Karen Ponzio Photos
The Right Offs on the roof!
As the city braced itself for the possibility of another shutdown, Cafe Nine decided to raise a safely distanced ruckus one more time with one more roof show, starring another group of local rock ‘n’ rollers, The Right Offs. Saturday night saw the band take to that stage three floors up that Dust Hat had previously christened back in September under much warmer conditions.
DJs Dave Coon and B to the T.
This party started in the parking lot behind Cafe Nine, but this time included two DJs spinning a variety of tunes. DJ Dave Coon began at 6 p.m. with his own rock ‘n’ roll selections, including a booming “Fox on the Run” by Sweet. He was followed by DJ B the T Jr. (also know as Brendan Toller), who had been hosting the Shake N’ Vibrate night at Cafe Nine once a month before the shutdown. He offered the audience a variety of danceable favorites, including “Let’s Turkey Trot” by Little Eva, which was more than apropos for a mid-November night.
The previous Cafe Nine roof concert happened around the same time as Bardo, the most recent Right Offs album, was released. Maxwell Omer, vocalist and guitarist for the band, said that since then they had already begun work on the next record.
“We dipped a toe already” into the new music “and then this came up,” said Omer “so we readjusted and started rehearsing again.”
The band was working on demos, having released a wealth of the songs they had been working on for a couple of years on their past two EPs — 2018’s Fire In a Theater and 2019’s Fake Adjustments — and their most recent album.
“We have less material this time, but still plenty for another album,” Omer said.
The band having a drink before the show
And more than enough to fill a show as the band took to the rooftop stage overlooking Mike D’Angelo’s Sun Ra mural for over an hour of both new music and old favorites. Omer began the set screaming a hey! that echoed over Crown Street and was answered back with a resounding hey! from the fans in the parking lot and on the sidewalks below, masked and safely distanced apart. Some were in seats they had brought with them. Others stood or walked around. Others danced along as The Right Offs dug right into “Amen the Repeater” and proceeded to roar through 14 songs that were received and met with rousing screams and applause at every turn.
Once again Geoff Hotz of Audio-Visual Systems projected the show onto the building at the opposite end of the parking lot, the wall that is now covered by Site Projects’ sponsored mural recently painted by David de la Mano. The sound, engineered by Cafe Nine’s own Mike Voyce, rang as clear and crisp as the late fall air. The trio’s distinct sound — Omer’s pulsating and passionate guitar, Than Rolnick’s heart restarting beat of a bassline, and Bob Rock’s lightning quick drum beats — punctuated the night time and time again, each song feeling as if it was brand new in the moment.
The crowd returned the love. At one point they chanted “Bobby!” which resulted in Omer yelling “who rocks?”
“Bob rocks!” the crowd answered back, in honor of their beloved friend and longtime New Haven drum hero. And when the final song, “Night Is A Shadow,” was over, the crowd once again chanted, this time asking for one more, to which the band obliged.
“We’re doing another one,” said Omer, “only because Bob’s making us,” which garnered laughs and cheers from the audience. That song was a cover of “Johnny Appleseed” by Joe Strummer and the Mescalaros, a multi-layered and lyrically provocative choice that showed once again how rock ‘n’ roll, even on the roof in 30-degree weather, can strike a chord in more ways than one.