Meet Ben Harper's latest band, Relentless7
By JOSHUA LIEBERSON
STATIC and FEEDBACK correspondent
In so many ways, the concept of these shows were a dream come true. I can remember back when I was a teenager up until the present day pondering what it must have been like to people to see a band like Pearl Jam before they hit it big, or even released Ten for that matter. Copies of those early shows display a band just getting their chops, while showing those lucky few in attendance that they were going to be a force. Maybe those attendees back then knew that this Mookie Blaylock band was going to be something special, or maybe they just thought they were some crappy band openning for Alice in Chains. In any event, that would have been the treat of a lifetime for me.
Enter Relentless7, a brand new band put together by Ben Harper after hearing a demo from a crew member before an Innocent Criminals concert a while back. Harper did everything he could to keep the band under wraps, opening a new Web site for them without advertising it, playing only small bars and clubs, and releasing event and ticket information a day before the on-sale date — not to mention keeping the ticket prices down to $10. One could argue that this plays into Mr. Harper's biggest knock, that he tends to replicate other artists and genres in his image, doing little to provide his own definitive stamp. But even with that in mind, there was tremendous excitement that this guy was not only starting a new band with a hard-rocking sound, but was also playing small shows to get work under their belt the old fashioned way.
After an office holiday party, I headed over to meet my friend at the Mercury Lounge for the first of the two nights. This was going to be a late night, as the show was not scheduled to start until 1 a.m. With some time on our hands, we crossed the street to the semi-famous Nice Guy Eddie's, a bar establishment with excellent bar food options and a mural on the outside fascade of KISS. We then went back and into the venue, where we waited for the stage end to open inside the bar, chatting with other people who were lucky enough to score tickets to this approximately 250-person crowd. When the curtain opened, we worked our way to about the fifth row, and dutifully waited for Harper and his new band to grace the stage.
At 1 a.m., the band came out. It seemed like Harper and his teenage friends —these three guys looked way too young to be playing with Harper. And don't get me into the odd scenario of calling a band Relentless7 that has only four members. But when they started, there was no mistaking the absolute fire this band has. They started out with a song called "Number With No Name," which absolutely rocked the crowd. In what seemed like it had been the longest time, Mr. Harper was sporting the electric weissenborn once again. The band reminded me in many ways of an early Led Zeppelin, but clearly they were their own band. At the start of "Shimmer & Shine," Jordan Richardson reminded me of Animal from the Muppets as he just seemed to go completely insane on a drum intro. Again, the band had not let up in completely rocking the joint. At the conclusion of this song, I asked my friend whether this could be the greatest band of all time, simply two songs in. He responded by saying he’d already got his $10 worth in seven minutes.
I could go into detail with every song on the set, as all of them were major highlights, a real rarity for any concert. Suffice it to say, they were simply incredible from start to finish, and every song rocked out, save for one ballad, "Skin Thin," which was excellent. My favorites from the set were "Lay There and Hate Me,” "Keep It Together,” "Fly One Time,” "Boots Like These” and "Dressed in Black.” I should note that they played only two songs I was familiar with coming into the night. The first was a rocked-out version of "Better Way,” from Harper's Both Sides of the Gun, and "Dressed in Black,” a song Harper debuted with the Innocent Criminals in a short tour of small venues on the east coast in 2005, featuring blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite.
The set wound up with "Up to You Now,” mostly because the fine people at the Mercury Lounge refused to allow an encore due to the fact that it was 2:15 in the morning. Nevertheless, I walked out completely pumped for the new album (even bought a 7" single of "The Word Suicide" on the way out the door), and even more excited about the prospect of seeing them at Kenny's Castaways the next night.
After dinner (featuring really amazing homemade ketchup at Thunder Jackson's on Bleecker Street), we headed into the tiny Kenny's Castaways for the show. Excitement was at its height, despite the fact that I got three hours of sleep, having arrived home at 4 a.m. the night before. For some reason, the band was about an hour late in getting on stage, but once they got there, they proceeded to play one of the best shows I've seen from any band, period. They started by covering Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times" with tremendous energy and fury, eclipsing their energy even from the night before. From what looked like the inside of a broken down pirate ship, and spotting Laura Dern in attendance (this entertained my lovely girlfriend for some time in waiting for the show to finally start), the band ripped through what they had played the night before. During "Up to You Now,” I could swear Ben Harper's head split in half, with a second screaming head emerging, screaming over top his already maxed-out voice. Probably the most intense I've ever seen him, after many prior shows.
Unlike the night before, the band stayed on stage to play what was in essence their encore. They discussed what to play for a few minutes while the crowd cheered, and went into Prince’s "Purple Rain," with the entire crowd in attendance singing along. I got the sneaking suspicion that they knew the song more from its posting on the R7 website moreso than a collection of Prince fans happening to gather at Kenny's Castaways, but nonetheless, provided for a powerful moment, as Harper continued to sing so intensely that you couldn't help but feed off of it. They then jumped into another cover, this time Queen's "Under Pressure,” another huge singalong with people really enjoying themselves. They closed out the show, approximately an hour and 40 minutes in, with an epic version of "Serve Your Soul,” the only real evidence of this band's sound prior to these shows, as it is the final track on Both Sides of the Gun and was recorded with these very musicians.
At the end of the day, I walked out feeling that White Lies For Dark Times, the forthcoming album from Relentless7, could be one of the best I've heard, if these songs are all represented there. From the awesome riffage of Jason Mozersky to the Animal-like drumming from Jordan Richardson to it all being held together by Jesse Ingalls' bass, and most importantly the soulful voice and phenomenal electric weissenborn slide playing from Harper, this band is just about the perfect rock band from top to bottom. Add to that talent, song writing that stresses everyone's strengths, and a sense of urgency to the songs that rivals so many great debut albums from bands, and this could be the perfect storm hitting many living rooms, iPods, and record players in the coming months.
E-mail Joshua Lieberson at joshualieberson@yahoo.com
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