Devendra Banhart Lets His Freak Flag Fly

By Veronica Murtagh in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 23, 2009 10:00PM

Few performers are as animated as the Venezuelan-bred freak folk singer-songwriter, Devendra Banhart. In an intimate seated show last Monday night at the Vic Theatre, Banhart brought his nonsensical, neo-hippie compositions to life, writhing in time to his own vocal tics and painting himself every bit the true original that his albums suggest.

Banhart's most recent effort, What Will We Be, finds the songwriter significantly more sedated and impressively mature. For the first time, his lyrics form coherent sentences. In a single effort, Banhart has become palatable for the masses, but confusing to die-hard fans who know and love him not for his polish, but for his unpredictability.

Banhart has always played the role of free spirit and the unexpected formality of What Will We Be proved to be simply the next surprise for ticket-holding fans as he took the stage and the seated show immediately became standing room only. Backed by his name-shifting band, The Grogs, Banhart transformed an album of mature takes into a next level affair. Banhart's hands fluttered and his legs shook as he lost himself, enveloped into his own music like a cult member ascending the confines of earthly existence on Doomsday. When Banhart performed the Spanish serenade Brindo, a dynamic of fixated awe connected his ethereal voice and the audience's gaze.

There was not a dull moment in the evening's show. Banhart's set of primarily new material was sparsely accented with offerings from his back catalog and in what were some of the evening's best moments, each of his band members were granted center stage to perform selections from their respective projects. Priestbird drummer Greg Rogove (also part of Banhart's bizarre experimental side project, Megapuss) caught the audience off guard, launching into a percussive spectacle backed by frenzied, howling vocals. Following the aural assault of Rogove's solo, Banhart ended his set with Rats and the stage was stormed by an army of young female fans playing hostesses to an impromptu dance party with an energy that rivaled the most boisterous of Girl Talk sets.

After a seemingly endless silence, Banhart reappeared for a shirtless encore and formally closed a night that was anything but expected. Devendra Banhart's amplified persona and robust tunes stayed in our head long after we'd exited the venue. We slept peacefully that night, secure in knowing we had witnessed something magical.