Americana Keeps The Room Warm

Cafe Nine on Wednesday night was the scene for delicate ballads, bright harmonies, and gritty rhythms as three bands — Pyramid Rose, Dallas Ugly, and the Split Coils — played sets with passion and commitment to the cause of country, rock ​‘n’ roll, and keeping live music rolling in the Elm City.

The New Haven-based project Pyramid Rose — on this evening, Greg Moran as a solo act — opened up the show with a set of originals in which Moran used precise strumming and sparse fingerpicking to outline the intentions of a full band. It was an affecting backdrop for his voice, plaintive with a sandy edge that delivered songs of hardship in the grand country style that never gave up hope altogether, even when, as he sang, it was ​“too late to change / I’m already on that train of wayward souls.” The strength of the songs and their performance, along with his amiable banter in between (“here’s a melodramatic country song”) endeared him to the audience and effectively warmed the room for the acts to follow.

The Nashville, Tenn.-based Dallas Ugly took the stage next. The four-piece band — Libby Weitnauer on violin, guitar, and vocals, Owen Burton on guitar and vocals, Eli Broxham on bass and vocals, and Lauren Horbal on drums — offered an effortless, polished sound that never lost a rolling sense of propulsion. (Full disclosure: Weitnauer is a reporter for the Independent Review Crew in Nashville when she’s not on tour.) The band began with an easygoing song about indulgence and proceeded from there, swapping instrumental roles and vocal duties and often tying it all together with blended three-part harmonies. With Horbal and Broxham laying down supple, steady rhythm, Weitnauer and Burton layered on harmonies and textures as well as the occasional tasty solo. 

The songs ranged from topic to topic, peppering dissection of complex emotions with other songs about climate change and familial bonds; Broxham introduced one song as being about ​“how your family knows you too well, or has an outdated version of you that you can’t escape from, but how that’s comforting.” Another song, ​“about how awesome the state of Wisconsin is,” as Burton introduced it, felt epic in its delivery.

It turned out Dallas Ugly had a New Haven connection as well, as Horbal was originally from the Elm City. Her introduction elicited uproarious cheers from a certain corner of the room. The rest of the band understood; ​“we love her too,” they stated.

The New Haven-based Split Coils — J. Russell on vocals and guitar, Katelyn Russell on vocals and tambourine, Joe Ballaro on bass, Jon Scerbo on drums, and Mike Sembos on guitar and vocals — then finished up the night with a set of songs that conjured open spaces and sweeping vistas, and a sense of flying over them at speed. Ballaro and Scerbo created big, spacious grooves for Russell’s dirty rhythm guitar and Sembos’s sinuous lead lines. The vocals soared over the top of it all, often sliding upward deliciously into their harmonies, creating tension and release every time.

J. Russell gave grace to the other bands, especially Dallas Ugly. ​“It’s not easy being a touring band in the winter,” he said, adding that ​“my days of getting in the van and touring are over.” 

His thankfulness extended to Cafe Nine and its crew, and to the audience, whose presence ​“means the world to me. I have to fix appliances tomorrow — I don’t know what you have to do,” he said, adding that ​“I truly appreciate your support for live music. It’s what I do.”