Brian Slattery Photos
Lighthouse.
Positive energy flowed through Cafe Nine Wednesday night as three bands — Lighthouse, Lumot, and The Fivers — brought music that was filled with ups and downs, quiet and loud, and at the same time, conveyed a sense of equilibrium.
The New Haven-based Lighthouse — Tim Marzik on vocals and guitar, Ben Gonzalez on bass, and Nick Restivo on drums — excelled at music that turned from peaceful and pastoral to raging on a dime, with Marzik in particular delivering textural changes on the guitar through deft technique and an array of well-deployed effects that created a huge sense of space and warmth within it.
Marzik’s emphasis on keeping things uplifting carried over into his earnestly cheerful banter between songs. One song he dedicated to a friend in the audience with a “bump of a baby that’s about to come out. Welcome home.” He also offered the “biggest hug and thank you” for being a part of the show. The band’s hopefulness was proved irresistible, as audience members gathered closer to the stage to hear and cheered for every song.
Lighthouse passed the musical baton to New Haven’s own Lumot — Shyanne Horner on vocals and guitar, Stephen Friedland on guitar, Victoria Amenta on bass, and Zack Abramo on drums — which treated the crowd to series of songs from its 2021 album, Weaver, among a host of other gems. Lumot built its rich sound from contrasting tones within the band and among the instruments, as Abramo’s drums and Amenta’s bass were pitched dark and deep, while Horner’s and Friedland’s guitars took opposite corners, often gritty and chiming.
Horner’s songs coiled energy within slow, spacious rhythms, sometimes leaving the sound stripped down, sometimes filling it with lush harmonic figures, and every once in a while pulling out a wall of distorted sound. Her songs spoke of complex emotions, but the show itself was no downer, aided by Horner’s extremely lighthearted between-song banter that kept audience members chuckling.
“This is the most fun I’ve had at a show in quite a while,” Horner remarked about two-thirds of the way through her set. From the audience reaction it appeared that many would agree.
Lumot then gave the stage to The Fivers — Sam Besocke on bass and vocals, Ben Besocke on drums, and Rafe Kimball on guitar and vocals — a band new to New England after moving from California. If the previous bands could be said to convey their positivity by drawing light from darkness, The Fivers started in the light and stayed there the whole time. The members joked about their name by way of introduction (“we know there are only three of us; just roll with it”) and proceeded through a set of sunny yet intricate originals in which everything was going to be all right. The Besockes provided a meaty rhythm while Kimball’s nimble guitar playing created harmonies and countermelodies to the twin vocals. In time virtually all banter ceased and the Fivers just rolled from song to song with very few comments. They didn’t have to talk; the audience was with them all the way.