Devendra Banhart

Following the pleasant picking and low-voiced crooning of Bristol's Rozi Plain, a shorn Devendra Banhart takes to the stage and takes his soaring tremolo voice on a genre tour. The opening songs lurch from the reggae-tinged 'Long Haired Child' to the Afro-pop of 'Baby' to the crooning bebop of 'Shabop Shalom' (complete with the spoken word intro from his drummer). After only three songs he gives his band a break and whips out an acoustic guitar. It's testament to his vocal and instrumental prowess that this doesn't seem like a lull in proceedings. Banhart has great control of musical dynamics and seems to be able to move from loud to quiet without giving people an opportunity to natter (he plays 'Little Yellow Spider' and 'I Remember' at this point). He's also a visually engaging performer. When he's fronting a band guitarless, he flaps his arms and jerks and writhes. When he's playing an instrument with his band he makes lots of inter-band eye-contact and rocks out endearingly. When he's seated with a guitar he makes faces - these represent the effort and the effects he's trying to achieve rather than affectation, but one way or another they're a nice visual touch.
The bass-player and drummer rejoin him on 'First Song For B' and then for the rest of the show the band veer charmingly all over the musical map once more. Stand-out moments included a visceral version of 'Bad Girl', an encore of 'I Feel Just Like a Child', and an entertaining cover of Taylor Dane's 'Tell It To My Heart'. This was preceded by an anecdote involving a seven-year-old Devendra vomiting all over his mother's car, and it was so wonky and karaoke-like it drew attention to how on-the-money the band were for the rest of the set. And when you think about it, given Banhart's impressive vocal range, it was quite an achievement to find a key he couldn't sing for this track. Great stuff.