June 22nd, 2009
Posted in Ben Harper was back again at Bonnaroo this year. This time he was with his new band, Relentless 7. It was the fourth year he’d been on the bill, however, this year marked the fifth set that he would have played at the festival. At the very first festival in 2002, Ben played a solo set, while in both 2003 and 2007 he was joined by his backing band, the Innocent Criminals, along with a special latenight SuperJam slot in 2007 that featured John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson of the Roots.
There’s no question that Harper has become a crowd favorite at the festival, as well as the festival being one of his favorites. In past years, Ben has been spotted walking around the grounds, chatting it up with fellow concert attendees and waiting in the lines to grab something to eat. But there’s a lot of artists you could say that about. Hell, even the Boss himself was spotted several times this year, watching sets like Band of Horses and MGMT. I also heard that Fishman, the drummer of Phish who seems to always wear that black dress with the red circles, was even spotted buying a t-shirt this year from a vendor on Shakedown. But it’s not about them right now. I wanted to write something specifically on Ben because he’s one of my favorite musician’s of all-time.
I first discovered the music of Ben Harper some ten or so years ago, when he was opening for the Dave Matthews Band at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center. Although I’m still young and it doesn’t seem like that long ago, I can’t exactly recall what I remember from that show, seeing that I’ve been to nearly thirty DMB shows since 1997. I do remember though when I first became a die-hard Harper fan. It was in the early 00’s, when I heard his disc, Live from Mars. That double-live album showcases a nice mix of the two seperate personalities of Ben the musician: the electric, harder rock disc that features songs like “Glory & Consequence”, “Ground on Down” and “Faded/Whole Lotta Love” and the soft and gentle acoustic disc that features songs like “Waiting on an Angel”, “Walk Away” and “Another Lonely Day.”
I’ve always enjoyed both the loud and quiet music that Harper creates, but for this year’s Bonnaroo set, I would only be getting the harder, louder side. Although Relentless 7 didn’t actually come together until late last year, Ben had met Jason Mozersky (who would become Relentless 7’s other guitar player) in the late ’90’s. Mozersky was working as a driver in Texas for a local music promoter, when he got up the courage to hand over his demo when he was driving Ben around town. In Harper’s own words, “I was blown away.” To make a long story short, Harper helped Jason and his band land a record deal, and several years later in 2005, Ben asked Jason and some of his friends to lay down some tracks on his album, Both Sides of the Gun. The very first show Relentless 7 played was to 10,000 people with the Beastie Boys on 2008’s Rock the Vote Tour, in support of then-Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama.
Their debut album, White Lies for Dark Times, was written and recorded during the winter months of last year, and released on May 5, 2009. Aside from Ben on vocals and guitar and slide guitar, Relentless 7 also features Mozersky on guitar, Jesse Ingalls on bass and Jordan Richardson on drums. The eleven-track disc quickly gained mass critical acclaim, earning spots like #9 on the Billboard 200, #6 on the French Album charts, going Gold at #7 on the Italian Album charts and #19 on the Top 100 European Album charts.
Ben would once again be returning to rock the latenight scene at Bonnaroo 2009, with a scheduled slot from 1 to 2:30 am. Nine Inch Nails were also scheduled at 1 am, and although I’m not exactly a fan of NIN, I wanted to catch the first few minutes of their show seeing as that was their last U.S. show ever – or at least until Reznor realizes he’s a musician and it’s what he does.
As I was standing there watching the smoke and lights take over the Which Stage as NIN was coming out (though I couldn’t see them, I was so far back), I thought to myself, “what the hell am I doing here? I love Ben Harper…not NIN!” It was at that point when I knew I had to high tail it over to the Other Tent to catch Ben. As I got closer to the Other Tent, I first noticed how packed it was, although it wasn’t quite as packed as the SuperJam in 2007. But somehow I managed to get a spot right up front, against the guardrail (again), just a little to the left. Luckily though I could see Ben and most of the band. The only member I didn’t see during the whole show was the drummer because I kind of had an obstructed view because of the giant speaker.
I arrived to the area of the tent when they were playing their hit single, “Shimmer and Shine”, and I later found out that I had missed the first two songs, “Comin’ Up Easy” and “Number With No Name.” It seems like for the first time ever, I had actually gotten to the show at exactly the right moment in time (as opposed to leaving shows at the wrong time) because the second song I actually got to see them play was a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times.” It seemed like a much shorter set than usual for Ben, as they ended up only playing ten other songs, nearly all of which came from the new album. Though I have yet to hear the album, some of the new song highlights for me included “Why Must You Dress In Black”, “Fly One Time”, “Keep It Together” and “Boots Like These.” Some of the other great memories I have of that show include original Harper songs like “Another Lonely Day”, which sounded great as a full band version rather than a quiet, acoustic tune and the show closer, “Serve Your Soul.” However, the greatest moment of the show was the cover of David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”, easily the crowd favorite.
Tags: Ben Harper, Bonnaroo, Relentless 7
