Karen Ponzio Photos
GA-20
“We’re gonna warm it up like that coal-fired pizza,” said Steve Balkun, one half of Balkun Brothers, who were one half of a powerful two-band bill Thursday night at Cafe Nine that included Boston’s GA-20 and filled the misty February night with enough heat to chase the forecasted snow away.
The Hartford-based duo — Steve Balkun on baritone guitar and vocals and Nick Balkun on drums and vocals — took to the stage, which had a pizza box prominently displayed on it.
“Happy Thursday,” Steve said. “It’s not quite the weekend but you can still get nice and drunk.” On this particular evening the brothers happened to be joined by a horn section, introduced after the second song as Tommy Weeks on saxophone and Pete on trombone. “We’re not sure who they are, but they showed up with pizza,” Steve said; later on in the show he re-introduced the band as “the Balkun Brothers and the Apizza Horns,” adding “if somebody brings in a fresh hot Wooster Street pizza you hire them immediately.”
The duo, known for being able to create a powerful sound that feels like it is being made by way more than two people, started into their eight-song set with a slow groove that took its time to build, eventually adding Steve’s vocals and the horns to the mix. It encouraged a few audience members to their feet and closer to the stage. By the second song, Steve announced that they were “gonna get funky — we gotta get funky with the horns here.” They did indeed on their next song, for a good 10 minutes, and were met with some of the loudest screams and applauses this reporter has heard recently.
Steve kept the banter light and lively between each song, announcing that the band had just been down in Memphis. “But we drove back to see you guys,” he added. The sound they created was anything but light; it was the kind of blues-soaked rock ‘n’ roll that settles so deep into your body that your heartbeat, breath, and blood flow become in tune with it.
The band ventured into their more psychedelic side with “I Wanna Get High,” after which they noted that Bob Marley would have been 75 on this date, and raised a glass to him. Nick took the lead vocals on two songs; one was Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerrilla Radio,” which Steve announced Nick would be singing “with all the rage in his gut.”
For their final number, Steve said they would “get a little more bluesy” with the song “Keep Me Warm,” thanking the ever-growing crowd for “getting out on a Thursday night at all,” though it seemed by the ongoing ecstatic reactions from the audience that there was nowhere else they would rather be.
GA-20 came to the stage next, beginning with the song “My Soul” and tearing through a 16-song set from the Boston-based band’s latest record, as well as new songs that they told the crowd would be on a record released later this year and even a few covers. The band — Pat Faherty on vocals and guitar, Matt Stubbs on guitar, and Tim Carmen on drums — was playing at Cafe Nine for the second time and immediately had a loving rapport with the audience who shouted out compliments to them.
“I love your beard!” said one to Faherty.
“Thank you, sir!” Faherty responded.
The crowd’s admiration was rewarded with an onslaught of tight blues songs that anyone could have easily danced to or used as a soundtrack to the coolest party in town. Something else that was pretty cool: Faherty announcing that one of the songs they were about to play, called “One Night Man,” had been featured “about an hour ago” on the CBS series The Unicorn.
The band kept the music hot and the talk sweet over the next hour, shouting out Dan behind the bar and asking the crowd to “empty your wallets” for him; band members even dedicating a song to him and other friends of theirs. Eventually an audience member asked what GA-20 stood for.
“It stands for Gibson Amplifier 20,” answered Stubbs. “It’s a geeky guitar nerd thing.”
There was nothing geeky about this band or this night though. Once again, music brought together a group of strangers for one night at the end of a long arduous week.