Karen Ponzio Photos
Gentleman Brawlers
In between songs at Cafe Nine Monday night, New Haven-based musician Thabisa talked about her friend Becca Fox from the group Gentleman Brawlers, who would be coming up to the stage for the set after hers.
“I just met her tonight,” she added with a laugh, but as everyone was about to find out, this band and this crowd were all about to become much more familiar to one another.
Along with singer-songwriter Ro Godwynn, Thabisa and Gentleman Brawlers made up a triple bill on another Manic Monday showcase.
Godwynn, also a locally based musician, took to the stage first sitting on a stool solo with her guitar.
“My name is Ro,” she said. “I’m gonna play some music for you if that’s okay.”
She gently strummed. “Something’s slightly off / I can’t explain it,” she sang, and the room got quieter, suddenly held by her lyrical beauty and lighter-than-air vocals that seemed to float effortlessly through the room. She presented the crowd with three songs accompanied with that guitar, including one called “Do You Look Like My Sister?” that she said was written after talking with a man who told her she looked like his sister; she said she believed that this was “what was on that man’s mind” with lines such as “I want to do this my way / God knows how much longer I can do this on my own.”
Godwynn played the rest of her set — which included songs form her recently released EP, The Godwynn Experience Vol.1 — with accompaniment from her laptop and electronics that allowed her to add looping vocals and a funkier beat to the next three songs. She told the crowd she saved her final song, “Patience,” for last because it is “a lot of people’s favorite.” It seemed she was right; many there cheered and sang along immediately to lines like “look at me now / am I a punchline? / am I a clown? / am I a smile hiding a frown?” Many even joined in dancing, including Thabisa. By the time she sang the line “all I ever really wanted was time with you” it was clear that everyone needed and wanted more time with Godwynn.
Next to the stage was Thabisa with a full band consisting of Tim Kane on trumpet, Myke Ross on guitar, Jim Lawson on bass and Sam Oliver III on drums.
Having already practically silenced the room with her vocal mic check earlier, Thabisa now took complete control with a set that showcased not only her amazing vocal range, but also her electric stage presence. Her energy appeared boundless as she danced along with and in between her vocals, giving her band much time to shine on their own as well. Her vocals flew high and floated low as she channeled everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Chaka Khan to Miriam Makeba, but with each note and each move she was also herself. She engaged the crowd often and with love, telling them about being from South Africa and singing in her native Xhosa. Showing the crowd her outfit, she joked that her husband asked where she was going that night and she told him it was “none of his business.” She came off the stage more than once to dance with the audience, shouting “come on and dance now.” Many, including Godwynn, joyously obliged. This audience was now more than ready for the final act.
The Brooklyn-based Gentleman Brawlers, in this first appearance in New Haven, gave the crowd even more reason to move. The band’s boundless energy and beat shook the floor of the bar and the bodies of those willing to get up and get down. An ecstatic set of funky tunes allowed the band — Becca Fox on vocals and synth, Matt Walsh on guitar and vocals, Trevor Brown on bass, and Jeremy Warren on drums — to jam out. Fox herself danced pretty much throughout the entire set, both on and off the stage, including a dance with Thabisa during an epic medley of the songs “Contact” and “Vibrate On,” which left Cafe Nine indeed vibrating (you can see that one for yourself in the above video).
Lyrically the band gave the crowd a bunch of fun choices, including “Dark Side,” which included the line “let me introduce you to my little friend,” “Poison Apple,” and “More Successful Ex-Friend,” which Fox introduced by saying “I feel like everyone has one of those” and “we’ll leave it at that.” By the time the band got to its final three songs the crowd had thinned out, but those who were still there were fully ensconced in the experience. Fox yelled out “who wants to dance? Who wants to dance with me? I’m gonna make it happen. I see some hands!” And yes, one of those hands belonged to me. It took everything in me to not toss aside my notebook and camera for this entire show to just dive right in and experience it, but by this time I had all the photos and video I needed so I took to the floor with the rest and had my dance with Fox and the others. This dance party was repeated for the final song of the set, and by that time the floor was really shaking, making it seem as if there were 70 or 80 people up there moving instead of only seven or eight. The love was given and received all night and ended with much happiness. Let’s hope this is the first of many more New Haven visits for this friendly and effervescent band.