Karen Ponzio Photos
Mother Juniper.
Sunday nights find most people in the throes of anticipation of the week ahead, often lamenting the freedom of the weekend that they are leaving behind. Last night at Best Video, the crowd of people who came to see Mother Juniper, Number One Babe, and the Tines got not only a lovely lyrical ending to their weekend, but a beauty of a beginning to the week ahead.
The Whitney Avenue video store and gathering space cleared the performance area of its tables and chairs with only a few seats on the edges near the shelves, leaving the floor open for anyone to occupy. Many then chose to sit on the floor, making the room feel like a hangout in the basement with your best friends.
“This is really sweet,” said vocalist and guitarist Lindsay Skedgell of Mother Juniper as she looked out over the crowd. The New Haven-based band — which also included Dan Onorato on guitar, bass, and banjo, Christian Abbott on drums, Alex Trouern Trend on bass and synth, and Oriana on fiddle — proceeded to play a set that saw Onorato, Trend, and Skedgell trading off instruments and asking for the audience’s patience while doing so, though no one minded at all. The music made for a dreamy yet earthy air about the space, the ideal soundtrack to a bonfire or frolic in the forest, though on this particularly humid evening it was much nicer to be inside with the AC enjoying the show.
Onorato asked the audience to welcome their newest member, Oriana, who Skedgell deemed a “fiddle wizard,” noting that they had only practiced two times with her thus far. They then offered songs about a lemon and a fisher cat, asking the audience to keep Harry Nielsen’s “The Point” in their “mind’s eye” because they had wanted it to be played on the screen behind them
The set ended with two songs that begged to be sung along to. In “Apology From Hades,” Skedgell told Persephone she was sorry, singing “I took you to the underworld just so you could be my girl. I didn’t have much to say but I kept you with me anyway.” In “Carolina,” the band harmonized the lyrics “I often lose my name in my sleep.” If one had not been familiar with this band’s name before this show, they would not soon forget it after this charming and invigorating set.
Alex Cholewa, lead vocalist and guitarist for Number One Babe, told the building crowd they could come up closer if they wanted, as many of them were standing up in back still chatting from the break. They were soon silent and focused on this Providence-based band (with three members who hail from CT), which also included Tom Bora on lead guitar, Emma Rome on bass, Marcel Paige on sax and clarinet, and Ben Gardner on drums. Their eight-song set saw another type of dreaminess, one that was lush and ideal for the film playing behind them — Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love — which Cholewa said was one of his favorite movies.
As Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung smoldered on the screen, the band did the same on stage, offering an intimate yet lush array of instrumentals while Cholewa sang of spaces between and longing. In the tender song “Maybelline,” the band harmonized the lyrics “always love me” on repeat, followed by a clarinet solo the led into a flourishing finish. Follow this band immediately for a luxuriant soundtrack to your summer adventures (and please watch every Wong Kar-wai film as well).
New Haven-based favorites The Tines took to the stage for the final set, the room now fairly packed with people spread out on the carpets and filling the chairs and the standing room spaces. Vocalist and guitarist Sam Carlson told the audience that the film The Color of Pomegranates would be playing behind them for the set. “Why?” someone shouted. Carlson smiled but did not answer. Instead, he and Ilya Gitelman on lead guitar, Sean Koravo on bass, and Chris Mala on drums proceeded with a clever and catchy set that offered old favorites and new soon to be favorites, including “Slow Wave,” a single released on June 28.
“If you squint you can see it, can spy the coming wave, but the comfort comes in quakes,” sang Carlson, the music pulsing and getting a couple audience members up and dancing. Lean, hard, and a little dirty, the song was just perfect for the summer ahead. Make sure you put it on repeat.
Carlson also encouraged attendees to get a Best Video membership more than once during the set, ending with the admonishment “everybody go rent a movie.” Ending your weekend and beginning the week ahead with a magical movie in your hand and a medley of songs in your head? Sounds pretty sweet to me.