Benjamin Booker

The southern blues stylings of Benjamin Booker fit so snugly onto the Horseshoe Tavern stage that it looked like he'd been playing there all his life. In fact, the young New Orleans man seems to have lived an entire previous life unbeknownst to anyone. No one his age should have that much soul, but evidently nobody told Booker that. He practically poured himself into each song, transferring all his raw emotion into uptempo bluesy rock. His mouth was so glued to the mic at times it looked like he might swallow it. Fortunately, he didn't and proceeded to bang out "Violent Shiver" before rumbling the stage with an energetic closer, which would have stuck out if Booker hadn't played every song in the set like it was his last.