Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Whew, it’s been a long time. I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve had a case of rockin pneumonia and a bit a of boogie-woogie flu. Not to mention a bad case of loving you. Seriously though, I’ve been on vacation!
I jumped on my motorcycle and drove down to Salisbury, NC. I camped, and slept, and rode, and saw 50 year old naked ladies. On the music front I saw “Ice Cream Man from Hell” too. Who are they? That’s what I’d like to know. But they were there and they covered some biker classics.
I went to the Jack Johnson/Ben Harper show. Wow. Where do I begin? The show was over 5 hours long. That’s a long show. Jack Johnson comes out and does some solo numbers. I don’t know which ones. They all sounded the same to me. Then a drummer and electric bass guitarist joins him and they play some more slow numbers that all sound like the same song. Then he plays a few hits. Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and the White Stripes “We are Going to Be Friends” were a quirky treat.
Then Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals comes out. I don’t know anything about him. But he’s way more rockin than Jack was. And he put on a show! He was giving it to the audience. And he was really letting the band have the spotlight. He introduced them twice. After and hour was up I was thinking that this was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. He wasn’t just there to sing his songs, he was there to entertain.
But (and there is always a but), he played for another 3.5 hours. He really seemed to overstay his time. It’s really hard to keep the momentum up for that long. And the numbers that got the most crowd response were covers. Bob Marley’s “War” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” But the thing that bugged me about this was that he sang both those covers almost exactly how the original performers would have done. No unique stamps of originality. It felt to me like a Karaoke performance.
So I feel mixed. I enjoyed it because I like rock-n-roll and having a good time with my friends. But I don’t think I’ll go out a buy any of their albums. Or will I really care if I never see them live again.
I jumped on my motorcycle and drove down to Salisbury, NC. I camped, and slept, and rode, and saw 50 year old naked ladies. On the music front I saw “Ice Cream Man from Hell” too. Who are they? That’s what I’d like to know. But they were there and they covered some biker classics.
I went to the Jack Johnson/Ben Harper show. Wow. Where do I begin? The show was over 5 hours long. That’s a long show. Jack Johnson comes out and does some solo numbers. I don’t know which ones. They all sounded the same to me. Then a drummer and electric bass guitarist joins him and they play some more slow numbers that all sound like the same song. Then he plays a few hits. Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and the White Stripes “We are Going to Be Friends” were a quirky treat.
Then Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals comes out. I don’t know anything about him. But he’s way more rockin than Jack was. And he put on a show! He was giving it to the audience. And he was really letting the band have the spotlight. He introduced them twice. After and hour was up I was thinking that this was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. He wasn’t just there to sing his songs, he was there to entertain.
But (and there is always a but), he played for another 3.5 hours. He really seemed to overstay his time. It’s really hard to keep the momentum up for that long. And the numbers that got the most crowd response were covers. Bob Marley’s “War” and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” But the thing that bugged me about this was that he sang both those covers almost exactly how the original performers would have done. No unique stamps of originality. It felt to me like a Karaoke performance.
So I feel mixed. I enjoyed it because I like rock-n-roll and having a good time with my friends. But I don’t think I’ll go out a buy any of their albums. Or will I really care if I never see them live again.
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