Friday, October 19, 2007

Devendra Banhart's last show at the Orpheum?

I guess your last show of a long tour ending in your home is a ripe recipe for mayhem. That's exactly what Devendra Banhart produced at the Orpheum on Saturday night. Banhart was accompanied by his backing band, currently known as Power Mineral. The band claims to rechristen itself when a name comes to them. In case you're keeping track some of the names include "Fried Hummingbird", "Hairy Fairy Band", "Hairy Fairy and First Woman Millionaire", "Las Putas Locas", "Stoner Boner", "Bummer Hummer", "Longing for Boner", "Batthouse of the Winds", "Brain Taint", "Octopus Attack", "the Fat Boys", "Sorry,We're not pancackes" and of course "Sorry, we're pancackes". But on this special night they were the Spiritual Bonerz with a silent Z. If you'd like to come up with creative names like so, just say "yes" to drugs.

I was a little disappointed at first since he was playing a bunch of soft folk songs in a chair in front of a huge theatre of fans. He then invited Gael Garcia Bernal onstage since they sing a duet on Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. That got people a little excited but Bernal felt as awkward as Leslie Nielsen in angels stadium when singing star spangled banner in Naked Gun (see video to express my feelings).



Then halfway into his set Devendra had forwarded Bernal's invite on stage to the rest of the fans. I've been to many a show and i've never heard of a performer with such free will. A sea of beards bombarded the stage with flocks full of unkempt hair. It was a true hippie fest on stage and after one song, security would not let Devendra go on... i will let the video do the talking (caution- do not play video with high volume in a quiet office cubicle)



After a 15 min. delay the band played on without any guests this time. This lasted a few songs before Devendra once again lovingly opened the stage to one lucky "random" person in the audience to perform their own song in front of the nearly sold out crowd. Now this is the second time I've seen Devendra live and what are the chances that he invites this random fan on stage both times and they actually have the balls to play and play well in front of a huge crowd. Not really worried about the authenticity of the orchestration here because the man knows how to interact with his audience. In the middle of this moment, one of the fans yelled it best when he said "you give me a spiritual boner" after having seen the girl of both of our dreams get on stage whispering treats in her native tongue to a spanish guitar. She goes by the name of "beso de tortuga" and i hope to see her again someday.

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