Live photos shot on 35mm film by E.R. Pulgar.
Devendra Banhart launched into “Kantori Ongaku”, lead single off latest record Ma, after encouraging the crowd to do shoulder exercises. He then introduced “Jell-O Man”, who proceeded to crowdsurf and launch Jell-O shots into the upper floors of Brooklyn Steel via slingshot. The Venezuelan-American freak-folk musician is fun to watch because of these little bursts of mischief, and the whimsical manner in which he talks to the crowd, teasing and taking requests between songs. His own relationship to his work, even his more thoughtout poetic tracks, is tinged with humor—before tearing into soul-tinged cut “Fig in Leather” from last year’s Ape in Pink Marble, he got up from the stool he had in front of the stage, stretched, and proclaimed “More than anything in this whole, wide, flat world…I want to disco.”
Sweeping through a set largely comprised of cuts from Ma while tearing into crowd favorites like “Mi Negrita” and “Never Seen Such Good Things” from Mala with a carefree air about him, Banhart managed to make even a big space like Brooklyn Steel feel intimate.
More photos from Devendra Banhart’s set at Brooklyn Steel below.
