San Fermin Celebrate Three Years with Three Nights in New York (Photos)

One of the first shows I caught this year was one from a Brooklyn band, San Fermin at their Lincoln Center ‘American Songbook’ show. I wasn’t very familiar with them and they hadn’t yet released their 2015 album Jackrabbit. But their unique, unrestrained baroque pop was memorable and I knew I wanted to check them out again. Fortunately, they were performing a three night run of shows at the Bowery Ballroom to celebrate their third anniversary as a band.

To enhance the merriment, band leader Ellis Ludwig-Leone invited a lot of friends to join San Fermin on stage, both to support San Fermin songs and to share that particular artists material. Some of the guests included Aaron Livingston of Son Little for two numbers including his “The River” (I hadn’t seen a proper set from him this year despite the buzz around him), Nanna Fabricius of Oh Land, Mike Wilbur of Moon Hooch wailing on his saxophone, Casey Dienel of White Hinterland, Kristin Slipp of Cuddle Magic (her song “What If I” was included in the set) and Eliza Bagg and Oliver Hill of Pavo Pavo. These eclectic additions swelled the number of people on stage to almost a dozen at various points but the stage never seemed too crowded.

The band itself was in fine form and clearly very excited to be performing for a packed audience. They touched on a lot of material from their self-titled debut and Jackrabbit over the nearly two hour show. Their excitement and energy was fun to photograph, particularly the ebullient singer Charlene Kaye and trumpeter John Brandon who hopped off stage to perform in the crowd for a song. Kaye’s counterpoint, the other lead singer Allen Tate alternated on some more mellow numbers like “Methuselah”, filling the room with his rich voice. I welcomed a chance to hear “Reckoning” again and of course their epic “Jackrabbit” which closed the night. Kaye’s vocals are just astounding on this track and it was a perfect closer. San Fermin’s complex and dynamic songs translate into a superb live show.