There are very few musicians who can single-handedly command the attention of an audience of 5,000 for two hours. Even fewer who can do so for three and a half hours; but that’s exactly what Ben Harper did on Saturday night.
It’s one man, 15 instruments and an abundance of mind-blowing moments.
Harper strides onto the stage with what seemed like exaggerated humility, bowing and thanking his already wired audience profusely. But as he sits and lays a guitar across his lap there’s total silence.
Then Harper’s hands begin to dance across the strings, the earthy melody interspersed occasionally with guttural vocals.
It’s hard to believe that the piece goes for ten minutes but it sets the themes of the night – emotive, organic, and ultimately uplifting. It isn’t long before Harper cradles his ukulele to give a gorgeous rendition of “Blessed To Be A Witness”.
There have been times in his career where Harper has let his strong faith consume his performance to the point of preaching, but while religion is a recurring motif in the set, it is simply incorporated as another element of his performance.
When the riff to “Diamonds On The Inside” begins, the crowd roars. They roar even louder for “Burn One Down” and “Sexual Healing”. Each delivered with a funky, seductive, organic energy that is just intoxicating.
Each emotion, thought, or story that Harper tells felt reactionary – as if he was singing each song in response to events that were taking place at that very moment, such is the raw passion of his delivery.
When it comes to his vocal range, his high notes are raspy and break often, but there’s something in the way he forces that sound from his throat that has Harper’s audience swooning.
One of the best things fans can take from the set is that Harper is showing no signs of slowing down. He plays two new songs that are every bit as good as material from the 13 albums he’s already released.
Adorable love song “Masterpiece” is particularly impressive and seems to be influenced by the writing style of Harper’s close friend Jack Johnson. And yes, Harper does drop that name during his set. Telling a rather lengthy story loosely tied to him, too.
He also gives a moving account of his friendship with the late Heath Ledger, telling the audience how he came to write a lullaby, “Morning Yearning”, for Ledger’s then-unborn daughter.
Later “Not Fire, Not Ice” is dedicated to a man Harper had met earlier that day at his hotel that had walked down the aisle to the song. For Harper, “there is no greater honour than for my music to grace a ceremony such as marriage.”
The name-dropping, the anecdotes about love and life – they could all come off as pretentious. But Harper gives the impression that he’s as much in awe of the life he leads as the audience is.
Despite the marathon set, nothing really feels unnecessary. Sure, it’s all a bit self-satisfying, as he flits from the electric guitar, the xylophone, to the piano and then to pick up some sort of lute-sitar combination.
Playing any instrument with ease, cradling whatever suits at the time while nestling up to the mic, Harper’s positioning casts enormous shadows up the walls of The Plenary. It seems fitting, because surely this guy is super human.
There’s an electric guitar solo that seems suited to a Shakespeare tragedy for all its drama; a heart-wrenching rendition of “Hallelujah” played on slide guitar and a version of “The Drugs Don’t Work” that all could be cut if the time called to be ruthless. But it’s more enjoyable to watch Harper command the stage for over 200 minutes, with only a few short breaks, than to get to bed an hour earlier.
