Karen Ponzio Photos
Codefendants.
Sunday night was the hottest night of the week, literally and figuratively, as Space Ballroom hosted the first Northeast U.S. show featuring Codefendants, described as a “genre fluid musical collective” and comprised of three heavy musical hitters: Fat Mike, Sam King, and New Haven’s own Ceschi Ramos. The band released an album, Crime Wave, in March 2023 to much praise and adoration and have been spreading their words, music, and vibrancy with a variety of shows ranging from clubs to arenas across the country. But on this night, supported by friends and family, they hit one of hometown favorite Ramos’s original stomping grounds.
Included on this bill were two other bands: the Charlotte, N.C.-based Bravo Pueblo and Venezuela’s own Zeta, who also played with Codefendants (who on this tour consist of the duo Ramos and King). Ramos had also promised a short set of acoustic songs featuring New Haven’s Allie Burnet and Jill Emerson.
The room was buzzing with excitement way before the bands hit the stage, with friends and longtime fans embracing and sharing their excitement in being able to see Codefendants for the first time.
Bravo Pueblo burst into highly danceable and deeply rhythmic songs with a feverous joy that captured the crowd from moment one. Brother and sister duo Claudio Rafael and Liza Ortiz weren’t only first timers to the Northeast; they told the audience it as their first tour ever.
“It is beautiful to be sharing space outside of our state with other people,” said Ortiz with a huge smile, a smile she shared with her brother and the audience throughout a seven-song set that garnered more and more applause with each song. The two traded off vocals and drum beats, harmonizing at different points and adding to the vivacious vibes that kept them and everyone in the audience moving.
Rafael said they were “bad at recording their music” but were hoping to have something done and available in the next month. If you are someone who likes to groove, keep your eyes, ears, and hips on alert for that.
Zeta arrived to a stage filled with instruments and a room full of anticipation for this mega powerful foursome. Juan Chi, Dani Debuto, Tony Pereira, and Chino Sandoval are known for creating an onslaught of sound that makes you want to raise your fists and well as shake your hips. Chi professed his gratitude before the music began.
“This is a very special night,” he said. “Let’s do this.”
They did it, all right — nearly an hour of almost nonstop music that fused punk, metal, and island beats, firing up the ever-swelling crowd with relentless rhythms that became almost mantra-like and seemed to elevate everyone just a bit off the ground. Chi and Debuto switched out nearly seamlessly between guitar, percussion, and vocals. Sandoval was front and center with his strong, swift, and indefatigable drumming. Pereira’s bass was behind him, the heartbeat of it all. It became a family affair as Ortiz and Ramos joined in on vocals at different points during the set. At one point Chi also came off the stage and wandered through the crowd singing and clapping, adding to the familial vibe as the music kept building and bringing the crowd to a feverish high.
“We have a great friend in Ceschi,” Chi said. “We have that in common. We are all a big, big family.”
Zeta would return to play with the Codefendants, but first Ceschi came to the stage with his guitar joined by Allie Burnet on banjo and Jill Emerson on cello.
“Please sing along,” he said to the crowd. “That’s how we do it at these shows.”
He proceeded to play three fan favorites: “Black, White and Red All Over,” “All Dogs Go To Heaven,” from Ceschi’s 2016 split album with Pat the Bunny and “Say Something” from Broken Bone Ballads. Each saw the audience participate with vigor, as Ramos’s heartening vocals gained even more strength with the sweetness of Burnet’s and Emerson’s strings. It was the perfect interlude between Zeta’s thunderous set and the supercharge of what was to come.
Ramos performing with Codefendants and Zeta.
The final set included, as promised, Codefendants and Zeta, with Ramos on vocals and guitar and King on vocals. If Zeta was the thunder, then Codefendants were the lightning, together setting the sky aglow and charging the ground with each strike. From moment one, the connections made with the crowd kept the momentum building. The group made its way through the bulk of its album with rapid fire vocals spitting lyrics that a swelling number of audience members already knew and were singing along with throughout the set.
Songs such as “Disaster Scenes” and “Prison Camp” showed the band’s way with a lyric, making the personal universal and visa versa, while also feeling like a hip hop-punk gut punch that jolted you into seeing the world in a new way.
King and Ramos also made their way to the floor twice, parting the crowd to offer a more intimate experience that local fans have become accustomed to over the years, many of them even having a seat on the floor themselves during the song “Coda-Fendants.”
King performing with Codefendants and Zeta.
But they ended the night on their feet, jumping, swaying, screaming, and singing in unison with the band and each other. Ramos acknowledged the “many dear friends” that were there as well as his family. King thanked everyone for making his first time in Connecticut so amazing and mentioned how happy he was to have met Ramos’s mom. It was one of a multitude of moments that exemplified the connections made through music experienced with a group, and why so many of us are so committed to live shows.
“We are all we have ‘til it’s all we had, goodbye,” they sang. “We are everything we’ve ever needed.”
The Codefendants tour continues this week with dates in Boston, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia. More information about these shows can be found on their website and Instagram page. Zeta and Bravo Pueblo also continue their tours and more info about those dates can be found on their website and Instagram pages.
