Fun Fun Fun Fest: Benjamin Booker

Benjamin Booker pushed his lip against the microphone so hard that it looked swollen. His teeth gnashed together as he growled from the back of his throat, “I’m a new beginning. I will learn to love,” on “Wicked Waters.”

Anguished and redemptive, the Delta blues powers the 26-year-old New Orleans dweller’s material – both Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson leave behind their trace elements in Booker – but there’s an unfiltered and scabrous verve to the singer reminiscent of Black Flag and Bad Brains.

There’s also a hint of desperation as he croaks “Where I’m going, I’ll never know” on his current opus “Violent Shiver.” He vaguely, almost shyly, began the song’s slinging guitar lick with hesitance rather than his used wild-eyed zeal.

The drummer and bassist traded their instruments for a mandolin and violin to launch into a Southern roots gothic as Booker puffed on a cigarette and frantically stomped across the stage. Languid ballads like “Slow Coming” and “I Thought I Heard You Screaming” reveal a charm in the bandleader’s barely audible croons of forgotten dreams and unrequited love. Still, there’s something chilling and forlorn as he whispered nearly a cappella, “And the life we’re living now will surely bury me” during the latter.

True to his moonshine juke jointers, Booker ended with a 10-minute version of “Have You Seen My Son?,” which barrels ferociously with electric fuzz and more than enough grit. His voice rasped like an open sore doused with cigarettes, whiskey, and gin. Overwhelmed, he put his hands over his sweat-streaked face as loud distortions echoed from the speakers.

He fiddled with feedback before pummeling into a crash-and-burn end solo conjuring no less than Jimi Hendrix.