On May 18 at the Belly Up, Shakey Graves took to the stage in his traditional one-man band style: with a guitar in his hands, one foot beating a suitcase fashioned into a drum, and the other foot working a tambourine.

The Austin musician (born Alejandro Rose-Garcia) delighted the crowd with songs that had everyone following his every move. About midway through the set, Shakey Graves invited drummer Chris “Boo” Boosahda and guitarist Patrick O’Conner to join him for a few numbers. The trio had an overflowing energy that carried them through rock ‘n roll jump kicks to a great drum vs. guitar face-off.

Shakey Graves is clearly comfortable onstage. One of the highlights of the show was when he played “Tomorrow,” a song that he wrote for his high school sweetheart. He introduced the song as from a time when he thought that he could never go wrong in love, relating to the audience just how wrong he was.

For the encore, Shakey Graves reappeared solo and treated the crowd to a beautiful acoustic rendition of “Hard Wired.” After that, he brought down the house with “Dearly Departed.” While the crowd sang along, he invited a group of fans to sing backup vocals for him, and then coaxed them to stage dive for the final coup de grace.

The Barr Brothers opened up the show with a solid set of carefully crafted sonic gems.

Photos: Shakey Graves at the Belly Up