elvisI went to see Ben Harper here in Memphis tonite and came away with mixed feelings.
I knew nothing of him other than his name was familiar, I knew he got great reveiws for his music, an international mix of acoustic, blues, and rock, and walking into the theater, I could see he had a really devout young fan base.
The music was very good, he's a great guitarist and pianist, a soulful vocalist, and has a great band with him, bass, guitar, keyboardist, drummer, and percussionist (the Innocent Criminals). I recoognized none of his music, but could hear strong strains of several artist at different times, he was Prince in his styling at one point, Van Morrison in vocals at another, Jackson Browne in some of his lyrics, he did a great homage to Elvis (neat, since I had been to Graceland earlier in the day) as well as Hank Sr. ("Fool For A Lonesome Train"). My favorite was the sad ballad "Younger Than Today" he dedicated to a woman he had met at a hospital earlier in the day. Though it is about a couple reminiscing - with a Mom who has senile dementia and with us kids spending more time looking through family photo albums, it is particularly touching to me.
Some lyrics I found a bit pretentious and repititious - almost like he found a string of words that he used as a hook instead of one made from notes.
The crowd partied hard, LOL! I think I got a contact high tonite. Most of the night was up on feet dancing in the aisles though it was annoyingly, ironically funny that some fans after listening to his song "Excuse Me Mr" "Excuse me Mr.do you have the time or are you so important that it stands still for you?
excuse me Mr. lend me your ear or are you not only blind but do you not hear ?"
they then stood repeatedly as if they were the only ones in the place, forcing dozens of people behind them to also have to stand. I wish I had a box of popcorn so I could have pelted them (and no, it wasn't crowd enthusiasm, this was 4 or 5 people in a theater filled with 1700).
He had a couple of great tunes off a new album, "Fight Outta You" : "I'd rather take your punch, than not let you have a shot" and the "Younger Than Today" I mentioned above.
When he rocked, he rocked. When he hit the blues, he hit it deep, but I think he badly dropped the ball in his encore and for me it spoiled the evening. First he ended the set with the crowd up, screaming, loudest group I had ever been in, it was great! He had done several songs that gave the audience a chance to sing along and everybody was into it. But once off stage, he stayed off for almost 5 minutes. Stage hands scuttled about in the dark adjusting things, moving things, unplugging things, which was totally mysterious as when he finally came back out, he came alone! At one point I honestly hoped the audience would, en masse, quit clapping and leave - leave him sitting backstage wondering where everyone went. As it was, he came back out, sat with a dobrow, and played a looonnnngggg solo piece. It was some heart-break ballad that after 5 minutes of audience silence (except for the drunk stoners hollering out unintelligbly to the point his music couldn't even be heard), segued into an instrumental. An EXCRUTIATINGLY LOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG instrumental (again, this on a dobrow). I squeamed as I stood, I started to sweat, I started to hate being in the theater, but I forced myself to remain rather than try to squeeze myself past 6 others to get to the aisle. He droned on, and on, and on, and then resumed the song. More irony, lyrics saying
"sometimes you just have to walk away" YES! PLEASE! LET ME OUT ! ! !
"we've tried to say goodbye so many ways" HOW ABOUT C-YA? STOP IT! STOP IT! LEAVE ALREADY!
"once again, you my friend are nowhere to be found" DUH!!!!
"But sometimes, sometimes you just have to walk away, walk away and head for the door. (did I mention he is repititious?) You just walk away walk on, turn and head for the door"
And I did, the song finally ended after about 20 minutes, the lone spotlight was expanded to stage lights as the band came out, and I boogied - not in a good way.
He took a good thing and did a really horrible thing to it - too bad. he may have rocked on the last tune, but he'd already lost me and from the crowd reaction, they were not with him during that monotonous encore either. But on the other hand, they were already fans, so they may not have even noticed the lull. It'll be interesting to read the music review in the paper tomorrow.
Memphis - GREAT place! My first time downtown. The hotel 7 blocks from Beale Street but a half block from the trolley line that runs the length of Main Street and loops through the central entertainment district. I didn't spend time on Beale, but it looks like a blast!
Graceland - though I've never been an Elvis fan, he and his home are American icons so I had to go. Expensive, $30 for the tour of the house, auto museum, private jet, and outfits (I'll post pix Wednesday).plus $6 to park. But the tour was good, very friendly people, an audio tape guides you through Graceland itself and it was a hoot to finally see the "Jungle Room" in person, ahem, I liked it! Must have been incredible to have been in his inner circle, a great home, a close family, and apparently a totally loving and giving man. I'm tempted to compare his encore to that of Ben Harper, but I won't. Hopefully all Ben did was shoot himself in the foot, LOL!
