Festive Folk Meets Classy Brass

Orkestar BAM! was just about to get started. The Harris Brothers Balkan Band was wrapping up its first set. The two groups faced each other, some members bowing slightly, as if ready for a musical duel of slightly epic proportions.

And then, with little warning and to the audience’s utter delight, they began to play in complete sync, throwing their heads back with their brass instruments, leaning in close to the mics, showing each other the tricks of the string and brass trade.

The crowd came alive. Around the bands, a cluster of people had gathered, swaying and hopping in a spirited hora as they began to dance around the bar. Two Yale graduate students joined in, hoisting their beers and clicking their tongues as they mastered the steps and joined a growing circle. Who cared if the venue was only half an hour into a two hour set? The fun was just getting started.

This was the scene that greeted Balkan enthusiasts, music lovers, and friends of the bands alike when the Harris Brothers Balkan Band and Orkestar BAM! performed at Cafe Nine Thursday evening. Playing to a full house, the two pulled out brassy, stringed nuance and regional delicacy, performing music from Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, and Turkey.

The Harris Brothers Balkan Band is, in a word, delightful. In two words, ridiculously talented. Channeling Balkan folk and Roma roots Thursday night, they played a nuanced and thoroughly danceable set, their pieces luring attendees straight to Cafe Nine’s makeshift dance floor. The band’s core, Laine and Drew Harris, are treasures, but the do not act alone: the group’s sound is full and deeply satisfying, the kind of thing that makes the floor vibrate wonderfully.

And Orkestar BAM? If you want to head to a fantasy Balkan universe, hear these guys play sometime soon. As a seven-person unit, BAM is to Beirut as the Carolina Chocolate Drops are to Marcus Mumford, as the band strips regional music of its packaging and bright, hipster labels and replaces it with billowy, rich vocals that you want to crawl into. Their resulting sound is full and round, the kind of thing that builds through a room until the doors open and the roof blows gracefully off. That doesn’t mean that the group doesn’t go for an intimate experience with their audience, though — members who weren’t already known around town (some have appeared as wandering musicians in performances at the Yale Rep) felt like old friends by the end of the evening.

When the bands performed together, they had a certain charm-meets-chutzpah that made them irresistible. Throughout the evening, they played as a testament to both musical ingenuity and unadulterated joy, nowhere better captured than in the jumbled, laughing string of dancers that accompanied each number. As song requests poured in from Balkan music regulars in the back of the room, it was this group that defined the evening’s tone: joy, taking over, and trying to rule the rainy night. 

To find out more about events at Cafe Nine, visit their website.