Saturday night saw Ben Lee performing at the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg. I had heard of Ben during my undergrad with a download of a song called “Cigarettes Will Kill You (WMV from Amazon)” and found him to be a great little balladier. So with a very limited understanding of the artist and his repertoire I went hoping for a great show.
The concert was hosted The Tide, a new local radio station. They were having a 1 year birthday party, complete with sushi, cake and t-shirts. Esther and I got everything, including some descent pre-made sushi, and primo seats: front-right, front-row front!
Ben Lee is an oddly charismatic artist with excellent lyrics. Any artist that can use the word stoic or mandala in a song … they get a checkmark in my book. His quirky style and unique crowd interaction made it an extremely enjoyable concert. Esther enjoyed Lila, Ben’s keyboard player. The whole concert, she said “I want to be her.” I think she was talking about her fashion and being a keyboard player for a real musician. Or it could be that her shaker was shaped like an apple and her tambourine was shaped like a star. Let me tell you something: John Mayer has an ugly singing face, Lila … does too! (oops did I say that out loud?!)
The crowd was great until the second-to-the-last song. The venue is a concert hall or a movie theatre, it’s not a crowd-surfing-mosh-pitting-get-crushed-against-the-stage environment, so when they started to rush the stage, we got a whole lot of ass-in-the-face. Eh, atleast it wasn’t the whole show.
Over all a great little show. We are planning on going to Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers on June 7.
