Ben Harper
Theatre St. Denis
M. Fingers
There is certainly no reason to review Ben Harper, as adding to the miles of column space already dedicated to his work is redundant. But when a man receives a standing ovation before playing a single note, a phenomenon such as this requires deep exploration and having spent the better part of my youth diving for pennies thrown from the bow of ocean liners by pink skinned raisins in sun hats and oversized shades, I felt I was just the deep sea skin diver to explore such depths of inexplicability. Young musicians take note…brashness does not breed longevity. Only humility and bravery will do that.
I’ve seen a hundred bands this year at least, yet few have delivered the intensity that Harper did tonight. And he didn’t even need a microphone. But we’ll get back to that later. The ticket arrived from Sao Paolo. It could only have been from one person as an apologetic token for having shot me in the leg try to get to the bottom of Fong’s Ayahuascan endeavors.
Fair to say, Harper fans fall into some obvious categories, namely hippies, granolas, smoking hot women with political agendas, and people into catchy radio shit who assume that just because one or two Harper songs have fallen into this category, they all will. But not so, as Harper’s musical bravery lies not only in his genre experimentations which involve swimming the waters of folk, roots, blues, gospel, rock, soul, and metal, but also in what he is willing to give back to the people that put food on his plate.
Any jackass can start a band. Too often jackasses do just that. They get popular because they’re cute and their lyrics and instrumentations are clever, then they disappear because they refuse to take chances, or perhaps, they lack the courage to take chances. What is lost on bands like these is that in order to take chances one must understand the limitations of their both their instruments and the genre in which they are operating, and then use those limitation as a spring board from which they are to move beyond. Artists who understand this will grow wrinkles before their fans and I suspect we will one day see the likes of Ben Harper with white hair, limited vision, and the long lines of time stretched across his face.
In the history of going to shows, I have never seen an artist abandon his microphone and the amplification thus provided to sing to a theatre of thousands and light up the back rows. So naturally, I nearly lost my shit, as did everyone in the place who basically abandoned their seats midway through the two hour show for the longest standing ovation I’ve even been a part of.
So yeah, Ben Harper, he’s not bad. I mean, I’m not really into his shit, but whatever.
As for those bands that lived up to the intensity and musical bravery as Harper – well – Plants and Animals for one, and their first album has yet to be released, so hopefully I am not speaking to soon. MIA is another. A thunder, lightening, and rain soaked evening with K-Naan some years back also comes to mind. One can only hope the future of music is carved by those inspired to give to and not receive from their fans.
Post Script…It is painfully irritating to hear people fond of their own voices trying to fill the silences between songs with cleverly timed compliments, or worse, far far worse…song requests. Avoid this at all costs. Song requests are for campfires and karaoke, not concerts. Just because you want to hear a song, don’t expect that the thousands of others, performers included, are at your beckon call. Yes you paid good money for a ticket, but that’s no excuse to be a douche bag.