What Writer Issue

Devendra Banhart

Source: The List (Issue 559)
Date: 18 September 2006 (updated 13 July 2007)
Written by: Brian Donaldson

ABC, Glasgow, Sat 2 Sep

FOLK

The reasons you loved a live show don’t always match the reasons you went along in the first place. Those who dropped by to sample the artful folk of this Texan troubadour and his band (considering their bank of guitars and that woodland of hair, you could be forgiven for anticipating ‘Desperado’), are unlikely to have come out raving about the music.

Instead, they’d be muttering long into the night about this loose, ragtag affair during which the band needed a quick break and so invited an audience member to play one of her own songs (‘beautiful, beautiful, beautiful . . .’ repeatedly reckoned Devendra). Or maybe they’d be talking about how a cabbage patch Banhart was thrown on stage (‘You guys are hilarious,’ he opined) only for the doll to be serenaded during the following song. Which says nothing of the defiant non-encore stance, the frequent stage supping of red wine and the singer howling like a wolf and grinning like a raccoon.

More: Devendra Banhart, Reviews (Music), Folk (Music)