Karen Ponzio Photos
Buzz Gordo.
A toast of “cheers” with glasses raised was replaced with the phrase “welcome home” past Friday night at Cafe Nine, when the aptly nicknamed “musician’s living room” reopened for live music with a limited number of in-person patrons allowed in under Covid-19 guidelines.
The long-running bar and live music venue that had shows seven days a week before the shutdown is beginning an adapted schedule of Friday and Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday night featured Buzz Gordo (also known as Gary Mezzi), who has performed at the venue numerous times as a solo act and as part of the bands Bronson Rock and Big Bad Johns. He was ecstatic to be returning to the stage.
“This is the longest I’ve gone not playing music since 1977,” Gordo said over a soda before the show. “It was crazy to realize how much of a regular thing playing is. It kind of messed me up.”
Gordo met up with his Bronson Rock bandmates in his backyard last November to film their traditional take on Mitch Miller’s classic “Must be Santa” for Dean Falcone’s Covidtorium, which was streamed online to raise money for the venue in December. “It was so organic, so much fun,” he said. “We played live with no mics. It was really a blast.”
His ties to Cafe Nine go even deeper than the music.
“As a former co-owner it’s good to be back,” he said. Gordo noted that he had as scar on his arm from when he and current owner Paul Mayer moved the short wall that used to run down the center of the room. “It’s my version of a Cafe Nine tattoo,” he added with a laugh.
The new seating set-up.
According to Mayer, the latest restrictions allow for 32 seated patrons inside and 12 outside. The tables inside — with seating available for two to four people — are set apart at safe distances, and there is limited single seating at the bar, where plexiglass separates the bartenders from the public. Six properly spaced tables are available outside on the sidewalk, where the music can easily be heard.
The new rules also require that patrons must be seated to watch the show and must be masked anytime they leave their table. The menu now includes food provided by Firehouse 12 on Fridays and Saturday, an additional offering in recent months during the venue’s slow but sure re-entry into the world.
As regulars entered the familiar room for the first time again, the energy level rather quickly rose to a festive and familiar one, as if hardly any time had passed, the laughter and conversation abundant and rich as Gordo took to the stage for a two-hour set.
“Welcome back,” Gordo announced with a wave of his arms overhead. The audience answered him with thunderous applause usually reserved for the end of a show.
“This has been a hell of a year, right?” he said, and was met with even more applause. “It’s good to be back doing the thing I love to do.”
Set up further back on the stage and framed in Cafe Nine’s glittering stars, Gordo opened with a “classic country song about bars closing up” called “Close Up the Honky Tonks” by Buck Owens, which he told the crowd he had posted on Instagram back when the shutdowns first happened.
He then launched into a 16-song set that featured songs he had written for both bands. He dug into many Big Bad Johns fan favorites, including “Smokin’ Joe” — written about boxer Smokin’ Joe Frasier — as well as “Where’s Waldo” and the apropos honky tonk-tinged “The Bar That I Call Home,” which garnered the smiling singer-songwriter another huge round of applause.
Gordo mentioned that Bronson Rock has been working on a new album since the shutdown began and that it would hopefully be out sometime soon. He played a number of songs from that upcoming record, including “Back of My Tongue,” “Hey Sally,” and “Come to My Party,” which included the lyrics “sipping a soda / ain’t doing much / dancing around the room to the radio,” which were reminiscent of the feelings many have encountered this past year as they longed to be out in the city and with their friends.
Another new one, “My Old Band” — which Gordo said was a “semi-autobiographical number” — illuminated his signature lyrical style that captures the essence of late ‘70s/early ‘80s New Wave-power pop rock singing: “We were strong, and we were weak. We were good at self-destruction. We were bad at self-critique.”
This reporter decided to take a look inward herself and do something she rarely does on the job: leave early. As much as I loved being back sitting in my usual seat against the wall under Tom Hearn’s iconic photos of musicians, I knew there were others who might be waiting to have their chance to come home again, even if only for an hour or so. I left after the first set, which ended with another huge round of applause and Gordo expressing his gratitude as well as the words I am sure everyone else was thinking right along with him: “I love being here. This is so awesome. I’m so happy.”
For information about future shows please check out the Cafe Nine website.