Devendra Banhart

Overview

Rejoice with beaded tambourine, clap with cooing castanets, follow the pie-in-the-skied piper to the Metro Theatre this January, for he, leader of the weirdie beardies doth return. It's been a while between kombuchas that Devendra Banhart came to town, and that's a shame because his show at the Petersham RSL way back when was pretty damn dreamy. Still, absence does make the heart grow fonder, and the hair grow longer, both things working in Banhart's favour.

Banhart is a native Californian, and this and his half Venezualan ethnicity are telltale marks in his folk music, often sheltered under the (uncomfortable) umbrella terms "New Weird America" and "Freak Folk". After his nine solo albums, however, it's clear there's more to his poetic musings than potshot kombucha jokes (but they're just so easy!). His most recent, What Will We Be forays more into the soft-rock and glitterglam sounds that his last couple of records have been hinting at, but there are still touches of ashram ethereality harking back to Cripple Crow and, very faintly, the simple beauty of Rejoicing in the Hands.

Before, we get into the show details, two things from the DB FAQ: 1. Yes, his voice is a dead-ringer for a young Marc Bolan in Tyrannosaurus Rex' Our People Were Fair and Wore Flowers In Their Hair days. 2. Yes, he dated Natalie Portman. Past tense. Beard-lovers and Portman-lovers alike can now breathe out a sigh of relief.

If you're a fan of Banhart, and suspect you might like his own taste in music, Rio en Medio who is signed to Gnomonsong (the record label he runs) plays in Sydney with Brightblack Morning Light on January 14, details here. Tickets for Devendra Banhart's show are available now.