Naseem Khuri, frontman of Kingsley Flood, surveyed the crowd from Cafe Nine‘s stage.
“New Haven gets better and better every time,” he said.
The folk-punk band Kingsley Flood has been visiting Cafe Nine since before they started generating national buzz. Last Thursday the band got right into it, opening with their rollicking hits. Usually, it’s not a Kingsley Flood show until Khuri is sweating through his shirt like a frontier preacher. When they played Cafe Nine earlier this year, loud, fast singles were the highlight of their show. One year, three EPs, and a new violinist later, Kingsley Flood is less Clash and more the Band.
“This is technically our New Haven release party, so you should party,” said Khuri. “And right when I say that we’re gonna do a slow song.”
Since violinist, vocalist, and sax player Jenee Morgan Force left Kingsley Flood earlier this year to raise a family, the band has taken a less energetic direction. Eva Walsh, her replacement, doesn’t play with the same raw intensity, but that would be weird. Walsh’s style, which compliments Chris Barret’s melodious trumpet, really tipped the scale between fast and slow in this band, and without derailing Khuri’s fervor. Kingsley Flood may have mellowed out in 2015, but they won’t be going country any time soon — not if guitarist George Hall has anything to say about it.
Inevitably, Khuri left the stage to romp with his fans, dragging them into the performance with his charismatic crooning. As I’ve mentioned before, everyone I have ever seen play at Cafe Nine has found their way onto the floor. Whereas other musicians seem to wander off the stage, however, Khuri really brings the show with him.
“We’re gonna play another new song,” said Khuri. “You guys are weirdly polite.”
“We can curse?” said Mathew Crowley of Goodnight Blue Moon, which opened for Kingsley Flood.
While Khuri said Thursday’s show was his best in New Haven, and the lively crowd was larger than the audience his band drew earlier this year, his fans remained mostly seated — even as Kingsley Flood played its third encore, even as Barret marched his horn all the way to the restrooms and back.
Goodnight Blue Moon sprinkled their set with a few choice covers (“Midnight Rider”), originals (“Captain’s Church”), and new songs. The band is working on a new album for 2016, hot on the heels of their 2015 success, A Girl I Never Met.
“Some shows it takes a few songs to pull things together. Sometimes it never happens at all,” said frontman Erik Elligers. On Thursday the band’s playing was a crisp start to the evening, setting it on the right foot. In an eerie echo of Kingsley Flood’s situation, Goodnight Blue Moon featured the the very pregnant Victoria Wepler on violin. She stuck to her guns onstage, and her violin rang through the club.