Under the Spell of Devendra Banhart

The next time Devendra Banhart plays RVA, it will sell out. And then the half-full crowd that was at tonight's show can remind everyone else what a mind-blowing show they missed in August 2010. It was even notable for the change in his look; that photo-op-ready leonine mane of his was replaced with a respectable short cut. Hello, handsome.

Any way you describe Banhart - psychedelic folk, freak folk, lo-fi- is inadequate. He opened the evening by introducing himself and his band and announcing, "We're the Grogs." They proceeded to play a rocking retro set whose sound borrowed from the 60s and surf music and occasionally wandered dangerously near Americana. His voice, like his personality, is truly unique.

My bartending friend the musician summed up my thoughts. "I expected this to sell out." The guy standing next to me during the show asked me if it was my first DB show. He'd driven from Charlottesville to see them for the second time, knowing what a treat he was in for. He, too, expected a sellout.

Sadly for the audience members who planned to skip the opener, the opener was the Grogs, so Banhart was on stage from the very first moment to the last. By the time the couple next to me showed up and asked how far into the set it was, they had easily missed 7 or 8 songs. It was their loss, too.

Having been raised in Venezuela by a Venezuelan mother, it's impossible not to hear South American influences in his music, even his singing on occasion. He had a warble worthy of Brian Ferry of Roxy Music, which I loved. Late in the set, he introduced a song by saying, "We were all living together in San Francisco and probably listening to way too much Roxy Music." The result was the sublimely sophisticated 16th and Valencia Roxy Music. Truly music to woo by.

Not long after, he said he was going to do a cover because it's one that makes him want to dance. Launching into Taylor Dane's Tell It To My Heart from the late '80s ( either a guilty pleasure or a classic oldie, depending on your vantage point), it lit a fire under the crowd. People couldn't not move, even with his very intense but still oh-so-danceable arrangement.

The show was the perfect mix of Banhart's harder-rocking band stuff and his straight-ahead singer/songwriter material, delivered with only a guitar or keyboards. After a particularly poignant song, he warned us that the next would be a sad one. It was pleasure to hear such sadness. But when he wanted to let the audience know, it was also a clear case of "we will rock you."

My ticket had been a freebie given to me by a friend and likely many people also came with comp tickets. Unfortunately, it meant that there were too many people there for social rather than music purposes. Many who'd arrived late didn't seem to realize that the dark-haired guy onstage was the headliner; I think they presumed that this was some anonymous opening band. And they were too busy talking to even hear what they were missing.

There was a skinny old hippie guy not far from me and he finally blasted one couple, telling them "If you're gonna talk, move to the back so we can hear the music." They gave him a dirty look and I told him, "Amen." Banhart's solo sound needs to be appreciated in a quiet room; the diehards in the crowd had shut up from the first note.

Banhart knows how to please his fans. Midway through the set he said they'd take requests. One idiot shouted out a song they'd already played. Way to represent Richmond, buddy. After one song, he reached down into the audience, touching people's hands. Coming back for the encore, Banhart had stripped off his sweaty shirt. Way to score points all around, DB.

Talking to assorted friends after the show (including one couple I'd seen last night at the G5 show), everyone agreed what an amazing and unappreciated show it had been. Someone suggested that it wasn't properly promoted.

I'm sorry for the absentees' bad luck, but I'm still going to be grateful to have been one of the ones who saw tonight's performance. Oh, I'll be at his next Richmond gig, the sold-out one, for sure. I'll probably be thinking back to how much better it was back when I saw him and wasn't packed like sardines in a can (see: MGMT. the Shins, My Bloody Valentine, the Decemberists et al), but I'll be there.

I wonder if his hair will be long again by then.