« Earl Sweatshirt Returns to Chicago with a New Album | Peeling Back the Layers of Earl Sweatshirt » |
Concert Sat Mar 28 2015
Photos/Review: Benjamin Booker@Cabaret Metro 3/28/15
Benjamin Booker is both incredibly talented and quite charming in his honesty and sincerity that seems quite evident as he performs. What could be a very simple set up of guitar bass and drums (with occasional mandolin and fiddling from band mates) becomes more complex when you think of all the influences responsible for this greatness. Throughout the hour long set, one could decipher an intriguing mix of garage rock, soul, bluegrass, and blues that seem to all come together, with one or another genre emphasized more in some songs. It's exciting that Booker is so young when you think of what he'll continue to do with all of these genres in a hopefully long career ahead of him.
New Orleans based Booker plays passionately with both the drive and the melody that suggest versatility and the tightness of the three piece as a whole is also remarkable. Booker himself moves around the stage so effortlessly that it resembles a strange and interesting dance as his sometimes serenading voice and other times raspier vocals leap out from his body. Booker also modestly thanked everyone for being there, talked about how much it meant to him to play the Metro and invited people to dance with him on stage. He seemed to be having quite a bit of fun, which made it easy for the sold out audience to also keep it lively, singing and moving along to the rhythm.
Benjamin Booker Setlist:
Opening up the night was Nashville's Olivia Jean, who formerly played in the band, The Black Belles presented rockabilly throwback tunes that at times also recalled mid nineties alternative rock rifts. Though Olivia Jean herself is a highlight taking stage center and both singing and playing guitar, she had a competent backing band playing second guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. The band played a 40 minute set of mainly originals, though they ended with a cover of Space's "Female of the Species."