Amigo the Devil to perform at the Belly Up

Following the release of his latest album “Born Against” under the moniker Amigo the Devil, Danny Kiranos will play in front of a sold-out crowd at the Belly Up in Solana Beach on Aug. 24.

His current touring schedule, which puts an end to a year and a half hiatus of live shows because of the pandemic, began Aug. 18 in New Mexico. Then he will make his way through Arizona and Nevada en route to California. Then he will head eastward as the year goes on.

“I guess it forced me to take a break that I wouldn’t have taken otherwise,” said Kiranos, a former North Park resident who now lives in Austin, Texas.

The tour also gives audiences a chance to experience the eclectic mix of sounds and themes that are reflected on “Born Against,” which was released in April.

“It’s definitely a little different from the other albums,” Kiranos said. “It is a step, in my mind, forward into what I would like to be writing.”

He recorded the album in Dallas at the Modern Electric Studio with musician and producer Beau Bedford, exploring genres such as Eastern European folk, Australian bush ballads, and Spanish and Cuban Bolero traditions.

“I think it was way more intimate than it usually is because the pandemic kind of cut off a lot of the open nature of the studio, with friends coming by and people visiting and working with multiple people,” Kiranos said. “It was a very small group of us that kind of hunkered down and locked ourselves in to get it done.”

Reviews so far for “Born Against” have called it “an album where every song is a vivid scene that makes you feel something,” and said that it “may have set the bar impossibly high for lyrics in 2021.”

“It was fun,” Kiranos said of the time he spent in the studio. “It was just very, very mellow, really easy, no drama, nothing that you would normally have in terms of stress.”

Kiranos said he’s attended many shows at the Belly Up, but next week’s show will be his first-ever performance there.

Belly Up is located at 143 S. Cedros Ave. in Solana Beach. Doors for Amigo the Devil, with Tejon Street Corner Thieves and Stephanie Lambring, will open at 7 p.m. For more information, visit bellyup.com.