Live Music Review //
Paul Bergmann / The Post Valley Green / Mother Juniper
April 19th, 2024
@ Never Ending Books, New Haven CT
(NHV Fest)
Originally NHV Fest was supposed to be three days but a preview day was added the night before this and so this was technically not the first night of NHV Fest but it was the first official night of NHV Fest. I really enjoyed that this whole weekend was just some of the best musicians in Connecticut. I love that touring bands come here (when they do) but I also have that sense of pride in knowing that I could just see all Connecticut musicians all the time and never grow tired.
I also think that each day of NHV Fest had similar artists in sound so this would be the folk type of rock night of artists. The show opened with Mother Juniper, who showcased just that. There was singing, an acoustic guitar, sometimes drum and sometimes a saxophone as well. This was a nice sort of mellow lead in to the show and as the musicians explained sometimes they have more members I liked that the sound could be different in that sense.
As a two piece this worked really well but the last song was stripped down to just the guitar and vocals, for a Pete Seeger cover, and that just showed that if this sound had to be that minimal it could be. Music doesn't really feel like it has genres any more and Mother Juniper just brought that out by having such a flexible sound. This was also very pure, like a beacon of light radiating in the darkness.
Up second was The Post Valley Green, who play a more indie rock type of sound. This was a bit louder as they were also a four piece, including a violin. The sound in a general sense had this overall similarity to a band such as The Dismemberment Plan and All Get Out. I really enjoyed that there were a lot of parts of the songs where it drifted off into music and didn't really have vocals. For the entire set, I'd say it was somewhere between 70-75% with vocals. That musical aspect always gets me.
One of the things I also really liked about The Post Valley Green is that they had this sound where it's easier to ask "Would they be ok opening for ____" rather than trying to name off other musicians. They have this sound where it doesn't quite sound like anyone else (welcome to the CT Music Scene) and so it feels like they could open shows for touring acts in a number of different genres. This is definitely a band which should be on everyone's radar.
The third of the four artists on the bill is called Paul Bergmann but they are a trio. It's not easy to describe the music of Paul Bergmann other than for me to use the term psychedelic doo wop. Now, what does that mean? If you hear it, I think it'll make sense. It's just that at times this can have such a clean, melodic sound like that Buddy Holly era of rock n roll. But then the distortion can kick in and it can become very loud, like a Dinosaur Jr vibe too.
Paul Bergmann also had the songs which would drift off into music and make you feel like you were being hypnotized. But when there were vocals, those parts were so good because it was this deep, swooning type of sound. I think a bit of Urge Overkill might've been in there but I just can't think of any other artist who is singing this way and yet also has these sounds as the band accompanying them. I really need to see Paul Bergmann more so whoever reads this and has the power to do so, please book them as often as you can.
At this point in the show it got close to 9:30 and Quentin was with me so we had a conversation about him wanting to leave. He said he was tired and was going to take a nap on the couch so I told him we could leave around 10pm and not to nap because we'd go home and he could sleep. He said he wanted to sleep in the car, so while The Tines headlined this show I only made it one song into their set and then left because I'm still trying to navigate a middle schooler being out late.
NHV Noise can be found on IG here :::
Mother Juniper can be found on Bandcamp here ::: https://motherjuniper.bandcamp.com/
The Post Valley Green can be found on Bandcamp here ::: https://thepostvalleygreen.bandcamp.com/
Paul Bergmann can be found on Bandcamp here ::: https://paulbergmann.bandcamp.com/
The Tines can be found on Bandcamp here ::: https://tines.bandcamp.com/
Never Ending Books can be found on the web here ::: https://neverendingbooks.net/
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