Brian Slattery Photo
Trashing Violet; "Put your earplugs in deep."
Marisa B. of Trashing Violet was nearing the end of her set, but in another sense, she and her band were just getting warmed up. “Put your earplugs in deep. You’ve been warned,” she said, as the band tore into its most visceral original yet, a song that started and ended with screams that the audience couldn’t help but respond to in kind.
The Thursday throwdown was part of CT Rocks! Fest, a 10-date run of music nights involving dozens of bands across the state, organized by Bob D’Aprile. It began May 9 at Best Video and stopped at Cherry Street Station in Wallingford on May 10 and the Cellar on Treadwell on May 11 before landing at Cafe Nine. It’s in New London at 33 Golden on Friday, May 16, at 10 Selden in Woodbridge on Saturday, May 18, and at the Beeracks in East Haven on Sunday, May 19. It returns to New Haven at Witch Bitch Thrift on Thursday, May 30, then moves to Windsor at 25 Central St. on Friday, May 31, finishing up at Scottish Dave’s in Clinton on June 1.
Cafe Nine’s evening began early, at 5 p.m., with sets from acoustic musicians Luke Rodney, Terri LaChance, and Sarah Dunn.
The electric sets began at 8 p.m. with the newly renamed Ice Brothers (formerly Gregory Frost and Ghost Radio) — Greg Frost on vocals and rhythm guitar, Sid Gottlieb on electric guitar, Paul Galuska on bass, and Tracey Kroll on drums — who plowed through a set of rock ‘n’ roll tinged with blues, with energy, humor, and style. Galuska and Kroll laid down a strong foundation for every song, while Frost added textured rhythm guitar, giving ample space for Gottlieb’s tasty, lyrical lead guitar and his own vocals, in which he was unafraid to belt, growl, and ham it up a little as each song required.
Frost also proved quick with a joke in between songs, as when he professed his love for Cafe Nine, explaining that the band had been been on tour of “cafes six, seven, and eight, and this is the best one yet.” He declared the now-named Ice Brothers would be “forever, until it gets too hot,” and as people cheered from song to song, he teased that “you are our favorite fans by far.”
Each of the band members smiled through songs, a mood that pervaded the set. Even a song about being a seriously unlucky man was delivered with a joyous bounce. “I’m the lucky kind,” Frost said afterward, “because this band is backing me.”
Trashing Violet — Marisa B on vocals and guitar, Doug E on bass and vocals, and Nick D on drums — then came out swinging with a set of punk and ska originals peppered with a couple tasty covers. The songs were built on coiled rage and surprise, full of quick turns in rhythm and dynamics that kept listeners on their toes. Doug E and Nick D were a powerful, surging rhythm section that Marisa B amplified with churning rhythm and leads. But the center of the sound was Marisa B’s voice, which she wound into a snarl and let fly into a scream from second to second.
The sound was all too fitting to the subject matter, whether it was detailing the bad behavior of men, railing against homophobia, or staking a claim for girls playing instruments. Trashing Violet was light on banter but heavy on explosive music and attitude. It was all they needed.
Always Morning — Juliana Rivera on vocals, Brian Hewitt on guitar and vocals, and Charlie Hewitt on drums — took the third slot of the electric portion of the night with set of originals planted firmly in rock ‘n’ roll. Since their first gig at Cafe Nine in January, the band has been on a tear of recording and playing shows, and the experience showed in the further ease with which the band members played on stage with one another. Rhythmically the band breathed together. Rivera’s and Hewitt’s harmonies were tight and flowing. The song “I’ve Been Waiting” in particular deployed calm and tumult in equal and opposite measure, to great effect.
“Should we just get emotional and intimate in here, or should we keep the volume up?” the guitarist Hewitt asked the audience toward the end of the set.
“Yeah!” the audience responded. The band interpreted this as choosing both answers. They played a soft, lush song first, one that made the mood suddenly wistful and contemplative, then rolled out another rocker, to cheers.
An audience member offered commentary at the end of that second song. “I was sad and then I was happy,” he said. “It worked!”
Violet Dusk — Dusk on vocals, Rob Alicki on guitar, Andrew White on bass, and Jan Jurgielewicz IV on drums — closed out the evening with a set that began with wavering voices, a long, distorting drone, and a chant, that then burst into thick, dark, crunchy rock. Though they were playing in a small club, Violet Dusk had already crafted a sound that would work in a much bigger venue, and made Cafe Nine sound bigger as a result. Background electronics, growling bass, dense guitar, and drums that used acoustic, affected, and synthetic sounds in equal measure created a rich atmosphere for the ears to drown in, and it carried band and audience away together.
“This has been amazing,” Dusk said near the end of the band’s set. “I can’t believe we only have two songs left.” The sense of having been transported felt genuine. Musicians can work a time-warping alchemy on audiences, as everyone knows. Thing is, it works on the musicians, too.