Karen Ponzio Photos
Lys Guillorn and Her Band
The talk among the crowd at Cafe Nine Friday night was about the last days of summer as three bands — Audio Jane, Tiny Ocean, and Lys Guillorn and Her Band — took to the stage and made the transition seem less daunting, more fun, and downright celebratory.
The Hartford-based Audio Jane — Sarah Pech on vocals and guitar, Dave Ciciotte on guitar and vocals, Mike Goldberg on guitar, Jess Perkins on bass, and Mark Cote on drums — opened the show with a 10-song set that highlighted their ethereal yet hard-hitting style of rock ‘n’ roll. Each song almost visibly floated through the room as if made of smoke and light, but also resonated, settling into you. Peth’s sweet yet penetrating vocals accentuated and were elucidated by the music. Audio Jane delivered a set that included new songs that will be on the band’s forthcoming album set for release later this year, including the song “Quiet Night,” which was anything but quiet, and everything that made this reporter eager to explore the band’s entire catalog. The response of the sizable crowd was loud and generous enough to make one believe they wanted more as well.
Next to the stage was Tiny Ocean, a five piece band consisting of Kierstin Sieser on vocals and guitar, Jeremy Coster on guitar, Jon Morse on drums, and Keith Newman on bass, and for the first time, Carol Piro on backup vocals (“she learned all the songs last week” said Coster. “She’s amazing” added Sieser). The band played their latest record, the stellar 12-track album Sometimes You’re Right, in its entirety, announcing that it had been released on that very day. The arrangements varied from an Americana-laced to a more alt-indie sound, but stood on their own beyond any one specific genre with Sieser’s vocals and lyrics showcased each and every time. What was and what could be were contemplated in the now in songs such as “Dead Past,” with lyrics such as “I dreamed your dream for you because you asked me to.” In “Slow Learner,” Sieser sang, “I’m a slow learner baby. I didn’t know until I could forget.” And in “Collected,” she asked, “if you don’t know what you’re looking for / if you find it would you let it go?” The crowd seemed to easily find a place in their hearts for these stunning songs and this band and received them repeatedly with much joy and applause.
The final set belonged to New Haven and Cafe Nine favorites Lys Guillorn and Her Band, the Her being Guillorn on vocals and guitar, backed up by Julie Beman on keyboards and vocals, Eric Bloomquist on bass and vocals, and Peter Riccio on drums. Exchanging jokes and banter with each other and the audience through their 13-song set, including the M.F.K. Fischer inspired “How to Cook a Wolf” (“any fans of Fischer in the audience?” Guillorn asked; when she received no answer, she shouted back, “school yourself!”), the bass-heavy and catchy as hell “Sunny Side Down,” and a couple of newer songs. “Chipped Fingernails,” she told the crowd, “still had that new song smell,” and Tinctoria, a song Guillorn wrote about a natural dyeing technique she had learned, was included along with artwork and a booklet in a recent exhibit at the Institute Library.
The band was tight as always yet playful with each other as well as the audience. The crowd was filled with friends and dedicated fans and a continuous loving response was felt between all of them throughout the set. It is easy to find yourself comforted when listening to Guillorn’s raw yet stylish lyrics, which often explore the navigating of difficult times in a most hopeful fashion. When she sings in the song “MK” off her EP I’m a Boy, “I wasn’t happy as a child / when on Halloween a neighbor saw me smiling / it was the mask that freed me / if you get my meaning,” you nod and think yes, yes I do.
In her final song, “Believe,” Guillorn sang of it being “too late to begin,” but then also “compulsively reflecting on the drive to carry on,” which seemed an apropos way to leave this glorious evening and fall into the next season. And since the set ended after midnight, autumn had officially arrived. As the members of the crowd slowly made their way back into the night, they seemed grateful that these bands had been the ones to bring them there.