Brian Slattery
Serenita.
Singer-songwriter Steph Serenita announced that she would start her set at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night like she always did, and proceeded to pound out a beat on her guitar and belt out Janis Joplin’s “Lord Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz.” Her voice filled the room and ears of the audience who had come to see her on a triple bill with Hatfield and Outside Reality that proved to be a night of strong voices and reverence for the dead.
The New Haven-based Serenita announced that she was playing a new guitar, and she and the instrument were still getting to know each other. “Any mistakes,” she said, “we’ll just blame it on her.” The guitar sounded just fine — an ample backup for Serenita’s powerful voice, which she could take from a raspy whisper to a rattling scream. On a night filled with sobering international news, Serenita’s music was cathartic without being escapist. One song, she said, grew from her asking herself a question after reading the news: “If you were forced to leave, what would you take with you? And that doesn’t necessary mean physical things.”
As she talked about her songwriting process — one song was written in a single sitting, she said, while other songs could take years to gestate — she also posed question after question about desire and loss, ending her set with a song inspired by a trip out west and a final question: “What would you do if someone came and told you your land wasn’t yours?” The song’s defiant answer was a fitting finale.
Singer-songwriter Hatfield, also based in New Haven, revealed that “this is the first stage I ever climbed upon and sang songs for strangers. People call it a lot of things but I call it home base.” He said that he started off as a drummer but moved to the microphone because “singers tend to turn up late.” Like Serenita, Hatfield dug deep into his voice to bring out a range of bold emotions, an effect amplified by a vocal effects box that let him harmonize with himself. Where Serenita’s songs ranged across the country and elsewhere, Hatfield’s seemed pulled more directly from personal experience. One song described the trouble that can come about when the coping mechanisms for a bad situation turn out to be as destructive as the situation itself.
“What am I trying to do?” he joked. “Die young?” Another song, he said, was “about the glory and the consequences of the nightlife.” But his most disarming song turned out to be about his son, as it was filled with the lessons he hoped to teach in the time he had left. The room had filled in a bit, and this song quieted everyone.
“Life just gets better if you decide to live it,” he said.
The Connecticut-based Outside Reality — Charles Maring on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dan O’Keefe and Jeff Piscitelli on electric guitars, Robert Pallman on bass, and Jay More on drums — brought the night home with a rousing set of rock ‘n’ roll that pulled from other influences to create a rich sound. O’Keefe and Piscitelli were marvelously paired, providing intricate playing and searing solos, while Pallman and More were a driving rhythm section. Maring had the kind of high, strong voice that could cut through the band’s big sound.
Maring revealed that many of the band members had been playing together for 30 years. He had joined the band only two years ago, after the band’s previous lead singer, Tommy Dow, died of cancer.
“We miss you, Tommy,” Maring said. “Here’s a song about old friends.” With a night of music like this, it felt like the room was full of them.