Karen Ponzio Photo
Peasant.
On a day that included a bomb threat at Yale and the first big burst of cold weather, Cafe Nine found a way to make everyone feel safe, warm, and blissed out with not only a three-act late night rock ‘n’ roll bill, but also a rooftop happy hour performance preceding it.
The music began around 6:30 p.m. courtesy of the Brooklyn-based Greg Banks, who took to the rooftop of the Cafe Nine building for an hour-long set of originals and covers that compelled nearly every passerby to stop and soak in all of its soulfulness.
Though this was not the first time a performer had taken to this perch for a show, this was the first time with Cafe Nine’s new patio open, and a few patrons braved the weather to enjoy a drink out there with the music flowing out above them.
Banks shared his guitar as if it was an extension of himself, the notes sounding effortless even though he joked about his hands being cold. “I can’t feel my fingers, but I can feel the music,” he said with a laugh.
His originals included the super-funky “Supernatural,” about which he said afterwards, “when you hear it on a commercial one day, you can say you heard it first on the Cafe Nine rooftop.” Covers included “What a Wonderful World,” which he said he was playing “for my New Orleans.” “We gotta hold on,” he added before mesmerizing the crowd with his sweet-as-honey guitar-licked version. He concluded the set with a dazzling version of “All Along the Watchtower” in the style of Jimi Hendrix. By the end it was certain that this was a performer we would all need to see again under possibly warmer circumstances. (Earlier a passerby stopped and asked this reporter how to get up on that roof; I was tempted to say, “practice, practice”).
The next three acts came to the stage inside starting at 9 p.m. First up was the trio known as The Problem With Kids Today. They got the crowd going from moment one and never let up even for a second, with vocalist and guitarist Tate leading the lovely chaos.
“Hello, my name is Tate,” he said. “I live in the Valley. This is Silas,” he said as he pointed to their bassist and fellow vocalist. “He lives in the North. This is Reena and she lives down below,” he said about their drummer. “If you feel like it, come closer. This is a new song called ‘Fuck You.’”
Thus began a set of short shots of punk-rock psych madness that had Tate jumping, kicking in the air, and rolling around on the floor, taking the audience along with him into a dancing frenzy. “This song is about being the fly-est motherfucker in New Haven County,” he added before one song. “This song is about getting drunk and going crazy so get drunk and go crazy,” he added before another. The beats kept coming hard and the crowd kept going hard with them. By the end everyone was more than sufficiently warmed up from the cold and completely in love with this energetic and enigmatic new band.
Frederic Kaiser — vocalist and guitarist of Peasant — began the next set by saying “this is like all of my favorite bands in one spot,” which got the crowd cheering loudly once again. His four-piece band, which included Paul de la Reza on guitar, Tony Mascolo on bass and vocals, and Kyle Austin on drums, kept the music hard and incited even more dancing, jumping, and screaming along, with Kaiser wandering out into the audience a couple of times as well to get further into the action.
“I love everybody in this room,” Kaiser said at one point, and the love was returned again and again during the set. Songs like “Sam’s Sheriff” and “People Kill Me” — which Mascolo said was his favorite — smacked every alt-rock punk-pop button repeatedly. By the time the set was over, everyone had one more favorite new band to follow. Kaiser promised both a festival and a video premiere coming soon. Keep on the lookout for those.
Last to the stage was Ditch Boys, who raised the level of punk-rock party-all-night music even higher. Mike Holler on vocals and guitar, Connor Rog on guitar and vocals, Eric Mooney on drums, and Mike Schultz on bass were the perfect ending to a night of music that reenergized after a long week of the same sameness. They were also in awe of the rest of the lineup and shared the love.
“Tate had the showmanship tonight,” said Holler, and added about Peasant “these guys are rich with talent.” Though the Ditch Boys were definitively not lacking in that department either, as they rolled through songs like “I’m Bad” and “National Libation Front” with the same non-stop energy that had become a constant of the night and kept the crowd going strong until the very end.
They closed the show with the song “No Exit.” When it was over, no one left.