Ben's Big in Japan (Jose Theodore Day)

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It should have been a terrible day yesterday. The Oil lost game 1 of the Stanley Cup final after taking a 3-1 lead into the third period. Plus they lost the services of Dwayne Roloson, who for all intents and purposes was responsible for getting the team to the finals in the first place.

Both losses were tough to stomach (I reckon all Edmontonians feel this way), and while I mourned for a while, it was difficult to stay dejected. Not when I had tickets to the Ben Harper concert at Hiroshima’s intimate Club Quattro the same evening.

Wow, what a show it was! First of all, Ben Harper, who could easily sell out venues of several thousand back home, played for an audience of a few hundred here. Plus, the club is so small, it really was like having Ben Harper play your living room, minus the chesterfield. To see and hear him up close in such a setting was a chance I doubt I shall ever have again. Ah, it’s times like these when I really appreciate being in Japan.

Second, the music—as anyone who’s familiar with Ben Harper would expect—was amazing! It seemed like Ben was sizing up the audience through the first few songs, gauging how into his sound we were and what kind of connection he would have with us. He must have sensed something, because he soon started cutting loose, playfully swapping solos with bandmates, dancing spastically around the stage, and even reaching out to touch hands with the audience. We, in turn, showed our appreciation for Ben’s energy with a similar wild exuberance through two full sets.

Well, there’s some debate as to whether we got two full sets or one set and one really, really long encore. When Ben and the rest of the band were done playing, they just kind of got up and left the stage without a “goodnight,” or a “thank you,” or even a “we’re going to take a quick break and be right back.” They just walked off. At this point they’d been playing for an hour and a half. It seemed short, but considering the short set lists a lot of artists are putting together these days, not surprising. This is also Japan, where concerts start and end early.

After the band left, the roadies came out and looked to be striking the stage, which had me a little concerned that we wouldn’t even get an encore. After all, it’s hardly a promising sign when they start unhooking cables and carrying off instruments and mike stands. However, to our collective relief, Ben did come back, and those roadies who had been clearing the stage where really just moving unused gear. Except for an acoustic guitar, Ben was unaccompanied as he launched into a three-song set of material from his early discs. Then he was rejoined by the band for what I figured would be the grand finale. It was the encore, and according to the conventional conventions of concerts, it was a quite proper way to wrap things up. Only things didn’t wrap up. The band came back, played a song, then another, and another, and another. The encore, if that’s indeed what it was, lasted an additional hour and a half. Whether this constituted a second set or the longest recorded encore in the history of performing artists, in the end, doesn’t really matter. Either way we were treated to three hours of exceptional music.

Ben played a lot of material from his new album, “Both Sides of the Gun.” It was a good thing, therefore, that I picked up the album a few weeks prior to the show in anticipation of all the new songs I’d be likely to hear at the concert. I’ll confess that while the few listens I gave “Both Sides of the Gun” didn’t blow my mind the way “Fight for your Mind” did when I first heard that album, I nonetheless recognized it as a solid effort well worth the accolades it was receiving (not every disc released gets to be in the CKUA Hot Box. That’s the name of the box in the CKUA studio where station hosts put discs that are extremely popular and in heavy rotation, by the way). Seeing and hearing Ben perform the songs live though has totally given “Both Sides of the Gun” new meaning and life for me. Witnessing Ben’s emotionally charged performance of songs like “Black Rain,” “Better Way,” and “Please Don’t Talk About Murder While I’m Eating” left me wanting to hear the songs again as soon as possible.

While the new album was definitely and deservedly in the spotlight, Ben drew songs from the breadth of his career. I was particularly pleased to hear both “Gold to Me” and “Another Lonely Day,” two of my favourite tracks from “Fight for your Mind.” I was also pleased to hear a blistering version of “Jah Work” from the fine but comparatively less heralded album “The Will to Live.” We were also treated to a cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” It’s always nice to hear some Canadian content when you’re so far from home. The show wasn’t without its humourous moments either. Near the conclusion of the song “Diamonds on the Inside,” Ben pointed his mike to the audience in an invitation to sing the chorus. We completely flubbed. I applaud Ben for encouraging audience participation, but I think he maybe forgot that at least half the audience couldn’t speak the language his lyrics are written in. As for the half of us that could, well, we just didn’t know the song well enough.

It was rather embarrassing. I think up to that point we had developed a pretty good audience/performer rapport, which is probably natural considering the size of the club. However, I was worried about how the rest of the evening would go after the debacle. I can’t imagine it was very gratifying for Ben to thrust his mike into the audience, expecting 400 voices to sing in unison, only to hear crickets chirping in the silence before we eventually and cautiously offered in the rising intonation of a question, “inside?” as if to ask “is this the word that completes the verse?” It was, but unfortunately it arrived well out of rhythm. After one more awkward verse, Ben mercifully rescued us from further singing and promptly ended the song.

As if sensing the a need to relieve the awkwardness of what had just transpired, and perhaps out of a desire to restore the rapport we’d built earlier, my good friend, who just so happens to also be named Ben, called out during the break between songs while the band was tuning, “Sorry we’re such bad singers!” Ben the performer had a good chuckle at this and replied, “No worries. That was a lot of pressure and expectation to put on you.”

Ah, Ben Harper is so cool. And so is my friend Ben, who was cool enough to have had a conversation with Ben Harper. And, because he’s my friend, I guess that makes me cool too, if only by association. I’ll tell you what’s not cool though, and that’s losing game 1 of the Stanley Cup final when you’re up 3-1 going into the third. The Ben Harper concert was more than adequate compensation for the loss, but there are no more concerts by artists of Ben Harper’s caliber on the horizon, so let’s learn from the loss Oil and get out there and start winning, eh?

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Comments

[kelsey]

FUN!
Ken!!! that sounds like so much fun!!!!!! japan has good things!! and yummy kitkat bars!