Donny Benét @ Union Stage [DC] - 3/6/2022
Donny Benét at Union Stage in DC (Photo ©2022 Mauricio Castro)
With a wink, a smile, and a joke about a defense attorney billboard above a Brooklyn used car dealership, Donny Benét can win over a crowd pretty easily. The multi-instrumentalist last came to DC just two months before the pandemic took hold of the country, in support of his at-the-time-unreleased album Mr. Experience (released in May 2020). Now, as his first venture outside his native Australia since the pandemic hit, he has returned to North America in support of his upcoming EP Le Piano.
Ever the love song lyricist, Benét elicited loads of cheers from the crowd during the likes of “Konichiwa” (which was a musical inspiration for The Weeknd in crafting his own 80s-inspired album, After Hours) and “One Night in Paradise” (a song that’s, in his words, about finding the time to make love to your partner once you have children). A touring one-man-band, he sang over pre-recorded instrumentals from his laptop. But armed with a mini-synthesizer, some dance moves, and great jokes in-between songs, he went the extra mile to win the crowd over. He was inspired by the fact that Americans love to hype themselves up so much (see the “New York’s best defense attorney” billboard above a car dealership mentioned earlier) that he professed to hype up his own songs more in America, and he even joked about how fans should throw folded-up $20 bills onto the stage for the encore. And in fact, that’s exactly what they did. As he pointed out, “That’s gas money for Toronto right there.” Time and money well-spent for both the crowd and Donny Benét
Donny Benét’s latest EP Le Piano will arrive on April 1, 2022, through Dot Dash Recordings.
Opening for Donny Benet were DC-based group GLOSSER, a duo composed of vocalist Riley Fanning and keyboardist Corbin Sheehan that evoke the likes of Wet and Beach House in both production and vocals. Their debut self-titled EP was released in 2021, with more new music on the way.
