At the beginning of a night of music at Three Sheets on Elm Street on Thursday, Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) volunteer Andrew Zumwalt-Hathaway lauded both New Haven’s musicians and DESK as two ingredients that make the Elm City great. He noted that volunteering for DESK has become “one of the most fulfilling parts of my life.”
“Now,” he said, “let’s rock.”
The occasion was the second event of The New Haven Cares Festival of Arts and Music, conceived by Zumwalt-Hathaway and organized by him and the food pantry and social services organization DESK to support DESK’s Thanksgiving for All program, providing full Thanksgiving meals to those that need them.
The Three Sheets show was the second event after a kickoff at Ordinary on Tuesday, which featured a DJ. “They made a special drink for us,” said Zumwalt-Hathaway, with proceeds going to DESK. Thursday was the “first show that we really booked for this,” in the sense of finding a venue, calling multiple bands, and asking them to play. Zumwalt-Hathaway knew that each of the bands “really care about what DESK does,” so “it was kind of an easy sell.”
Qween Kong is a “huge advocate,” he said, in terms of enhancing harm reduction and reaching out to the unhoused. Witch Hair’s bassist used to work for Gather New Haven and had “done a lot of joint work” with DESK. The Ambulance Chasers, he said, “are also big advocates.”
When Zumwalt-Hathaway was putting the shows together, he thought “I won’t get all the bands I want for shows, but maybe I’ll get a couple of them.” Instead, he said, “I ended up getting all of them.”
He also “piggy-backed on some shows that were already booked,” he said, like the Michaël Attias Kardamon Fall at Firehouse 12 Friday night. “They were really happy to have us come in.” Christopher Martin’s, putting on Matt Kampe and the Hub on Saturday, Oct. 26, also showed their support, saying “we really want you here,” Zumwalt-Hathaway said. The last show, on Sunday, Oct. 27, will feature Bronson Rock, Big Fat Combo, and The Problem With Kids Today at Cafe Nine, so “it’s the old-school and the new” of “bands that really want to help.”
“The hope is that some of the people who show up for DESK will get turned on to New Haven music, and vice versa — that people who show up for the music will get turned on to DESK,” Zumwalt-Hathaway said.
On Thursday night, a healthy-sized crowd showed up for both. The Ambulance Chasers — Billy Scovill on vocals and guitar, Mike Tobey on bass, and Andrew Byrne on drums — took the stage first, with Scovill striking a laid-back tone from his first comment: “Thank you all for coming. Downtown Soup Kitchen: hell, yeah.”
Scovill’s easygoing vocals and atmospheric guitar meshed with Tobey’s driving bass and Byrne’s surging drums to give the band’s overall sound a sense of poise and balance, a feeling that the music was charging forward while also taking its time. As the set continued, a “brand-spanking new” song gave Byrne a chance to almost take the lead from the drums. It was all music to feel good to, though nobody forgot why they were there.
“Make sure you throw some donations in that bucket over there,” Scovill said at the end of the set. “Hell, yeah.”
Witch Hair — Joe Russo on vocals and guitar, Ashley Connelly on vocals and bass, and Tom Kenney on drums — also put their praise for DESK first. “Thank you to DESK for all that you do,” Connelly said, explaining that she had worked with the organization in the past. “We’re really happy to be here.”
Witch Hair then tore through a set of originals with high-energy performances from all band members. Strong lead lines from Russo, churning bass from Connelly, and hard-hitting drums from Kenney, made a raucous sound that also brought out the songs’ many twists and turns, clever turns of lyrical and musical phrases, and shifts in tone and texture. Russo and Connelly also excelled at sharing lead vocals and harmonizing, their voices adding another layer of emotionality and complexity to the music. The band also showed its affinity for DESK’s mission in its lyrics; a song near the end of the set found Russo and Connelly singing “if heaven’s not a place and hell won’t let you in / you’re welcome at my house, my house.”
“You all better get out and vote,” Connelly said.
“Vote for Qween Kong,” Russo joked.
As the audience made clear, it had already done so, sticking around for Qween Kong — Gillian Basilicato on vocals and guitar, Cara DeLucia on bass and vocals, and Melody McCarthy on drums — who let the building energy of the evening peak in a volcanic and often hilarious set from the New Haven-based trio. They appeared as bearded gnomes on stage first, in preparation for Halloween, but Basilicato ditched the costume fast.
“Turns out you can’t sing through a beard,” DeLucia said.
“Disgusting!” agreed Basilicato.
The band members raged through a set of their own songs, which featured intense dynamic jumps from coiled and seething to a full-throated roar, hairpin turns, and cathartic scream-alongs. They joked with one another and with the audience in every break between the music, but they were dead serious about the reason for the evening.
“Take a second to donate money. New Haven cares!” DeLucia said, a little cajoling. “Donate more money if you already did.”
The evening was an apt reminder that people can work toward a worthy social cause and have fun at the same time; deeper still, that social causes can be more effective and sustainable if they’re also enjoyable. Sometimes hearts need to be fed, just like stomachs.