Shamir Lets His Hair Down

Shamir Lets His Hair Down

I can’t remember which song he was singing, but near the end of his early-evening set, Shamir Bailey, in one graceful motion, pulled out his immaculately arranged hair-pile and let his dreads swing free. It was like Jerry Lawler pulling down the strap: That’s how you knew it was on. Playing one of his first real festivals, Bailey was all breezy confidence, trusting the crowd to come along with him as he did some of his softest synthpop songs early in the set, a bold move. And that meant we got an energy level that cranked up throughout the set, finally reaching full disco-house catharsis when that hair came flying loose. He is a great live singer, assured and lithe and rhythmically inventive. And there was so much joy in his performance that I didn’t even mind missing most of Future Islands’ victory-lap set over on the main stage.