Okay, here is take two. Me trying to redeem that impotent excuse for a previous entry. This was a very busy weekend, for
a number of performance art-related reasons. The one that I implied already was the opportunity to check out the honorable
Ben Kweller in a free performance at the Kennedy Center. My friend Hannah and I saw him at the 9:30 club last year in what
was a good show in its own right. (photo to right by Steve Hopson)
Seeing him at the Kennedy Center
was almost a revelation. (If you have RealPlayer, you can watch the whole performance right here). The guy is one tiny step down from legitimate superstar status. By the time he returned to the stage for his encore "Penny
on the Train Track," (pulling off a fucking cartwheel, too, which probably hasn't been done by the likes of the Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra on that stage) I couldn't shake the feeling that Ben Kweller is probably the closest thing this generation
has to a Paul McCartney. There is no one else out there who is dorky enough for the hipster set yet still hip enough for the
dorky set. I can't think of anyone whose appeal spans so many social strata, demographics, particularly that of age, while
still burning up radio and the pop charts. A few rows ahead of me sat a pair of old women who vigorously cheered on Kweller
amid the screams of hundreds upon hundreds of teenyboppers. I looked around and saw the twenty-something hipsters in reverence,
while clusters of frat-pack types danced in their chairs and sang along even before the crowd stood up once Kweller and his
rhythm section broke into "Sha Sha."
It never hit me why Kweller is such a smash now until seeing this show, which
he (somewhat sincerely) said was one of his favorite he's ever played. First and foremost, he seems like a genuinely cool
guy. He is pretty straightforward, wholesome, and actually (get this) gives a shit during his performances. Someone you'd
actually want to hang out with after the show. I couldn't say the same for just anyone whose CD is readily available at Starbucks.
Yes, even this event overcame the coffee juggernaut's shitstain for a few transcendent moments. This almost made me change
my mind about the concept of Starbucks selling CD's. Kweller has more resiliency and staying power than most any other pop
star today. He appeals to the kids because, to be perfectly honest, he doesn't look or sound a ton different than he did when
he was 15 and fronting Radish.
I vaguely remember seeing Radish as the musical guest on Letterman in 1997, when I first
started staying up late to watch it. By 2000, I remember reading about that "little band that couldn't" considering how Radish
were supposed to strike gold in that era of teenage bands like Hanson and Silverchair. Appropriately enough, Radish were at
the forefront of this crazy new Mp3 technology at the time their label were pushing them. They unraveled, Kweller retreated
to a town right near my hometown in Connecticut, strangely enough, to recuperate, then came back, out of nowhere in 2001 and
02 with a phenomenal power-pop album called Sha Sha. So, in a strange way to many people in my age group, it's like
we grew up with the guy. Except, he's the one with the major record deal and millions of screaming fans. From what I understand,
he's all over Adult Contemporary radio now, which I don't find the least bit surprising.
One thing particularly admirable
about him is that he'll go to any length to make the audience feel glad they came out. Last year at the Austin City Limits
festival, he went onstage with a life-threatening nosebleed and still played through most of the set. Don't believe me? (Warning,
not entirely SFW and not for the squeamish).
It
seems like no one really knows what caused the nose bleed. It may have just been an honest burst capillary, or it may have
been cocaine. Though, somehow if you snort enough coke to make your nose gush blood like that you're not going to play a set
outdoors in Austin. You're going to do something much less exerting, like die.
So, who knows if Kweller's albums will
continue to devolve like they have been since Sha Sha, but for now he's providing a valuable service to our culture.
Unlike many of the greatest bands in the world right now, he's bringing so many people with disparate tastes and sensibilities
together under one roof and one sound. What is music, anyway, other than something to enjoy at the end of the day?
See
John Cage put in his two cents, in one of the coolest things I've seen in some time. Sorry, I needed an excuse to tack this
on here. I'd never seen Cage on film before. He reminds me of Lyle Lovett and Peter Lorre. Strange. I also find the over the
top cigarette sponsorship hilarious.
I was in the process of writing an entry that not only apologized and thoroughly accounted for the absence of
activity on this site lately, but was also (I swear) very observant and quite intelligent about someone I saw perform today
and talking about why he's one step away from being this generation's Paul McCartney, but I didn't have the foresight to save
it before FireFox saw fit to say "Fuck You" and close down, eliminating the entry that I'm way too exhausted to
try and rewrite at this point. I hate computers. This entire entry was only three sentences, including this one.