Brian Slattery Photo
Spit-Take.
A dirty guitar chord echoed across the Best Video parking lot Thursday evening, summoning the crowd of a couple dozen to attention. The guitar came from Tim and Matt Rowe, opening for Spit-Take, continuing the cultural center’s practice of providing a stage for New Haven’s live music scene as the area emerges from the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic,
“We haven’t played in front of people for a long time,” Tim said, “so hopefully I don’t mess up.” They didn’t.
Following state and local guidelines, Hank Hoffman, Best Video’s executive director, announced that people no longer needed to wear masks if they were outside, but had to don them if they wanted to go inside, where the video rental desk had resumed operating hours. Even outside, the audience separated into small pods, giving one another space, while still getting close enough to the stage for it to feel like a show.
The Rowe brothers delivered a set of originals in while Tim used his guitar to make space and give a songs a sense of expansiveness while Matt’s bass provided the drive and momentum. Tim’s laconic delivery matched his lyrics, equal parts confessional and humorous, and resonant with the times, as he sang about emerging from a darker time into something lighter: “I don’t want to go back down that road / back down that road again.”
Spit-Take — Dan Katz on drums, Maggie Kinsella-Shaw on bass, and Joe Katz on guitar and vocals — arrived at Best Video not only to play the band’s first live show in quite some time, but to announce and celebrate the release of a new album, World of Us, available for sale at the gig on cassette and perhaps later online.
“Thanks to Best Video for making this happen. It’s a light in the darkness — always, but especially now,” said Joe. The trio then aunched into its powerful first song without further warning, the music emotional, energetic, and hopeful, just loud enough to drown out the ambulance that raced by.
“We haven’t played a show in a while. I imagine everyone who’s played a show lately has said this,” Joe said. He mentioned that their last show as a full band was in January 2020; other than an acoustic show in the woods during the pandemic, that had been it. But “we have new music. This is on the tape that we have with us today.”
If the band hadn’t been performing, Spit-Take sounded like it had been practicing. Dan Katz on drums and Kinsella-Shaw on bass were a tight unit, coiling and uncoiling the rhythm to let the songs breathe, while Joe on guitar and vocals flew over the top, whether laying down textures on electric guitar, coaxing feedback out of his amp, or taking an angular solo. The band displayed a penchant for changing up the rhythm, stopping songs on a dime, and quickly interspersing songs with lighthearted banter. (“I keep getting distracted by things I see on the street,” Joe said; “this song’s about the NBA.”)
Of the new album, Joe said, “we recorded the songs in June and we kind of didn’t do anything with them for a while. It felt weird to write new songs” not having released the album yet. But now that they had, they were ready to write more new songs — two of which they played on the cultural center’s deck, for fans that showed no sign of leaving. It felt like an early day of summer rather than the end of spring, and some in the audience avidly watched while a few in the back engaged in light conversation with friends, turning the parking lot into a club.
“Thanks to Best Video — and for Whitney Avenue for providing the atmosphere,” Joe said.
Check Best Video’s website for its schedule of live outdoor shows. Check Spit-Take’s Bandcamp page in the near future for its latest album, World of Us.
