Ben Kweller is a very musician, which was well-proved at his gig last weekend. I wasn't so excited to hear him perform solo, but I found myself highly surprised.
You can get a real good feel of his ease of performing a song that he hadn't touched in quite sometime:
This is my fourth time seeing Kweller. After my first time, I felt pretty dejected after taking my father because I couldn't find anyone else to go with me. The deflated feeling was not because I was in the company of my Dad, but rather his remarks after the gig. He told me that Kweller could use another guitarist. I finally feel after seeing this gig that Kweller in my mind has really proved my Father wrong. Kweller is an amazing musician - he boggled between the guitar and the keyboard. I was really happy to hear the tune "Thirteen," "Sha Sha" and "Falling" on the piano. And equally excited to hear "Sundress" and "On My Way" on the guitar. The only song I would've really like to have heard was "Wasted and Ready." He actually acknowledged the song's absence in the brilliant one song encore where he said after the crowd heckling songs they want to hear: "I know you really want to hear tunes like "Wasted and Ready" and XXX but I'll be back soon with Pete Yorn and I'll play all of them for you soon." Very modest and sweet.
"Thirteen":
"Sha Sha (How it Should Be)"
"Sundress"
"In Other Words" - It gets really good at 3:12. Definitely worth a listen!
On another note, I had a real WHAT THE FUCK moment when I found out Talib Kweli took Ben Kweller's chorus from "In Other Words" for his tune "Ms. Hill."
Ben Kweller's take on Kweli's use, he's not so happy - (Maybe he found out about it because they both share "Kwel" in their names. I think I think too much about this stuff!!)
I was stunned by his cover of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." Harvest is an album that I have recently just begun dipping into, so being completely familiar with the song through and through really made my evening. The minute he practiced played the first harmonica bit, I felt the song.
He does a great cover of The Smashing Pumpkin's tune "Today."
Just skipping on Youtube, I found a bunch of fab covers that Ben Kweller have breathed some life into:
Ghostbusters with Conor Oberst
"Say It Ain't So"
Kweller sold expensive recordings of the entire gig that night. It was a cool set up where they had like twenty burners going on at once! Good fun.
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