At best I am a casual fan of Ben Harper, that is, I know of him and have enjoyed what I’ve heard, but by no means have I ever sought out his music. Sitting in the 2nd row of the historic Uptown Theater in Kansas City, in a seat left vacant when my friend’s girlfriend left him, I felt a bit like a poser. By the time Harper and his band, the Innocent Criminals, took the stage, I was not just a poser, I was an atheist at Easter Mass. These people don’t just like Harper, they love him, in the purest way, and with zero negative connotation, they are “fan boys and girls”. They shout “thank you” after every song while the band changes instruments, travel with the band to catch multiple shows, and genuinely “feel” every song.
After a couple songs, I started to understand why. Harper’s lyrics are delicate, meaningful, and beautifully simple, wrapped around several different musical genres. Harper’s voice, both light and gravelly, gently forces you to feel the emotion of his songs while he walks you through an alternative country song with a funk hook. He jabs you with a rock song that ends in a jam band electric blues solo. Sitting with a Weissenborn slide guitar, Harper pours out a love song with gospel elements then follows it with a traditional reggae number. You can’t help but to lose yourself to the energy of the nearly 2 hour set.
Midway through the 45 minute encore, while they changed guitars, a woman in the front row lifted a poster board sign. Harper stopped what he was doing, walked across the stage, bent low and read the message. Covering his mouth in what appeared to be appreciation and awe as he read, he stepped back and gathered himself while his band mates looked on puzzled.
“I haven’t played that in 10 or 15 years, let me see if I can remember how it goes.” After a few minutes of quietly strumming his guitar, he found the tune, said something to the band, then played Waiting on an Angel.
He never told us what the sign said and she didn’t show it to the crowd, but it’s better that way. All 2000 of us in the crowd saw the exchange and imagined what the sign must have said to visibly move Harper and cause him to play a song he hasn’t played in over a decade for that person. We all wrote our own message on that sign and created an emotional bond with both of them. The beauty of that moment would only be hurt if the message on the sign was less than our individual imaginations.
One night with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals made a believer out of me.