Paul Bass Photo
The Foresters at Cafe Nine.
Was that an echo of the Furors emanating from Cafe Nine Sunday afternoon?
Frank Critelli thought so. That’s why, he said, “I have hope for the future.”
Critelli, a veteran New Haven musician, was talking about the Foresters, a group of local kids — brothers Evan, Hayden, and Liam Nork, and friend Luke Slomba — who started a band and years later are sticking with it. Critelli booked them for the latest edition of an afternoon “Sunday Buzz” local music series he runs at the Crown Street club in conjunction with the online Cygnus radio station.
What gives him hope, he said, was that a bunch of teens in 2018 are making melodic, energetic original rock music that sounds fresh. The way the Furors, for instance, started doing in New Haven’s New Wave heyday of the early 1980s.
If you click on this Facebook Live video, you’ll hear a sampling of Sunday afternoon’s set, the first song of which indeed evokes the quirky originality of the Furors, then veers well off into its own direction.
The Foresters are from Bethany and, now, Purchase, N.Y., because the oldest member, lead singer Evan Nork, has gone off to college. Evan’s 18. His brother Hayden, 16, plays bass and sings back-up; and brother Liam, 15, handles the drums. The three brothers have played since 2011; Luke Slomba, 17, has joined them on keyboards and guitar.
Evan and Hayden seemed almost genetically in tune with each other, anticipating each other’s moves with a tightness reminiscent of New Haven’s famous Rodgers brothers from Mighty Purple.
What’s particularly heartening to old heads like Critelli (and me) is that the Foresters band was already sounding so good six years ago when it played at Ideat Village on Pitkin Plaza, and that its members have stayed together and gotten even tighter. Ideat Village organizer Bill Saunders (who also caught Sunday’s Cafe Nine show) sent in the link to the above video from that 2012 performance.
Here’s Critelli’s full scouting report on the band: “The Foresters excite me because they blend philosophy and melody. They combine the best parts of the Beach Boys, with the best parts of Weezer, and the best parts of Devo. They are whales to me. Mysterious and beautiful. Mammals, but different. The Foresters are a marvel. And, they are so young! The rhythm section is still in high school!”
And here’s a link to information about how to buy their recordings.
Meanwhile, click above to listen to the first single off the new album (and its Furors echoes).
These guys are so good!
I remember talking with Hayden at an art opening a few years back, and was blown away with his musical knowledge -- it was like talking with a peer, not a sixteen year-old!
Great tunes, great performers, definitely the best 'boy band' in New Haven!