A couple songs into the Brooklyn-based Caveman’s set at BAR on Wednesday night, lead singer Matthew Iwanusa put down his guitar and sang a song while gently moving to the beat of a much softer tune from their catalogue. He mentioned afterward, with a chuckle, that he usually danced more but didn’t have the room that night. He also apologized for the band having to cancel a BAR show originally planned a couple of months ago, but emphasized how happy he was to finally get to play in New Haven.
Thus a night on the cusp of winter also became a night of exchanged warmth and kindness, a night to try again at a time when most people just want to curl up in a ball and snuggle into the coming season.
The latest installment of BAR’s night of free music on Wednesdays began with the New Haven-based Telegram Scam, led by Tim Goselin on guitar and vocals and including Brett Harris on drums, DC on keyboards, and Jules on vocals. While a cohesive foursome, the band had a definitive yin and yang quality built into its sound. Goselin and Harris infused their playing with a sex-laced punk-rock sensibility that kept the music unexpected and fresh. Together, they laid the groundwork and provided the guts for each song, though they were also unafraid to soften it up and ease into more intricate layers of sound when the tune called for it. Meanwhile, DC and Jules brought an airy, come-hither style to their respective parts, injecting each song with a powerful unmuted desire reminiscent of ’90s bands such as Garbage.
By the end of Telegram Scam’s first song, “If You Want Her,” the crowd began to fill in. As the band made its way through songs from their EP, Good-looking Corpses, the exchange of powerful and driving guitar and drums with lilting vocals and keyboards won over the audience, eliciting more and more cheers and applause. When Goselin announced “we didn’t write this song” and then led the band through a rendition of “Shadowplay” by Joy Division, the dancing and shouts in response proved it was a welcome addition to an already stellar set.
Karen Ponzio Photo
“We’ve been Telegram Scam, and you’ve been swell,” Goselin said at the end of the set. The audience definitively returned the sentiment.
The crowd filled the room by the time Caveman took the stage, and swayed and cheered from the band’s first few notes. Iwanusa’s vocals soared through and above each song. Jeff Berral on bass and Matthew Prescott Clark on drums provided steady rhythm. James Carbonetti on guitar and Sam Hopkins on keyboard layered each song with melodic sound and seasoning. Songs from their newest effort, Otero War, were met with just as much fervor as the ones Iwanusa announced were from their first album.
“Does anybody know our first record?” he asked. The responses were positive and plenty.
Iwanusa mentioned that the crowd was “rowdy for a Wednesday night.” As Caveman explored a more instrumental mode, the energy of the room continued to pick up and audience members danced together and individually. Lyrically the songs had a Springsteen-esque quality at times, a sense of the narrator knowing distinctly where he was in the world but still longing for another way, and possibly way out. Songs like “On My Own” asked the questions people ask of themselves — as well the ones they may be leaving behind — as they venture off into new emotional territory.
The last song was introduced as a cover, and Iwanusa asked the crowd to sing along if they knew it. “I don’t know you, but I love you,” he said. The band then launched into “I Want to Be Adored” by the Stone Roses. When the show ended and the audience began to clear out, a yellow rose with a broken partial stem lay on the floor not too far from the bar, a sign that the party was over, that someone perhaps had been adored or had wanted to be adored, and that sometimes we have to get out there and try again.
