ben harper

we saw ben harper at the rod laver arena last nite. it was really good. that was the 4th time i've seen him (every other time was in america). it was a little weird seeing him sitting in a chair in an indoor arena but still really good (every other time has been an outdoor concert or music festival). he did a set of mostly stuff of the new album and then left. then just ben came back on and did some solo stuff-- it reminded me a lot of his (very long) encore he did when we saw him in san diego. it was some of the more mellow stuff. when he did the mellow stuff in s.d. it was at an outdoor gig on the football field at the university. it got dead silent during the slower songs (just like last nite). we were sitting and standing near the back of the field where people were more spread out. while we were all very focused on the music someone walking through the area accedently stepped on a plastic cup on the ground. the crack it made sounded soooo loud since everyone was being so quiet listening to the music-- it was almost as if someone had just yelled out during a very quiet moment in a church service or something.for the encore he did some of his very popular, well known songs like "steal my kisses" "burn one down"the gig was really good--other than the few stupid people at EVERY ben harper gig i've gone to who feel its an absolute necessity to bring a joint and save it for the moment when he starts the song "burn one down". i like the song myself (even if i've never smoked one) and it does kinda make a good point in a way but people who feel that they are sooooo cool because while he's singing about it, they're doing it don't realize how dumb it actually looks (especially when we're sitting in row s and we can see a couple dozen puffs of yellow smoke going up within seconds after that song starts).i don't think i'll go see ben harper at an indoor concert anymore but i will definately see him again if he comes out here and does an outdoor gig in summer or back in canada or the u.s.(we just missed seeing him last year in canada cuz we didn't check his website in time-- he was playing in vancouver the nite we arrived but we didn't find out til it was sold out).