A Wynter wonderland it what the streets of Brooklyn felt like last night as the snow began to fall, and the city, for once, began to look not as dirty and haggard. I was on my way to Pete’s Candy Show to catch the Wynter music show, a collection of local New York area indie/folk bands. I was under the impression I was going to get free candy upon my arrival, which was not the case. My going was actually quite fortuitous, because I had an absolutely wonderful time.
Brahm Vaccarella will bring you into the world of the evening via a Wynter inspired poem, but for now let me give you the down low on the 2nd band to hit the stage, Jus Post Bellum.
If you have never been to Pete’s Candy Shop, I would recommend you never go. It is small, cramped, small stage, bad sound, worse lighting. There were probably 30 people watching this show, half got seats, 10 were standing in the back, some who couldn’t see, and about five scattered hooligans sitting on the floor, two of which were me and brother Brahm sitting in the very front.
Jus Post Bellum, which is Latin for “justice after war,” is a very experimental, folk band with a passion about the civil war, the emotions associated with it, and history in general. Their lead singer, Joffre, (sorry, I’m sure that spelling is wrong) was amazing, he sounded like Jack Johnson, but had a little trouble leading his troops into war. It was evident this was one of their first show when he forgot some of his lyrics.. this was in fact their very first show.
I wasn’t instantly impressed by what I was hearing, this was highly attributed to a cell phone going off, and some dumb girl next to me talking; like I said this is a minuscule venue plus I’m easily distracted. The lead singer is really good, did I mention that already? Then mid-way through their set, the guitarist and the bass player switched instruments, the drummer picked up a moraca, started the beat with one hand and continued with the drums on the other.. multi-tasking at it’s finest. When Dan, the bass play, got that guitar in his hands taking taking giant step upstage, you could see in his face, in his demeanor, he wanted to be rippin the guitar in the front, and not strumming bass in the back. During our post-set smoke break, he confirmed my hypothesis, telling me, “Man, I really want to play guitar. It just feels better.”
Jus Post Bellum grew on me more and more throughout the show, and what topped it off was after there set, Joffre invited his girlfriend on stage and after switching to a banjo they sung a beautiful, raw yet very romantic duet. A very good note to end on..