Its a known fact among any Ben Harper fan that he loves the country ‘down under’ Australia. Expressing his appreciation to his fans by visiting Byron Bay and its “Blues and Roots Festival” almost every year since 1994. He can be by far counted as one of the main attractions for the festival goers every year. Not only does Ben loving travelling down to the southern hemisphere for gigging, skating, surfing and a bit of “aussie” culture the amazingly huge fan base that he has built upon with every tour loves to have him back. Every show that is announced is now classified as a special event. So with this great appreciation of each other, its seems fitting to make these events that little bit more special from time to time.
During the promotional efforts for Ben Harper’s fourth album release “Burn To Shine” and his first Lp name checking his infamous “Innocent Criminals” band he visited Australia playing sold out dates all over the country. One of these dates was a special showcase set up in an old theatre on the North side of Sydney which brought in a total number of attendees of approximately 200 people. This was an acoustic show also being broadcast live for all those not lucky enough to be able to attend. So with all the trimmings in place for the evening; intimate audience, great venue, no paparazzi, and some very loyal fans (who wouldn’t want to be apart of this Ben Harper gig?) there was a show to be had.
| Ben played through some classics including Whipping Boy, Walk Away and touched on the new tune Please Bleed. The extra bit of hype surrounding the night was that he announced he would have a special guest. Some may have been quick enough to think of the country artist Kasey Chambers who is a friend of Ben’s and has covered Harper’s Another Lonely Day as a B-side for one of her debut solo album. But, she was sitting next to me, that had to be ruled out straight away. As Ben went on to introduce Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam frontman) he stood to greet his mate to the stage. The tiny audience gave an amazing roar as the two got set up next to each other. The buzz flying around the room was electrifying. Eddie being in Australia on a very “hush, hush” low key tour with Neil Finn (ex Crowded House) had even been able to walk through the front door earlier in the evening the door lady mentioned to me after the show. All this for his friends of the businees and he hadn’t stood in Australia with Pearl since the Vitalogy album.
The two of them sat, few quick words out of the microphone and a couple glances at each other. The intensity had just been upped in the theatre buy 1000%. But as the first note from the two sweet sounding acoustics flew into the ear drums, the room was instantly back to the complete silence that Ben had managed to earn the entire set before bringing Vedder to the audience’s awareness. These were chords of the PJ track, Indifference. It was the first time the two of them had appeared on stage together in Oz, but it was not the first time people walked away from a Ben Harper show totally blown.
/Kaine
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