Amigo the Devil
2nd May 2024
San Fran, Wellington, New Zealand
Review by Miré Mertanen, feature photograph by Doug Peters.
This is why people come to gigs.
Imagine this: You’re hanging out with your insanely talented and charismatic best mate, A big man with curly hair like Jesus, but fair-skinned and who also dabbles in stand up. A best mate who gets you literally howling for your dogs at home. He gets you to make weird noises in unison and counter banters you in every turn, even if you’re heckling from afar. Well, he just happened to be on stage on Thursday night in San Fran, Wellington, and his name is Danny Kiranos – A.K.A. Amigo the Devil.
Amigo the Devil is what you get when you combine dark humour, sick jokes, perspectives you wouldn’t think of, authenticity and vulnerability, the spreading of genuine appreciation to every direction (including the bar staff)… And he’s as wholesome as the fires of hell (in the best possible way).
“I’m relatively happy to make you all sad” he laughs. By the second song everybody has let the sadness wash over them like a warm hug. The supporting band Will Wood has already done a great job of warming up the crowd. And San Fran was packed with eclectic people – you’ve got the young punks, bohemians, metal heads, slumberjacks, middle aged old rockers, hippies and even a woman with a fur coat.
The big man with long curly hair tunes his guitar with four beaming orange spotlights on him, and two patrons are already filming. The crowd gets wild – then silence. No one even blinks, you can feel something special in the air. The Devil Messiah himself shares it’s the last gig in the tour and he’d been dreaming of this for a long time, here in Aotearoa, which translates into the delivery.
Who is this artist creating a mosh pit with a banjo???, I find myself thinking.
The sound engineer has made an excellent work producing a clear and crispy sound as the lyrics are the golden nuggets in this slightly disturbing alt-folk from the Wild West. The live versions truly outshining the album version as did most of the songs with his raw, husky, yet clear and gentle voice. “He’s like serious Jack Black”, whispered my companion.
Songs were equally spread from all the albums including the newest ‘Yours Until The War Is Over’. Amigo brought all sorts of treats during the show, including revealing riffs for the as-yet unreleased third part of the Barrel and Staghorn trilogy and playing a few snippets of songs that aren’t yet recorded. One of embracing his mother’s new green hobby and a heartbreaking song from his dog’s perspective: “Dude will always be leaving“. Well ain’t that the truth.
The time flies by and the remaining setlist (that has been thrown out the window long ago), gets shorter and shorter. We’re getting closer to the end now. The chorus in ‘Hungover in Jonestown’ blasts into the crowd like a hurricane and even the last stoic, silent man is compelled to sing along. Then the audience is singing ecstatically ‘I Hope Your Husband Dies’ (plot twist – he did) while two lovebirds in the audience are swaying gently to the chorus.
Danny opens up about personal hardships. It’s not a show – he’s being human, vulnerable and genuine. He lets you in on the histories of the songs, like losing people, but “Enough of this death shit!” he shouts.
The cult has been born and its charismatic leader has landed in the audience, in the middle of a small circle. I find myself in the middle of the crowd. Fuck objectivity at this point. I hear everyone around me singing with him. He drops twisted humour between the songs, the kind that would normally make you feel embarrassed laughing but in this gig it doesn’t matter as the mate next to you laughs as well and adds fuel to the fire. “The only anomaly is we’re all a different kind of weird” he preaches in the middle of the crowd. A young punk in front of him sings every damn word of his lyrics from the bottom of his heart and Amigo grabs him by the shoulder, as we all sing along to ‘Hell And You’. In the end not even the guitar is needed.
You know the talk, “I saw bla bla, this and that, before they got big and did only the big stages…” Well my friends, this was that gig. As a venue San Fran worked perfectly. Size, atmosphere, chairs in the back for tired people. Based on what I witnessed here today, Amigo the Devil won’t be playing small venues for much longer. Catch him while you can.
Were you there at San Fran for this rowdy Alt-Folk gig? Or have you seen Amigo The Devil perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Ambient Light was provided a pass to review this concert. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only.
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