by | Apr 26, 2024 2:32 pm | Comments (0)
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Ceschi perfomring on WNHH FM's "Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51."
Like the rest of us, Ceschi, a.k.a. Julio Ramos, had long since emerged from the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic. But he hadn’t forgotten.
Nor had he lost hope.
Fuck your neighbor to survive
Eat your neighbor to survive
We were hiding our faces long before pandemics arrived …
by | Apr 26, 2024 10:05 am | Comments (1)
Dereen Shirnekhi photo
Waxahatchee at Toad's Place.
“I’ve been yours for so long / We come right back to it.”
It was a refrain I’d heard maybe hundreds of times at that point, the croon of Katie Crutchfield’s voice and the banjo backing her committed to memory. But Thursday night, as I heard it live and sang along with a crowd filling up Waxahatchee’s sold-out show at Toad’s Place, the song felt new.
by | Apr 25, 2024 8:52 am | Comments (0)
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Sketch Tha Cataclysm at Three Sheets.
“Hello several people, rap professionals, and various cool people,” said Sketch Tha Cataclysm from the Three Sheets stage, as he and fellow New Haven hip hop stalwart Mo Niklz hosted a group of touring artists from Chicago for a night of high-energy indie hip hop.
by | Apr 22, 2024 1:11 pm | Comments (6)
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At the New Haven Composers Spotlight at NXTHVN.
Composer and violinist Alyssa Chetrick was taking a solo as part of her vertiginous piece, sardonically titled “Equilibrium.” If some of the previous passages had offered a sense of calm, Chetrick was now going for chaos, spurring the ensemble around her to join her. Her phrasing pushed the musicians around her to dig deeper into the music she’d written, as if they were looking to break it. Would they?
by | Apr 19, 2024 9:04 am | Comments (0)
Dereen Shirnekhi Photo
Sam Carlson in the WNHH FM studio.
Sam Carlson broke a string as he tuned up his Guild D‑50 acoustic guitar to perform live on radio. But no worries — he had a backup Guild M‑20 with him as well.
by | Apr 18, 2024 12:19 pm | Comments (0)
After a day of driving heavy machinery, Joe Ballaro plugged in his bass, and the show began.
by | Apr 12, 2024 9:13 am | Comments (0)
Charlie Widmer performs on WNHH FM's "Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51," opening with his new single.
Charlie Widmer didn’t expect people to want to hear “What Do I Need With Love?” Now it’s the first of his songs some people will ever hear.
by | Apr 11, 2024 12:36 pm | Comments (1)
In the backroom lounge of Mediterranea Cafe, among centuries-old hookah pipes and patterned cushions, a fairy rising from the Underworld sang about darkness — and love, too.
by | Apr 11, 2024 9:51 am | Comments (1)
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Marco Benevento.
In front of a packed house that was ready to have fun, two touring acts at Space Ballroom — the New York City-based Ghost Funk Orchestra and the Woodstock, N.Y.-based Marco Benevento — brought humor, relaxation, and armfuls of danceable beats to the Hamden club on Wednesday night.
by | Apr 8, 2024 12:45 pm | Comments (0)
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Blick Bassy.
A triple bill at Cafe Nine on Saturday Night headlined by Cameroonian touring artist Blick Bassy featured two younger New Haven acts who tipped their hats to those older than they were, even as they showed everyone in the room that the future of music in the Elm City is in safe hands.
by | Apr 8, 2024 9:06 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photo
Voices filled the space of Bethesda Lutheran Church on Sunday afternoon, raised in song. But the harmonies weren’t what many may have been used to in a church; they were sharper, more angular, provoking of thought. Nor was the text from the Bible; it was a dispatch from halfway around the world, from the present day.
“We sense something grave is happening around us. We don’t know what the future holds,” the choir sang. “The land we tilled for generations is shrinking; salt water poisons what’s left of our fields. Many people have gone, displacement and death everywhere.”
by | Apr 5, 2024 12:00 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Johnathan Moore at WNHH FM. Below: Performing.
Johnathan Moore was ready to add a layer of sound. He reached for the Boss RC 600 loop station pedal and … nothing.
Moore said nothing. He made no excuses. He kept the beat going. He pivoted to a new plan — and the music played on.
by | Apr 5, 2024 11:25 am | Comments (1)
Still from Within Our Gates.
As Yale Film Archive launches into the last quarter of its 2024 spring semester programming, it offered something a little different on Thursday evening: silent films that each had a special distinction.
The first, presented in conjunction with the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, was a selection of Solomon Sir Jones Films from 1924 to 1928 that are currently a part of the library’s holdings. The second was a showing of Within Our Gates, a 1920 film written, produced, and directed by Oscar Micheaux; it’s the oldest known surviving film with a Black director. One more bonus: both films on this evening were accompanied by live music, played by pianist Donald Sosin.
by | Apr 5, 2024 9:15 am | Comments (1)
Mistina Hanscomb Photo
Klein.
“Shapes of the Things to Come,” from The Quiver — the new album from In These Trees (a.k.a. New Haven-based musician Binnie Klein) and Australian musician Tartie — begins with a searching guitar, heading somewhere, building atmosphere as it goes.
Bass tones ground it, setting Tartie’s direct, emotive voice free. “Life’s not a road, it’s an alley / We try to fit inside,” Tartie sings. “Every day we set the ground / Stretched end to end / But we can bend / Move with me / Through the new shapes / Of the things to come.” The words are by Klein; the music by Tartie, and The Quiver is the result of years of work, 10,000 miles apart.
by | Apr 4, 2024 9:10 am | Comments (0)
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Chappell Roan on Wednesday at College St.
The jury is still out on whether American culture, or the music industry, can create another superstar, like Michael Jackson or Prince, like Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. Maybe Beyoncé, now 42 years old, and Taylor Swift, 34, are the last of their kind. But if future superstars are still possible, one of its more likely candidates — Chappell Roan — played at College Street Music Hall on Wednesday night to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd that couldn’t get enough.
by | Apr 3, 2024 9:38 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Greco.
Pete Greco had a series of requests for the audience at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night. Did anyone know how to tune a guitar? Did anyone have any tattoos? The questions were all good-natured jokes in the service of serious music, as Greco and his band took the last slot on the inaugural night of First Tuesdays at Cafe Nine, billed as “a songwriter’s showcase featuring live bands, focused on shining a light into New Haven’s tremendously talented songwriting circuit.”
by | Mar 29, 2024 11:07 am | Comments (0)
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MJ Bones in the WNHH FM studio.
“If love is like an ocean,” MJ Bones was singing, “I’m lost at sea.”
Meanwhile, they sounded right at home, right where they belonged: Performing revelatory original songs on the ukulele, in New Haven.
by | Mar 29, 2024 9:18 am | Comments (5)
artidea.org
Jazz vocalist Samara Joy, an A&I headliner this year.
Shakespeare in circus, choral fusion, climate activism and optimism talks, making your own empanadas: this eclectic mix of events and more is part of this summer’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which is returning with a full schedule of programming that covers just about anything an arts and culture lover would have a taste for — and maybe something they have never tasted before.
by | Mar 28, 2024 9:52 am | Comments (0)
Videodome.
Two releases by two of New Haven’s currently active bands — Videodome and Wally — show how bands can reap musical success in two very different ways.
by | Mar 25, 2024 9:14 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Shandy Lawson.
A chair and a guitar. A table holding an old-fashioned radio. A vase full of purple flowers. A teacup and saucer. Was this a scene from an oft-told tale or real life? At Best Video on Saturday, it was the setting for “Stories: An Evening with Shandy Lawson,” in which the New Haven-based singer-songwriter shared a collection of songs that offered a bit of fiction, a bite of truth, and a tasty twist on each.
Continue reading ‘Shandy Lawson Sings Stories at Best Video’
by | Mar 20, 2024 9:27 am | Comments (0)
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Addie and Jacey of the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America declared themselves “thrilled” to be on Cafe Nine’s stage Tuesday night. The DSA is involved in a number of political efforts, but this night it was focusing on raising funds for a cause: The REACH Fund, which, as its website states, “is a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance for abortion care in Connecticut.”
by | Mar 19, 2024 10:18 am | Comments (4)
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Ball & Socket Arts front view.
When asked to name the cultural hubs of the Northeast, most people would not consider Cheshire, Connecticut a part of that list. A group of enthusiastic artists and supporters of the arts are hoping to change that over the next few years, as Ball & Socket Arts, a complex located on West Main Street right along the Farmington Canal Linear Path, continues its efforts to create a central location aimed at encouraging ongoing creativity and attracting New Haven County residents and beyond to its galleries, performance venue, art education center, and more.
Continue reading ‘Ball & Socket Arts Turns Factory Into Gallery’
by | Mar 18, 2024 9:50 am | Comments (1)
Kenneth Jimenez Photo
Lilith.
Ingrid Laubrock’s Lilith opened Firehouse 12’s spring season of shows at its concert space, recording studio, and bar on Crown Street with a fiery set of Laubrock’s compositions that paid homage to female energy and to the venue itself, which continues to be a hub for experimental music in New Haven, on the East Coast, and beyond.
by | Mar 12, 2024 10:13 am | Comments (1)
Jasmine Wright Photos
Roots of Deception lays it down at Connecticut Death Fest.
Hubert Smith took to the stage for the second time in two nights. The night before, he was playing drums for Necrocunt, something of a supergroup within Connecticut’s death metal scene. Now, he was laying down distorted guitar grooves for brutal death five-piece Roots of Deception. Photographers — myself included — wormed between audience members, who stood so close to the stage that their hair lashed its surface with each headbang. Behind us, the crowd was arranged in a circle of potential energy, the center of the Beeracks’ cavernous garage, waiting for the next mosh pit to break out.
by | Mar 11, 2024 10:25 am | Comments (1)
Leo Slattery Photo
A lone child in a Rubik’s Cube hoodie stood in the middle of the small black box space at Witch Bitch Thrift on Saturday night, trying and failing with a kendama, a Japanese wooden ball and stick toy. Around him, people trickled in in groups of two or three, ready to see folk-punk acts Apes of the State, Myles Bullen, and Lars and their Lilac Ukulele.
The band members socialized, waving to the people they recognized and smiling and introducing themselves to those they didn’t. Everyone was dressed for the occasion: a sea of Doc Martens, work boots, and old sneakers. Pants, mostly black, usually dotted in patches of the wearer’s favorite bands. The magnum opus, an Apes t‑shirt from a previous tour. April, lead singer of Apes of the State, seemed equal parts flattered and fascinated by the appearance of her decade-old merch. The most diehard of fans wore battle jackets, a punk tradition of sewing handmade patches of bands onto a denim coat. The battle jackets at this particular show almost all had Apes of the State on them. It was standing room only, save for a chair left in the corner that people piled coats under. The chair itself remained empty, as if for Elijah the prophet.
Continue reading ‘All-Ages Folk Punk Show Celebrates Community’
