On a brisk Tuesday evening in April, the Michigan Rattlers decided to serenade about 30 people who decided to show up at Hamden’s Space Ballroom. The small crowd made the performance even more enjoyable, taking full advantage of the venue’s intimate atmosphere.

Openers Anna May and The Split Coils gave so much energy and were a ton of fun in their own right. If you happen to be a fan of the Rattlers’ folk style, I’d recommend May, but if you like their new rock-inspired record more, I’d recommend The Split Coils.

The Michigan Rattlers are a force all by themselves, though. The group’s four members, Graham Young, Adam Reed, Christian Wilder, and Anthony Audia, all met as kids and have stuck by each other ever since. After Reed graduated from college, Young convinced him to move to Los Angeles from Petoskey, Michigan. They got their band’s name from the snakes native to the area, wanting to bring something from home to Hollywood.

I got the chance to talk to Young before the show, and I was very curious about the band’s change in their sound. Their debut album, “Evergreen,” is considered pretty strictly folk, but their newest project, “Waving From A Sea,” includes a lot more rock elements.

“[The change] was a natural thing. It had been a number of years being in that routine folk zone, and I think we just grew kind of bored of that,” Young said. “We needed to do something different, to push the boundaries a little bit for our own sense of purpose and creativity.”

The band’s performance included songs from all of their projects, including their 2021 album, “That Kind of Life” and the 2016 self-titled EP. The Michigan Rattlers started the performance with “Heaven,” the opener from the newest album, and they were set from there. 

From the earliest batch of songs, my favorite was “Baseball” off of “Evergreen.” As soon as Young traded his electric guitar for an acoustic I got my hopes up, and the band bashed it out of the park. I thought this song was a beautiful navigation toward new beginnings, and I found it very fitting to play it on a country-wide tour. The hook is absolutely infectious, and by the end of the song the whole room was singing.

After “Baseball,” they played my favorite song off “Waving From A Sea,” called “Gridlock (Just The Sky).” The way the bass synth moves in this song is unlike any other song in their catalog, and the saxophone addition is one that you’ll never catch me complaining about. Both of these elements give their music such a full sound, practically begging to be performed live. Despite Space’s smaller capacity and limited resources, the mixing on this song didn’t suffer, which impressed me a ton.

The band also took time in between their songs to talk to the crowd. All four of them are Detroit Tigers fans, but were unable to find any Yankees fans to antagonize since the Tigers had beaten them that day. They also screened the crowd for New Haven pizza recommendations, which of course got them riled up.

Next, the Rattlers performed “Evergreen,” the title track from their debut. This was one of, if not my favorite song of the night. This song is a touching tribute to youth, about the simplicity of their favorite teenage drinking spot, and the doubts that come with moving forward. Their hook is on par with “Baseball,” and it’s one that I’ve continued to go back to in the past week.

I wasn’t able to listen to the band’s pre-“Evergreen” music before the show, but I was pretty impressed by “Illinois Sky.” While I feel like I tend to prefer the Michigan Rattlers’ slower songs, this is an exception. Hearing it on the electric guitar reminded me a lot of blasting Counting Crows on the highway with my dad when I was younger, so that performance in particular was so nostalgic.

All in all, the Michigan Rattlers’ music is built to perform. They started the band as teenagers in the Midwest with that dream in mind.

“Our focus as 15-year-old kids was playing, then the performance side of that,” Young said. “And then the bands I was interested in were these classic rock bands. They make great albums, but they’re a live act.”

The Michigan Rattlers are easily one of the best live acts I’ve gotten the chance to encounter. If you aren’t getting in on the ground floor for one of the Midwest’s most exciting folk-rock fusion bands, I promise you are missing out.