Wednesday, October 6th 2009
Ben Kweller
Hi-Fi Bar
Sporting a 1985 North-West Arkansas Muscular Dystrophy Bass Tournament t-shirt, Ben Kweller brought his act and his severe cold to the Hi-Fi stage in Melbourne last night. Despite spraying his throat between songs to allow any kind of performance, he played with as much enthusiasm as anyone on cold meds could!
Delta Spirit heaped life upon the crowd early on with a Willie Nelson/Neil Young infused brand of country-tinged rock. The two roadies behind the band head-banged the entire set suggesting that the Americans were either a massive hit back home or that they wanted to be the cool guys who ‘liked them first’.
With bassist and drummer in-tow, Kweller arrived on the stage and the fans went from folded arms, to hands-in-their-pocket to hands-in-the-air within the first verse! Kweller had an amazingly deep friendship with his songs and every song, new and old, was a sing-a-long, pick me up, feel-good love-a-thon. It was like being at a Nirvana concert except the songs were poppy and everyone was smiling. Impromptu ditties such as Tylenol were brought to pay homage to his cold and his dislike for Qantas baggaging policy was harboured during his ‘Do-It’ song. 90 minutes and one encore, one Van Morrison and one BOYZ 2 MEN cover later, the crowd left whistling Toto by Africa as it rang through the house speakers – but it was satisfied whistling, after a 4 woo out of 5 performance by Ben Kweller.
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