Devendra Banhart
Pitchfork Music Festival
Day Two
7/30/6
Chicago, Illinois
This was my first time seeing Devendra Banhart and I’m thinking that it would be a good idea to see him next time in a smaller club or at least indoors. I’d heard his performance at Logan Square Auditorium was fantastic so I was excited about checking him out but I found the set rambling and difficult to follow. I own all of his albums and listen to his music quite a bit but didn’t hear many songs I really recognized. It started out well, with Devendra and co. laughing when a female audience member yelled out “I love the seventies too!” but I think the sun must have affected the focus a bit. A couple of highlights were when he sang “Bluebird” as well as when he covered Vetiver’s “You May be Blue.” (Technically speaking, Devendra Banhart is a part of Vetiver so this might not really be a cover but the liner notes for To Find Me Gone do not give specifics as to who wrote which songs.) A somewhat surprising cover following this was Lauryn Hill’s “That Thing” or “Doo Wop.” Towards the end of the set, he randomly (or it appeared so) pulled someone from the audience named “Victor” who was actually not too bad up there exhibiting his skills for his 15 minutes of fame. (Although his voice was not as nice of a folky vibrato, it did have character and he could atleast play guitar.) I felt that I wanted more of Devendra, though.
Also, if you like Devendra Banhart, check out the legendary but too obscure Vashti Bunyan who he helped inspire to start creating music again and has done some collaborating with in recent years.
Hear Devendra Banhart’s sweet innocent crooning by visiting his myspace page
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