Amigo the Devil, a big shaggy bear of a man, combines Beat poet comedy and heart-felt confessionals with his mix of Americana and Alternative Country and Folk.
The alter-ego of Danny Kiranos, who was raised in Miami, Florida with his Greek father, and Spanish mother.
He grew up with these cultural music influences, but in his youth became immersed in the underground Punk and Metal scene of Miami. There was also the pull of gang culture which implies recreational drugs and a Gangsta scene.
This is beginning to sound like the Southern version of The Wire. Of that period of his life, he has observed many of his friends ended up… in jail or dead.
He is a horror movie obsessive and did attend the Los Angeles Film School to pursue this. Chasing one of his favourite bands at the time, White Zombie, and their founder and lead singer Rob Zombie.
Zombie is probably better-known as the maker of edgy, disturbing horror movies with over-the-top macabre black humour. Laden with Blues and Country Americana dwelling in the dark and evil.
Watch House of 1000 Corpses, Devil’s Rejects and 3 From Hell. The movie trilogy of a family of murdering Southern cannibals. The soundtracks will give an idea of the approach that Amigo the Devil has in his music.
It has been labelled Murder Folk in recent times. That is what informs a lot of Folk and Country anyway, for hundreds of years. He is mining familiar territory which was once mainstream.
Arrives on stage with no fanfare or theatrics. Plugs in a banjo and starts his show with Cannibal Within, off his latest fine album Yours Until the War is Over (2024).
Playing in claw hammer fashion which is much older than the Bluegrass three-finger Earl Scruggs style. Emphasising the percussive nature.
The lyrics are addressing fentanyl addiction. The moment we can’t recognize the person inside our skin/ We’re losing the fight, eaten alive by the cannibal within.
He also takes a gratifying crack at the Eagles. I just don’t wanna blow my brains out to Hotel California.
A few more banjo-led songs and his voice can get gruff and theatrical like Screaming Jay Hawkins. Malevolent and funny, but also heart-felt.
The elements of Rock and Metal that he has alluded to, are buried deep within.
In recent interviews he has commented on the years that he spent playing in any dive bar or small stage that would have him.
He got a lot of jeers and laughs until one night, he climbed up onto a bar and just let out an almighty roar and proceeded to blast through his songs. Jeers turned to cheers.
With his obsession with serial killers, forensic police photos of bodies, combined with his love of the horror genre, he could look at combining his passions with the serious art of being a professional musician.
From a recent Rolling Stone interview. It’s the difference between a hobby and a career, between dedication and obsession.
He is a reporter looking inside the Belly of the Beast rather than an inmate. A Beat Poet, who can sound like Tom Waits whilst also diving into the psyche like William Burroughs.
He also wears the dried-out skin coat of the songster in a travelling roadshow, like a Henry Thomas, Harmonica Frank Floyd or one of the many personas of Bob Dylan (Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues).
He picks up his acoustic guitar, banishing the banjo for the rest of the evening, and launches into a shaggy dog story I Hope Your Husband Dies. He sings it and he speaks it, and he builds the tale of his lust for this woman until we get to the killer punch line. Literally.
There is a Death song about lost people, and how he doesn’t want to be different anymore. But this is accompanied by a fierce, percussive guitar breakdown which is a denial of that sentiment.
Murder at the Bingo Hall. He gets high on cocaine and speed. The acoustic guitar is all hard and fast rhythm. I was looking around trying to track down/ Who the biggest threat would be/ Seeing the fear in everyone’s eyes/ Apparently it was me! Declaims like a preacher at the bridge, finishes with yells.
Once Upon a Time at Texaco Part 1 is a first-person account of a gas station hold-up, prefaced by the line I’d kill for more tequila. Then goes on to spin the tale of obscene violent crime inside the mind of the protagonist.
It’s All Gone takes the existential further step. And the only death that’s ever really worthless/ Is a life without a story to tell.
In his totally idiosyncratic way, he is a soul mate to the late departed Mark E. Smith of the Fall. Who sang about the madness he witnessed In My Area.
Will Wood opened the show. A local who deserves further research as this is the first time I have encountered him.
Since he comes on stage with an acoustic guitar, I call him Folk Country, or an alternative style practitioner of both.
Dave Khan is with him playing mandolin and violin. Reb Fountain adds some harmony vocals. So, he must have some pedigree and status in the New Zealand music scene.
He is a multi-instrumentalist. His resume includes tour manager, barman, bouncer, and a psychiatric nurse.
That last one possibly got him the gig tonight. He gives the impression it was a last-minute thing. States that he hasn’t played publicly for eight(?) years.
Psychiatric nurses are a strange breed of people, being a mix of prison guard, therapist, and social worker.
Opens with an Olde Tyme Country sounding song, where he misses his dog and his friends. Then ends it with a sweet Jesus deliver us from evil!
Lovin’ is the Folk Pop style that John Sebastian played with in the… Lovin’ Spoonful.
He hits a peak with a cover of John Prine’s Sam Stone.
Worth a further look and we hope to see him again somewhere.
Amigo the Devil tells us towards the end of the set that he’s not comfortable on stage. He needs to get intimate with the rowdy audience, so he climbs off and surrounds himself with the front of the house.
Others are invited to inhabit the stage and they do.
The last song takes a while to start as he seems to gain a second wind by being in a circle pit.
Perfect Wife is pure Rob Zombie macabre horror. My wife came in/ She’d found my cocaine/ I tore out her eyes. It takes the Cramps classic TV Set to a further level.
He is inspired to do a few more as he seems reluctant to leave. Everyone cheers.
Amigo the Devil taps much older and ancient influences, but he is another who carries the wild gift of Rock’n’roll. He may just wear it like a freshly skinned pelt.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Amigo the Devil
Will Wood
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