Ben Harper at Koka Booth
I’ll post a few pictures from last night’s Ben Harper concert in Cary. My brother and I got there so early we were the 5th and 6th people in line. While waiting, we drank mate drawing suspicious stares from fellow fans and psuedo-authorities, neither of whom seemed to know what mate is. Gates opened late because of electrical problems having to do with the incessant rain. We ended up with front row spots.
Whether it was because we were so close or due to some energy from the crowd, I forgot about the rain (sometimes). I was wet through and through by the end. But, I didn’t feel it during the show. Ben was on; the stage came alive with the first strike on the Weissenborn and it stayed that way through the two-and-a-half hours that followed. The highlight, the climax, the pièce de résistance was “Black Rain”.
Damian Marley, complete with Rastafarian-flag-waving-guy, was the opening act.
Set I:
• Steal My Kisses
• Burn To Shine
• Faded
• Homeless Child
• When It’s Good
• Gold To Me
• Ground On Down
• Waiting For You
• Morning Yearning
• Diamonds On The Inside
• Forgiven
• Please Don’t Talk About Murder While I’m Eating
• Black Rain
• Get Up, Stand Up
Encore I:
• Another Lonely Day
• With My Own Two Hands
• 11th Commandment
• Well Well Well
• Amen Omen
Encore II:
• Get It Like You Like It
• Glory & Consequence
• Suzie Blue
• Sexual Healing (with lyrics from “If I Was Your Girlfriend” by Prince interspersed)
• Heart Of Gold
• Better Way
–setlist compiled with assistance from BenHarper.net
About a week after the show, Julian, of Melody Makers, contacted me for more photos of Damian Marley. They’re here.
Pandora — for new music
I was talking with my mom last night about listening to music over the web, and I was telling her that I use a couple of websites to find new music. I don’t listen to the radio anymore (they just play such crap, pop stuff), so it can be hard to find new music, discover new bands, yada-yada. I get tired of listening to the same stuff, so I like to hear some new tunes every now and then.
I really like this website (Pandora) for finding new tunes. You enter the name of a band or song you like, and it plays either that song or something by that band first. Then it plays songs that the website’s database thinks are similar. You can give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to each song, and it gradually (in theory) gets a sense of what you like. It’s all couched in terms of building your own music station.
For example, I put in Miles Davis. It first played “All Blues,” from Kind of Blue. Score one for Pandora; that’s one of my favorites by the jazz giant. From there, it played “Grinning” by Hilmar Jensson — someone I’ve never heard of. I asked Pandora why it chose this song, and it replied “Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features trumpet head, unique instrumentation, and many other similarities identified in the music genome project.”
It’s free; if you register (also for free) you can record your preferences, and they will be stored and waiting for you when you come back to the site. It’s all streaming, so you have to be online to listen. You can’t download the songs directly, though there is usually a link to purchase the song through iTunes or the whole album containing that song through Amazon.
Anyone know of other sites like this or have other ways to find new music?
About
nicomachus.net is the virtual representation of Phillip Barron, who is responsible for all of the writing and photography, unless otherwise credited. Want to know more?
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