Brian Slattery Photos
Brian Ember.
Baroque-pop theatrics and pop confections went head-to-head on Friday night at Cafe Nine on the corner of State and Crown Streets, as the New Haven-based Brian Ember and Youth XL gave two sets of music that heralded the return of something a lot like pre-pandemic normalcy to the long-running music club.
Youth XL — Alex McGuire on vocals and guitar, Connor Oyster on bass, Dominick Gregoretti on lead guitar, and Shaun Larson on drums — first took the stage with a high-energy set that made good on the band’s own tagline of being “Connecticut’s funnest band.”
“What a show! It’s Friday night!” McGuire shouted as the audience shouted back. The band then quickly established its rhythm, combining catchy melodies, danceable beats, and clever lyrics to bring people to their feet. Charming and breezy, Youth XL’s strength lay in giving a tight performance while not taking itself too seriously at all. “This is a song about eating healthy,” McGuire said halfway through the band’s set. “It’s called ‘Salad.’” It turned out the song really was about eating nutritious food, though rarely has tucking into a plate full of greens been made to sound so enjoyable.
Before long the band had the crowd in the palm of its collective hand. “Is this the best crowd ever?” McGuire asked. The rest of the musicians set up a chant: “Best crowd ever! Best crowd ever!” People started laughing. “It’s only because I feel so vulnerable with you all,” McGuire joked.
In a sense, Brian Ember — Brian Robinson on vocals and guitar, Jay Sirianni on keyboards, and Robert Breychak on drums — began its set of theatrical, baroque pop from its soundcheck, which found Robinson delivering opera in German to make sure the microphone was working. “Do you trust me?” he said, peering at the crowd through large white sunglasses. “Are you sure?”
The band then moved through a set that paired emotional music with absurd between-song banter, creating the keen sense of an off-kilter lounge act. “You’re the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen,” Robinson announced, with passion. “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to reverse Tom Jones you.” Without giving the audience a chance to figure out what that meant, he quickly threw a pair of his own stylish underwear into the crowd, to laughter. Brian Ember could kick up dust when it wanted, but the slower, moodier songs turned out to pack even more punch, even getting a few in the audience to slow dance, in a doomed, romantic way.
Toward the end of the set, Robinson quickly set up a projection screen to show the audience his latest Brian Ember-related creation. “This is a very sad song that I made a very silly video for,” Robinson said. The plot of the video involved Robinson appearing first as a personified packet of icing for toaster strudel, found by a maid coming to clean a house. The maid finds a pile of neglected frosting packets and becomes attached. One thing leads to another and first the maid takes a (clothed) bath in vanilla icing; with turnabout being more than fair play, the video culminates in Robinson lying on the kitchen floor in silver hot pants, even more slathered in frosting. Hilariously suggestive and wonderfully gross, the video delighted the audience, who then demanded the band return to the stage for a couple more songs.
The group finished, appropriately enough, with its slowest burning song of the night. “Good night!” Robinson then said in his best signing-off voice. It was.