Speak of the Devil in Lorain hosted its annual National Repeal Day event Dec. 5 which celebrates the end of prohibition that happened Dec. 5, 1933.
The festive night was highlighted by the Noah Nelson Trio, a jazz group of Oberlin Conservatory students, who played at the venue located at 201 Fifth St. in downtown Lorain.
Nelson, the trio’s drummer, had played before at Speak of the Devil over the summer for a burlesque event, which connected him with co-owner Kurt Hernon.
“I made friends with Kurt after the burlesque event, and he asked me just a couple months ago if I wanted to come and bring a trio to play some standards for the Repeal Day celebration,” Nelson said. “I was like ‘absolutely, yes.’ ”
It likely would surprise anyone who was at Speak of the Devil that night that the trio had never played a paid gig together before, members said.
They had, however, gotten together sometime last year to play together informally.
“When I got the call for this gig and heard that Kurt wanted a trio, I knew immediately who I was going to call because I had so much fun that night.” Nelson said.
Some of the throwback songs the group played included “Have You Met Miss Jones?” “All The Things You Are” and “You Are My Sunshine.”
The trio’s bassist Noah Galambos said the group scrambled a bit to throw in some time period-appropriate songs for the Repeal Day event.
“We didn’t discuss that until the rehearsal we did the day before,” Galambos said. “We were like ‘oh this is 1930s themed, maybe we should play some standards.’
“So, we added a few and some other things we just wanted to play.”
Luckily for the jazz trio, they said much of their repertoire naturally includes music from around the time when prohibition ended.
The trio said while Oberlin Conservatory students perform plenty within Oberlin and in their home states, they don’t always get a chance to play in other Lorain County spaces.
“The three of us all have experience gigging back home, but when we’re at Oberlin, we’re so busy and the market is smaller there so we don’t always get the opportunity to gig out,” said Nelson, a California native.
For guitarist Jace Mason, who is from Massachusetts, it was the furthest away that he had done a gig while in session at Oberlin.
“It was just really nice to see how people outside of campus appreciate music,” Mason said. “I feel like you get stuck in a certain mode being around a conservatory.
“It’s nice to see different reactions and see what kind of different things people appreciate.”
The bar guests made plenty of noise cheering on the trio.
“There was a moment where we were playing and all of a sudden everybody erupted in cheers and applause,” Nelson said. “It had never happened to me before where the audience was anything but silent for jazz music.
“It reminded me of records I’ve heard from the 30s recorded in big halls where the audience is going berserk.”
Galambos said he felt like the way the audience reacted to their performance made it easy to play loosely.
“It’s cool to just come and do a three hour gig and get 30 minutes and be like ‘oh yeah, I can be completely myself right now,'” he said.
One of the highlights of Speak of the Devil’s Repeal Day event each year are the 1930s inspired outfits guests wear.
The trio said hey also appreciated all the effort from those who dressed up.
“It was so cool,” Galambos said. “I felt underdressed.
“I was like dang, I should’ve worn my tails or something.”
