Ben Harper

“This is American rock, the way it is supposed to sound and feel.”

That’s a line from benharper.com describing the sound of the new album,
White Lies For Dark Times. After seeing Ben Harper &
Relentless7 this past Saturday at the Vic Theater, we can go ahead and
assume that the statement applies to the band’s live performances as
well.  No Krautrock, no English synth-pop, no Swedish punk rock…
“American rock” works.  It’s what they did for 2 hours as part of a
worldwide XRT Concert Exclusive, heard on 93.1FM in Chicago and anywhere
else on the planet on wxrt.com.  The Vic was filled to capacity on this
evening with quite an attractive crowd, I must say, many of whom looking
like they were dressing to impress their dates, or hoping to score one
for the future.  Or, maybe it just felt that way to me in my t-shirt and
jeans on their 3rd or 4th day of heroic service.  Marty Lennartz and I
had the privilege of watching much of the set from the side of the
stage, as we were keeping close to a couple of microphones that were
there for us to chat and describe the scene to the listening audience
while the crowd at The Vic roared for more of that “American rock” from
Ben and the band when their set appeared to be over.  And they did come
back out to give us more.  Twice.  As the show was ending (you always
know it’s done for sure when the house lights come on), as Ben and the
boys were stepping off the stage, Ben saw Marty and I, with headphones
on, talking into mics, looking like radio people, beginning to wrap up
the show and decided to come over and have a few words.  He thanked us,
we thanked him, he talked a little about the show and the band, Marty
mentioned his upcoming set this summer at Lollapalooza, and we were able
to wrap up another of our live, late night concert broadcasts with the
artist that had just wowed us for the two hours prior.  A nice end to
the show and broadcast, I’d say.