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A former member of Crash Test Dummies, Benjamin (son of David) Darvill’s arrival on stage – in black and white pyjamas, a gold silk dressing gown, shiny black shoes, sunglasses and a trilby, carrying a suitcase of fruit and wine – just about sums up his individual style. Over four albums and a couple of performances on Later… with Jools Holland, Darvill has built up a reputation for his funk-infused, beatboxing, harmonica-looping version of the blues.
On a raised platform on the Duchess’ stage, he played to type. Between setting a fill loop in motion and nonchalantly climbing down to the crowd to check the sound balance, he ran effortlessly through older songs including ‘Leave Without Running’ and ‘Hellhound’, as well as tracks from new album Shake a Bone. When he wasn’t churning through his entertaining arrangements, Darvill delved into comedic banter and off the cuff looped vocal reproductions of seagulls, bullfrogs and a motorbike as asides.
Yelling with mock anger about the restrictive security barrier separating himself from the crowd, he dragged a table and chairs to the stage midway through the set. Extracting a couple from the crowd, his “new friends” took hold of shakers, blew on kids’ party blowouts (no, I didn’t know they were called that either) and tapped drumsticks on wine bottles. For an act as curious as Darvill to have the right effect on stage, the crowd have to be on his side, and the Duchess crowd were in fine form, singing along during ‘I Just Wanna Get High’.
The set overran, so the venue's usual Friday night clientele were let in during the encore. As Darvill neared the end with requested favourite ‘Low Rider’, the newcomers got to enjoy the festival-style shock of wandering in on a maverick in action.
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