by | Apr 26, 2024 11:43 am | Comments (0)
Dereen Shirnekhi photo
Wacahatchee
Toad’s Place
New Haven
April 25, 2024
“I’ve been yours for so long / We come right back to it.”
It was a refrain I’d heard maybe hundreds of times at that point, the croon of Katie Crutchfield’s voice and the banjo backing her committed to memory. But Thursday night, as I heard it live and sang along with a crowd filling up Waxahatchee’s sold-out show at Toad’s Place, the song felt new.
by | Apr 25, 2024 11:36 am | Comments (0)
“Hello several people, rap professionals, and various cool people,” said Sketch Tha Cataclysm from the Three Sheets stage, as he and fellow New Haven hip hop stalwart Mo Niklz hosted a group of touring artists from Chicago for a night of high-energy indie hip hop.
A small but enthusiastic audience stayed close for that Wednesday night show, which included performances by Chicago-based artists Aplacecalledhell, Tomcantsleep, and Killvongard.
by | Apr 22, 2024 11:27 am | Comments (0)
Kaelynne Hernandez
Kaelynne Hernandez's Past Selves.
“Observe,” Omola Studio’s second installment of APRiL (Artists Prospering Really is Limitless), features works by De, Kulimushi Barongozi, Kaelynne Hernandez, Miguel Mendoza, and Rex Morris. The first iteration happened last spring, on a ground-floor space in 91 Shelton in Newhallville. This one happened in the same building, five floors up, for Saturday and Sunday, April 20 and April 21.
by | Apr 19, 2024 9:44 am | Comments (0)
Dereen Shirnekhi Photo
Despite broken string, at the tiniest of tiny desks.
by | Apr 18, 2024 3:47 pm | Comments (0)
After a day of driving heavy machinery, Joe Ballaro plugged in his bass, and the show began.
“We are lost and a long way from found,” sang J. Russell, lead singer of the local band Split Coils.
Backed by steady strumming and an easy rhythm, Russell kicked off the second installment of WNHH FM’s new livestreamed concert series called Tuesday @ The Mediterranea Cafe, where local bands perform in the Italian-Middle Eastern restaurant-hookah bar located at 140 Orange St. (A video of the performance appears above.)
by | Apr 12, 2024 4:37 pm | Comments (0)
Charlie Widmer didn’t expect people to want to hear“What Do I Need With Love?” Now it’s the first of his songs some people will ever hear.
by | Apr 12, 2024 10:08 am | Comments (0)
Joy Bush photo
It’s the shape of an ancient Middle Eastern cityscape, verandahs and towers, arched doorways and windows like peeping eyes. But it’s not anywhere near the Middle East; it’s on a rock hilltop in Waterbury, and it’s part of Holy Land USA — to some, a roadside attraction, to others, a place of serious pilgrimage, and for Joy Bush, the subject of an almost 40-year-long series of photographs.
by | Apr 11, 2024 1:14 pm | Comments (0)
Hell Fairy at Mediterranea Cafe.
In the backroom lounge of Mediterranea Cafe, among centuries-old hookah pipes and patterned cushions, a fairy rising from the Underworld sang about darkness — and love, too.
Hell Fairy is made up of lead singer Elizabeta (Elizabeth Voytershark), Kiki Van Damn (Killian Mitchell) on bass, Joe Russo on drums, and guitarist Dexx (Dexter Lourenco). The band was the first guest on WNHH FM’s new livestreamed concert series called Tuesday @ The Mediterranea Cafe, where local bands will perform in the Italian-Middle Eastern restaurant-hookah bar located at 140 Orange St.
by | Apr 11, 2024 10:48 am | Comments (0)
In front of a packed house that was ready to have fun, two touring acts — the New York City-based Ghost Funk Orchestra and the Woodstock, N.Y.-based Marco Benevento — brought humor, relaxation, and armfuls of danceable beats to the Space Ballroom on Wednesday night.
by | Apr 9, 2024 9:59 am | Comments (0)
La Práctica (The Practice) — the latest from Argentinian writer/director Martín Rejtman — is the story of a yoga instructor’s interactions with students old and new as he maneuvers his way through his ever-changing world, balancing humor and humanity. Presented in conjunction with the Latino and Iberian Film festival at Yale (LIFFY), the event included a post-film Q&A with Rejtman, moderated by LIFFY’s founder and executive director Margherita Tortora.
by | Apr 8, 2024 1:05 pm | Comments (0)
A triple bill at Cafe Nine on Saturday Night featured a stunning set of music from Blick Bassy. Born in Cameroon and now living in France, the 50-year-old Bassy has been a musician all his life; he toured Cameroon as a younger man and now tours internationally, as far as New Zealand, playing clubs and festivals. In short, it’s very likely the next time we have a chance to see Bassy, it will have to be in a much larger venue.
Bassy and his backup band — two musicians, one of whom played programmable drum pads and touch pads and the other who played keyboards and trumpet — deployed a vast array of electronics and effects to create a huge sound. The programmable pads were used to make slippery bass parts. The trumpet was run through effects to allow it to sound like a horn section. Bassy himself sang through one of three possible microphones, two of which were run through processors to create harmonies for his voice. The marriage of organic and electronic sounds was seamless and endlessly inventive, and all anchored by Bassy’s voice: strong, raspy, somehow declarative and plaintive at the same time, always suffused with great depth of feeling. He sang in his native tongue of Bassa, but communicated his message loud and clear.
featured two younger New Haven acts who tipped their hats to those older than they were, even as they showed everyone in the room that the future of music in the Elm City is in safe hands.
by | Apr 5, 2024 3:33 pm | Comments (0)
Johnathan Moore in the WNHH FM studio.
Johnathan Moore was ready to add a layer of sound. He reached for the Boss RC 600 loop station pedal and … nothing.
Moore said nothing. He made no excuses. He kept the beat going. He pivoted to a new plan — and the music played on.
Moore, a 26-year-old cellist making a name for himself as a composer and performer, was performing his piece“Glory” while squished behind the tiny-tiny-tiniest-possible-tiny desk on WNHH FM’s“Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” program. (Click on the above video to watch the full episode.) Moore describes his music as“unorthodox cello,” with a style incorporating gospel, jazz, classical, and funk.
by | Apr 5, 2024 9:00 am | Comments (0)
Laura Glesby Photo
Lunch is self-served.
After a single bite, I realized I had ordered the wrong entree at IKEA. The“veggie balls” were a blank slate: a mush of chickpeas, carrots, peppers, and other veggies I usually enjoy, mashed and blended until they amounted to something almost as thoroughly bland as the cauliflower rice I got on the side.
by | Apr 4, 2024 10:20 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
The jury is still out on whether American culture, or the music industry, can create another superstar, like Michael Jackson or Prince, like Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. Maybe Beyoncé, now 42 years old, and Taylor Swift, 34, are the last of their kind. But if future superstars are still possible, one of its more likely candidates — Chappell Roan — played at College Street Music Hall on Wednesday night to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd that couldn’t get enough.
by | Apr 3, 2024 9:56 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Greco Tuesday night at Cafe Nine.
Pete Greco had a series of requests for the audience at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night. Did anyone know how to tune a guitar? Did anyone have any tattoos? The questions were all good-natured jokes in the service of serious music, as Greco and his band took the last slot on the inaugural night of First Tuesdays at Cafe Nine, billed as“a songwriter’s showcase featuring live bands, focused on shining a light into New Haven’s tremendously talented songwriting circuit.”
Greco plans to make First Tuesdays a monthly night with a rotating cast of characters that Greco will invite to play.
