirited performance of The Ramones’ “Merry Christmas,” dressed as his alter ego from The Hymans, a local Ramones cover band that includes members of The Hulls. A well-known local artist as well as performer, Cooper made the flyer for this show and has made them for the band for years.
The crowd got crazy in on the action during “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” sung in the style of Bruce Springsteen’s cover of the song, singing and dancing along, and many kept going for the next one, Midge Ure’s and Bob Geldof’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
By the time the Hulls got to its last song, a riotous punk version of “Auld Lang Syne,” the crowd was deep in party mode and deeply appreciative. While the night had been a joyous respite from the recent ills of the week, it also did what the best shows often do: instilled a sense of community and hopefulness that could be carried away beyond that evening.
“Here’s to a better year next year,” said MacKenzie. “If we all stick together, we can do it.”
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 10, 2021 10:45 am
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The crisp, heightened color and the vertical symmetry immediately draw the eye to Penrhyn Cook’s photos, Mexican Tub and VW at Sunrise, side by side on the wall at Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville. They’re just normal manmade objects, and in the world there are many like them, but Cook’s treatment of them imbues them with substance, meaning — even dignity.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 9, 2021 9:10 am
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A darkened room filled with luminous yet ruinous shapes. A wavering eye at the top of a crooked tower, never blinking but always bleary. One wall has been transformed into a pale blue screen. The words “I wouldn’t do this to you if you didn’t deserve it” are typed out in a primitive font. Across the room is a chair with the word “guilty” projected onto it; on the wall behind it, a more expansive message: “Everybody’s guilty of something.”
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 8, 2021 10:02 am
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Susan Newbold
Island Magic
The vivid colors make the title of Susan Newbold’s piece — Island Magic — appropriate enough, but Newbold’s treatment of the subject moves the image well beyond a travel postcard. There’s enough information in the texture of the painting that, with a small imaginative leap, the viewer can be on that coastline, feel the grit of the sand, the roughness of the rocks, the cool water. It’s not just a picture of a place; it’s a record of Newbold’s experience of being there.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 7, 2021 9:32 am
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Conor Perreault, part of the Volume Two collective that runs Never Ending Books, was seated at an organ in the State Street space. He let out a long, low bass note from the instrument’s foot pedals.
“You’re all set,” said Tim, a musician who was setting up a laptop rig. “Get a brick.”
Perreault left the room for the yard behind Never Ending Books, and in fact returned with a brick, which he placed on the pedal. The sound went on and on.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 6, 2021 1:23 pm
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Stewart and Taylor.
The Wandering, an event organized by artists Anika Stewart and Elizabeth LaCroix Taylor, turned Bregamos Community Theater into an arts bazaar, music venue, and burlesque stage all at once on Saturday night.
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Adam Matlock |
Dec 6, 2021 12:46 pm
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A trickle of excited conversation ran through the audience Friday night just before Lioness took the stage. For serious devotees of live music, of jazz, of Firehouse 12 as a storied listening and recording room, the thrill of attendance cannot be taken for granted, now that audiences and fans worldwide have learned what it’s like to not have it available. As for me, I had the time to unhurriedly grab another glass of water, and fetch a better pair of headphones before the band hit, maybe even crank the heat up a notch. I was watching live, from home — even though pandemic restrictions have been lifted.
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Lisa Reisman |
Dec 3, 2021 12:07 pm
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Executive chef Stephen Ross putting the finishing touches on his Jamaican jerk chicken at Jazzy’s Cabaret, a new Ninth Square nightspot which has its official kickoff this weekend.
To attain jerk status, the chicken sizzling on the grill at Jazzy’s Cabaret had spent the last 48 hours marinating in a blend of scallions, onions, and scotch bonnet peppers, with a rub of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice working their way into the meat.
“That’s for maximum flavor,” said executive chef Stephen Ross, as he turned the chicken over with a pair of tongs, a smoky aroma wafting through the brightly lit kitchen.
“And that flavor is why we make 40 of these on a given night.”
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Lisa Reisman |
Dec 3, 2021 10:24 am
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The ordering line on opening night.
One hour into the rousingly successful introduction of pizza at Atticus Market on Thursday night, someone asked owner Charlie Negaro, Jr. if all his dreams had come true.
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Karen Ponzio |
Dec 3, 2021 9:19 am
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Ch’Varda gets the party started .
The State House was the setting Thursday night for the first of seven Hip Hop for the Homeless shows, an annual live event created by Hartford’s Joey Batts to raise money, food, and clothing for those in need throughout Connecticut.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 2, 2021 9:21 am
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The portrait of the Foote sisters — Anna and Amelia — dating from around 1860 appears early in “Children of the Elm City,” the new exhibit at the New Haven Museum running now through winter 2022. It’s in the first section of the exhibit, dedicated to portraiture from the 18th and 19th centuries, before the advent of widespread photography.
Because the exhibit is partially geared toward children, a lot of questions appear in the text accompanying the exhibit. One might not expect those questions to be as provocative as they are.
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Brian Slattery |
Dec 1, 2021 9:02 am
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Widerschall and Brooks.
“God Cried: Arson!” — the opening track from One Eye Is The Sun, One Eye Is The Moon, by Vaca Sagrada — starts with a splash of horns, guitar, bass and drums setting up an easy, bluesy swing. It all feels breezy, almost happy-go-lucky. it doesn’t prepare the listener for what the singer sings: “When God made the world he used a compass and a square / A compass and a square and he made the earth, fire and air / then he made water / Mankind disappointed God tipped his giant cup / spilled all the water down / and he drowned them.” The horns respond to those unspooling lines with a few descending riffs, almost as if they’re chuckling, shrugging their shoulders. Oh, well!
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 30, 2021 9:24 am
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From now until the end of December, visitors to Cafe Nine will see a change of art on the club’s walls — the photographs and paintings of Leigh Busby, who as a photographer has become one of the most sharp-eyed chroniclers of life in New Haven, particularly during the unrest of 2020, where he was there, camera in hand, to document the outrage and the energy of that summer and show the city to itself.
In combining his photographs and paintings into one show, Busby allows even those familiar with his work a chance to see how he moved from painting to photography, and the lines that carry through all his work.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 29, 2021 9:17 am
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Kid Sistr.
An all-ages matinee show on Sunday at the Space Ballroom — one of the only clubs left in the area that does all-ages shows — proved to be ground zero for young rockers in the greater New Haven area, as three bands ramped up the energy to end the holiday weekend with a bang.
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 26, 2021 9:23 am
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Phat A$tronaut.
Five years ago, musicians Mark Lyon and chad browne-springer met up at a D’Angelo tribute gig, and shortly thereafter a band, Phat A$tronaut, was born. On Wednesday night that band came together with two other New Haven-based acts to celebrate its fifth anniversary with a pre-Thanksgiving show that had been an annual event up until last year’s Covid-19 shutdowns.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 24, 2021 8:13 am
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It wasn’t even 9 p.m. yet Tuesday, but Cafe Nine was already full of people. Some had come to hear New Haven-born drummer Ryan Sands and members of the house band play for the first New Haven Jazz Underground live session since the Covid-19 pandemic began. But many more had come to play with Sands, as the evening promised not only a hot set from the featured performer, but an open set to follow, and the kind of music making that brings a community together.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 23, 2021 9:05 am
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As the band warmed up behind him, Manny James checked the microphone, then slid into a swinging version of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” to warm up the audience.
James wasn’t really at Bregamos Theater on Blatchley Avenue as a performer on Sunday afternoon. He was there as a teacher — and as a student.
