Pages tagged “ben harper”

The Jackson Hole Music Festival just wrapped a few hours ago.  A great weekend.  To celebrate, a handful of locals and festival staff and attendees went to the Mangy Moose for drinks.  There, our crowd of about 75 were treated to one of the real highlights of the weekend when Ben Harper jumped on stage, soon joined by Robert Randolph, for a performance of Bill Wither's "Use Me."

More on the festival later.  For now, here are some iPhone pictures of the duo (if only we'd brought the real camera...):

First time’s a charm for the inaugural Jackson Hole Music Festival. The two-day affair set in Teton Village, Wyoming, will not be a minor-league production. The line-up, not even complete yet, already includes Wilco, music legend Brian Wilson and Medeski, Martin & Wood on day one, and The Black Crowes, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, and The Avett Brothers on day two.

[Above: Voodoo Music Experience '06 Crowd]

Granted, the summer festival scene was a heatstroke of awesome, but give it up for the fall concert circuit. Although a bit more sullen and introverted than its older sibling, the autumn has always boasted an underrated array of cool shows to check out. We’ve already hipped you to Bang! and Pop Montreal, but if you’re up for a little fire on the Bayou, the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans might be for you.

Now a three-day event, Voodoo has proved one of the most durable festivals in America. Hurricane Katrina was enough to briefly sideline it in 2005, but the show pushed on anyway with performances in the Big Easy and Memphis. Last year, Voodoo made a triumphant return to its traditional home at New Orleans’ City Park, with 93,000 revelers showing up to jazz, funk, and rock out. The 2007 incarnation of Voodoo (set to run Oct. 26-28) is shaping up to be one of the deepest yet, showcasing three different performance venues that each highlight a different element of New Orleans’ rich musical history. Tickets went on sale this past Friday. Here’s a schedule of who to watch for at Voodoo:

Day 1:
Earl Greyhound
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Kings of Leon
Toots and Whomever He’s Calling the Maytals
M.I.A.
Rage Against the Machine

Day 2:
Mute Math
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Spoon
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
The Smashing Pumpkins
Tiësto

Day 3:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Fallout Boy
Marc Broussard
Common
Dr. John
Wilco

Tickets run $40 for a one-day pass and $115 for a three-day pass. Check out ticket options here.

Related Links:
VoodooMusicFest.com
Voodoo Experience MySpace
Paste: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Solitary Thunder

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Entering Atlanta’s premiere outdoor venue can be daunting. At the gates they herd the crowd through like cattle and scour the concert-goers’ bags for food, drinks, cameras (even disregarding the fact that practically everyone and their brother has a camera phone these days), and illegal substances. Once inside the venue, sub par food is sold for whopping prices, and the mile-long line for overpriced beer is directed by a security worker yelling into a megaphone. For those resilient enough to pass through all of the aforementioned barriers on this particular night, Damian Marley, son of reggae legend, Bob, awaited on the other side. He would perform a handful of his father’s songs, as well as tunes from his Grammy-winning current album, Welcome to Jamrock. Julian and Stephen Marley joined their brother on stage while the band infused every number with joyful, upbeat energy, powerful female backup singers and rhythmic percussion. In short – classic reggae fare, inspired renditions and refreshing originals.

Warmly embraced by some 5,000 fans, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals took the stage in the headlining spot, beginning with “Please Don’t Talk About Murder While I’m Eating,” an anthemic, rollicking number in the classic rock vein. Harper’s vocals have never seemed fitting for such a genre, and the song seemed overwrought, like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

When Harper classic “Burn One Down” – the lyrics of which are known by many a hippie chick, frat boy and Rastaman alike – began, an all-pervading smell of the drug in question infiltrated the venue, little puffs of smoke rising throughout the crowd. The concert-goers chanted in unison, turning Chastain into a veritable campfire sing-along:

If you don’t like my fire then don’t come around
‘Cause I’m gonna burn one down.

Unfortunately, the band soon resorted to resting on its haunches for easy and uninspired numbers (“Steal My Kisses,” “Waiting for You,” “Morning Yearning,” “Diamonds on the Inside,” “Crying Won’t Help You Now”) while eyes glazed, couples swayed and yawns spread through the crowd like a wave. For everyone’s sake, the band could’ve cut eight songs in a row from its repertoire.

Damian Marley and Co. flooded back on stage to join Harper's clan for “Get Up, Stand Up,” during which most every denizen of the amphitheater did just that, pumping fists and shouting along with the revolutionary ballad. The crowd’s enthusiasm for a rock concert in the midst of the current political climate made the whole thing feel more than a bit contrived, however.

Still, the blissful fans cheered Harper back on stage for two encores. For the first, he took the stage alone to play the shimmering, “There Will Be a Light,” from his collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama. For the second, the full band performed a trudging and listless cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” before ending with obvious closer, “I Believe in a Better Way.” Hardcore fans were singing along like there was no tomorrow. Others were hurrying for the nearest exit.

Split Personality: Ben Harper juggles ballads and funk on two-disc set

Ben Harper spends a lot of his time recording with well-known friends like Jack Johnson, Beth Orton and Gov’t Mule. And his last studio recording—2004’s There Will Be a Light—found him collaborating with The Blind Boys of Alabama. In fact, the two-disc Both Sides of the Gun is the first studio album filed solely under his name since 2003’s Diamonds on the Inside.

At just over an hour, these 18 tracks would fit easily on one disc, but Harper divides them by mood into Side A and Side B, as if this were a dusty LP. The decision to split up the tracks according to their mood could easily reflect the album’s title. Side A’s rollicking, funky bravado captures the power and control of someone with a loaded weapon, while Side B’s mellow, tender balladry represents the mournful resignation of someone confronting the very real possibility of death.

The album’s title track (on Side A) seems to confirm this theory: amid syncopated Hammond chords and guitar emerges Harper’s impassioned shout, “When you’re trapped, you got no voice!” Later, Harper maintains his high energy without such overwhelming traces of desperation. “Get It Like You Like It” carries the carefree, sing-along jubilation of the Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ’n Roll (But I Like It),” while “The Way You Found Me” is a bluesy love song with a sassy chorus (“Take me as I am / Or leave me the way you found me”).

Both Sides' second disc pursues themes of love from a more amorous standpoint. Harper sets the mood with lush string arrangements: a quartet amplifies the sensuality of “Morning Yearning,” while a single resonant cello grounds the tender “Waiting For You.” Harper’s seduction plot climaxes with the album-closing “Happy Everafter in Your Eyes,” with his overtly emotional voice delivering lyrics that sound like wedding vows (“All that I can give you / Is forever yours to keep”).

While sweet love songs unify Side B, Side A contains the album’s more dramatically pointed tracks. Harper rants about the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina in “Black Rain” (“You don’t fight for us / But expect us to die for you”), with strings adding dramatic accents.

The record’s most intense number is the anti-war “Gather ‘Round the Stone”—its diminished volume sounding out-of-place on the rowdier Side A, but its angry message fitting right in. Harper’s acoustic guitar combined with uplifting backing vocals on the chorus amplifies the protest in the verses (“There’s no freedom to be found / Lying face up in the ground”), making the song sound like an ancient spiritual. Perhaps the album’s sides are the opposite of what they initially seem: even when gripping a weapon in his hand, Harper chooses to sing quiet, pacifistic songs of love, while he finds the courage truly to speak his mind only when staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.

Ben Harper has announced a small-venue tour of the United States and Canada, beginning in Vancouver on July 12 and wrapping up in Atlanta on August 1. Harper considers the tour a way to thank his fans after the unfortunate Zooma Tour cancellation. Tom Freund will open all dates.

Tour Dates:

7/12 – Vancouver, Canada – Commodore Ballroom
7/13 – Seattle, Wash. – Moore Theater
7/14 – Portland, Ore. – Roseland Theater
7/16 – San Francisco, Calif. – Warfield
7/17 – Los Angeles, Calif. – Henry Fonda Theater
7/19 – Denver, Colo. – The Fillmore
7/21 – Chicago, Ill. – Vic Theater
7/22 – Royal Oak, Mich. – Royal Oak Music Theatre
7/23 – Toronto, Canada – Kool Haus
7/25 – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club
7/26 – Boston, Mass. – Avalon Ballroom
7/27 – New York, N.Y. – Irving Plaza
7/28 – Philadelphia, Penn. – Electric Factory
7/30 – Asheville, N.C. – Orange Peel
7/31 – Myrtle Beach, S.C. –House of Blues
8/1 – Atlanta, Ga. – Tabernacle