Karen Ponzio Photos
daniprobably
Three bands entertained and engaged the crowd — and one another — at Cafe Nine Thursday night, where local acts Mightymoonchew and daniprobably came together with the Philadelphia-based Lizdelise to raise the energy level and get the weekend started a day early.
“What up, y’all?” asked Mooncha, vocalist and guitarist for Mightymoonchew, who got cheers as soon as they spoke to the crowd. “Shout out to daniprobably. They’re sick performers.” They also shouted out Lizdelise, adding “I love you already. My new neighbors,” setting the tone for a night of extended and shared love and support.
The trio — which also included “Mighty” on the keyboard and “Chew” on drums — started out with instrumentals only, on the softer side, but steadily built funky punk intensity as more of the audience moved to the space in front of the stage. When Mooncha screamed, they were answered with screams back, followed by even more screaming and applause at the end of each song.
Selections from their 2020 album 900 Grand included fan favorites “Upside Down” and “Galaga.” Moon then asked the appreciative crowd, “what should we play next? Who knows Mightymoonchew?” to which they got a rousing positive response. They told the audience how the band made that album during the pandemic and, since then, they were “trying to be less perfect. Sometimes as an artist it’s hard to let go so this is what this performance is about.” Someone answered from the crowd with “We love you, Moon.”.
Three more songs followed including one that the band had introduced as a new song at a recent Best Video show that found Moon repeating the lyrics “we’re gonna make it.” Audience members sang, danced along, and nodded in agreement.
Next to the stage was Lizdelise, a trio consisting of Liz de Lise on vocals and guitar, Mark Watter on bass, and Alyssa Resh on drums. De Lise told the crowd this was their second show on tour since Covid happened and asked them to give it up for Mightymoonchew.
“I’m so glad everything came together,” they said, and added they were so excited to see daniprobably too. Both performers were right in front of the stage cheering and dancing along to the whole set, which meshed perfectly with both the opening and closing bands’ sounds — a dynamic, fuzzy, yet hard alt pop rock with lyrics that questioned life and love. Songs with titles like “Shadow” and “Forever” — which de Lise said had recently been featured on a CW show — got the crowd fired up once again with near non-stop dancing and moving along. De Lise also sang not one but two songs about their mom, and mentioned before the second one that the song was “also about how you love someone a lot and how protective you are of them.”
“This one is about one really annoying person and a dream about the apocalypse. They’re kinda the same thing, right?” de Lise asked, and many in the crowd loudly agreed, dancing and cheering their way through the end of the set, though the band was enjoying it all just as much as the audience was.
“When I thought about how much I missed playing shows, this is the kind of place I imagined,” de Lise said about Cafe Nine.
The final act of the night, daniprobably, came to the stage with vocalist and guitarist Danielle Capalbo and drummer Addy Edward, who Capalbo called “incredible.”
“He’s playing with his mouth bass,” she added.
The duo created enough sound to make the stage feel like it held six musicians, yet also created an intimate feeling — even as there was plenty of shredding and heavy beats to keep the crowd moving and cheering along throughout.
Capalbo also shouted out the other performers, who were up front and dancing along to that set as well, generating a wealth of good vibes that rippled throughout the seemingly ever-growing masked crowd on the dance floor. When she announced the band had one more song, someone in the crowd yelled “play seven more songs!” That made Capalbo laugh, but when that song was over and chants of “one more song” resounded through the room, the band obliged.
“This moment is all we have,” she had sung. Clearly the crowd wanted a few moments more.