Indie Schmarm · Live: Ben Kweller @ The Echo September 5th

Ben Kweller’s fan base is mixed to say the least. At any one of his shows you can find teenage guys and girls who probably wouldn’t have talked to him if he attended their high school, a scattering of indie kids who look a little ashamed to be there, some Dave Mathews fans who love him by association and random dudes wearing Flogging Molly shirts who are only familiar with the fiver year old single “Wasted and Ready”.

For three straight nights, Kweller would play his entire solo catalog, dedicating each night to one of his 3 albums, chronologically in the order of Sha Sha, On My Way and Ben Kweller.

Kweller attempted to re-create the entire feel of his albums for these nights, even going so far as wearing some of the same wardrobe that he adorned on their covers (the hat and toothbrush from Sha Sha for instance). The biggest hurdle in re-creating most songs though was the lack of a second guitarist as Kweller only came equipped with bassist Chris Morissey and drummer Mark Stepro. This stood out mostly on tracks where piano and guitar are played and thus there was no guitar part but the stand out moment of the lack of guitar was on the On My Way stand out track, “Living Life” where Kweller’s in studio shout out to guitarist Mike Stroud was replaced by him commenting “Stroud’s in Japan…I think”. For the most part though whatever was lacking in music, Kweller more than made up for with his on stage persona. The seemingly eternal 15 year old even invited a teenage girl up to play the triangle part on “Magic” from Ben Kweller, who after being too overzealous, he complimented her for “soloing over the whole song”. All three sold out nights encores were determined by having a few audience members draw songs out of a box…suspiciously but not surprisingly, “Wasted and Ready” was played all three nights.

While Kweller had previously done this same trio of shows in Brooklyn a couple months ago, the three shows in Los Angeles still seemed to be a special type of event for those who were able to attend all three nights. On the last night Kweller and his band even had those people downstairs in the Echo Plex for a pizza party with them. Kweller and crew entertained their fans and guests with small chit chat for about an hour before leaving for the airport.