Music Makes the World Go 'Round

Had something of a magical, musical weekend. We gathered a couple of good friends together on Friday and braved our way down to Los Angeles via the Pacific Coast Highway (good call Susie!) Then landed in the scary, but being revitalized, downtown theater district and a little place called The Orpheum. Online research reveals that this place first opened in 1926 and spent a good, long time as home for vaudeville acts. Recently, it's been restored to its original glory, and how. The theater itself is simply gorgeous and filled with all the Art Deco, incredible architectural details you'd ever want (you might catch glimpse of it on a random beer ad where some boys try to sneak in some suds to the opera). The only icky part was how shockingly close together the rows of seats are. Our row included a whole string of us at least six feet tall or more, boy were we thankful for the stand-up and shake yer booty portions of the evening!

Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals were the main attraction, of course. Once again, they started promptly at 9pm and proceeded to blow the minds of all 2,000 in the sold out audience. For the last several years, I've been good and spoiled when it comes to concert going...meaning I prefer to be as close as possible to the action (it's addictive, I tell you, once you've been up front, nothing else will ever do!). For this show, I managed to score some 5th row center spots, not too shabby. I like being up close enough to check out how the band interacts with each other during the show; for some reason, I think it's fun to watch for if/when they mess up and how they handle with it. This time, they were having some sort of technical issues with Ben's amp as well as the odd forgotten lyric -- a rarity, but likely due to the set list of rarely played song -- and one near false start because he couldn't find the tempo. They're only human, after all! (they recovered well on all accounts, of course)

I'd been on a sort of emotional bummer the week or two leading up to the show. Two days prior, I came across their version of Hoochie Coochie Man, which they were first trying out on this tour. The crunchy, Delta blues song with Ben's deeply sincere delivery pretty much catapulted me out of my silly mood by reminding me of the spirit lifting, life altering power of music (*mental note: don't freakin' ever forget that again*). So, on Friday, when Ben sat down with an electric slide in his lap and busted out with the first lick of that song, my eyes blurred with the happy tears and my arms involuntarily shot into the air, ass grooving in my seat. Something changed for me this show, too. I found myself being one of the first people to stand up and dance (where normally I wait patiently until everyone else around me has risen first). Sometimes the music just takes over the body and you get lost in the moment and it's fabulous.

Every single time I see this band live, I'm reminded that my favorite part about them is the sincere level of appreciation they show towards their audience. For the last few years, they've been closing the show with the six of them in a row -- arm in arm -- spending several minutes actually making eye contact with as many faces in the crowd as possible, giving us their personal, silent thanks. Ben gives verbal acknowledgment that their audience is on this diverse, removed-from-the-mainstream musical journey with them and we play the vital role in their being able to do what they do in the first place.

This is the reason their fans keep coming back for more. It's why so many of us consider a Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals show to be more than the phenomenal concert that it is, but also a validating shared experience, a sort of emotional/spiritual cleansing. Truly, I don't even want to imagine the kind of grump I'd be in this life without my yearly fix...or two or three.