Karen Ponzio Photos
The Alpaca Gnomes
Three bands took the stage at The State House on Thursday night for a raucous night of music and community, brought together by the newest booking duo in town, Elm Underground.
Elm Underground is comprised of New Haven-based audio engineers Hannah Jacobson and Mike Voyce, and the two are using their love of local music as well as their experience mixing sound at local venues to choose just the right combinations of bands to fit the bill.
“Music is everything to us,” said Jacobson. “We go to all of these shows and see good music from every genre and then say to each other ‘we would love to see them together.’ We’re excited about local music, and we’re hoping to book bands with other bands that could share an audience.”
So far, they have shows booked at The State House as well as Cafe Nine but hope to “pepper in” at other venues throughout New Haven. “We love doing it,” said Jacobson.
Voyce also took to the stage during the night as one of his bands, the New Haven-based Brother Beauty, opened the show, which also included Among The Acres and The Alpaca Gnomes.
The bright and bold sounds of Brother Beauty began with Rob Galvin, Jeremy Cooney, and Bobby Dyckman (guitars and vocals) as well as Voyce (bass) facing drummer Jake Huffman. As the first beats of “Jawbreaker” began, the four then turned in unison toward the audience as the music swelled. They rocked on with the title song from their December 2021 EP, “Cigarettes and City Lights,” but not before someone from the audience yelled out “you are all so hot,” which garnered a few laughs and a thank you from the band.
The next song, “Confessions,” added a bit of country twang to the band’s sound before it headed into a song that saw Conney asking for audience participation to clap and stomp along (“can you do both?” he asked) while Galvin added harmonica to the rootsy beat. The ever-building crowd obliged, adding to the already obvious camaraderie of this band, whose members seemed to be having as much fun as everyone else.
Following “Stranger To Sin,” another song from their EP, the band ended the set doing some heavy jamming with “Georgina Jones.” The applause was plentiful, and the smiles were wide.
The Hartford-based Among The Acres were next to the stage, with guitarist/vocalist Michael Day telling the audience it was the band’s first live show since November.
“I’m terrified,” he added before the band launched into “Go It Alone,” but you would never have known, as he along with Sean Lemky on guitar and vocals, Greg Ganci on bass and vocals, and Erik Lindblad on drums and vocals, played as tight as could be while keeping the vibe loose and lovely.
Day switched to banjo for a few tunes and a few members of the audience started to dance and move closer to the stage as the energy of the room swelled. The band expressed their own excitement at being a part of this night.
“We’re really pumped,” said Lemky, who added that they remembered playing with the Alpaca Gnomes at Cafe Nine. “I still have the gnome hat in my closet.”
They added a folky version of Radiohead’s “Airbag,” noting that they had recorded a bunch of covers during lockdown and put them out on Spotify, but also added more originals, like Lost in NOLA — “about time spent in New Orleans” — that saw more dancers take the floor. It was officially a party, and there was still one more band to go.
That band, The Alpaca Gnomes, exploded into their set and the crowd responded wildly, dancing and singing along with songs including “Gnomies” wearing the band’s signature hats. Two tiny ceramic gnomes graced the stage along with the seven-member strong band, featuring Ben Mikula on vocals, guitar, and kazoo, Chris Barry on guitar, Joseph Ballaro on bass, Matt Summ on percussion, Mike Gargano on drums, Kimberly Nordling-Curtin on violin and flute, and Adam Faccin on saxophone. Together they filled the air with their sweet and spirited sound.
The singing and dancing did not stop as the band tore through their 12-song set, including crowd favorites “Together We Can” and “Just in Case.” Each one felt as fresh and vibrant as if it was the first time, though the Gnomes are known for their energy as much as their music.
The band ended the night with “Train Song,” and as Mikula sang “hey won’t you hop on this train?” it was hard to imagine that anyone would not want to follow the Gnomes anywhere they might go. It felt like the closest any show has been to “normal” in quite a long time, though no one was forgetting that it was still all about community.
“Take care of one another,” Mikula said before leaving the stage.
For more information about Elm Underground’s upcoming shows please see their Facebook and Instagram pages.