Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals and Damian 'Junior Gong' Marley Live at Merriweather Pavilion, Baltimore City

To be really frank, I haven't been paying too much attention to some of the newer artists that are making a difference in the music world today; unfortunately, the scene seems to be dominated by people with names like Ludacris, Eminem, and Jessica Simpson who all might be tremendous musicians; its just that their output on record is better left unheard.

One artist who I've heard and read about but never really gotten into his music per se is Ben Harper. I got an opportunity to watch Ben at Merriweather Pavilion in Baltimore city; I guess I decided to go because I was curious and I also heard he was touring with his band, the Innocent Criminals that included the talented and big sized Juan Nelson playing his Fender electric basses and a wonderful electric upright made by Ned Steinberger and man oh man, he got such a great sound out of it live; it just had to be felt. I'm a big sucker for live bands and even if Eminem was playing with a live band, I would have checked it out; there's something about the music that you hear on record that has been minutely tracked and adjusted using the unbelievable technology we have today, being performed live complete with sweating musicians.

I was very impressed by the turnout that day; there were literally thousands of people and I was just lucky I didn't get lost. Really, I'm sure people have experienced killer concerts with 20,000 people and all that but for me, this was the first real commercially oriented gig that hadn't been stained by Mumbai newspapers and their crap advertising. In fact, this gig was very low profile and it was on September 11^th which made it a little political (Ben did take Bush's case of course but that's another story). I went with my host family and Bill who is a veteran of a minimum of 600 concerts; he's seen everyone including Stevie Ray Vaughan to the Police, and even GWAR (who are really fucking insane, it's amazing how they get away) which is all pretty crazy considering the fact that he's ONLY been watching concerts all his life. I would expect him to be pretty jaded by now but his reaction to this concert was simple- he hadn't seen such a quality show in a long time and he was right. The stage setup was excellent; the P.A was super clear, and Bill had scored VIP passes so I was right up front to see the magic.

The magic started with the most underrated reggae artist alive; Damian "Junior Gong" Marley opening the show with his kick ass band. For me, he bridged the gap between Steel Pulse and Bob Marley and even involved some rock and R&B elements to achieve his sound. His band just upped the dynamics; they all had phenomenal gear and they also had a guy whose job was to wave the Jamaican flag and move around the stage; he did that for Damian's entire 2 hour performance. That's not an easy job to do and it's hardly musical (unless you consider that he was waving his flag in time, but I might have been jammed) but I could see these guys were dead serious about their Rastafarian message and I loved the smell of the concert; it was all killer bud….

Damian's performance was very, very inspired by his father, the late Bob Marley. As the second youngest son among 13 of Bob's children, Damian has been performing since he was thirteen and like his father, he shares and spreads the Rastafarian belief of 'One Love, One Planet, and Freedom for All' which is really what we need more than ever today; he's definitely not afraid to let people know that he's more than just a reggae artist; the term 'reggae' has been misused, abused, and mutilated beyond comprehension and most people consider it as a sort of dance music when it's not. The roots of reggae are in the themes of Social Liberation. Reggae music, I found "attempts to raise the political consciousness of the audience and militates for freedom from religious delusion".

While Peter Tosh and Bob Marley may have performed many a concert for freedom, Damian came across as an entertainer which is fine really; at least he's not faking it; in today's scenario, he's more concerned about liberating ourselves first and 'that can involve some booty' as he communicated pretty rightly. I haven't been able to find out who the touring band was but whoever they were, they really grooved it; for the first time in my life, I saw a bassplayer use an Ampeg bass head and stack; four 15" speakers that practically tore my head off (and that's just his onstage monitoring); if you ever need to move mountains with your bass sound, I guess Ampeg can do it with its low end fundamental and a more traditional old school bass sound just like the old days. Sweet and simple- none of those fancy tweeter sounds; this baby moves air like nothing else I have seen. All through the concert, the bass sound was as clear as a bell. I LOVED it. The guitarist looked too stoned but he was playing some mean Reggae and he knew his shit no doubt. I especially enjoyed the drummer's work; he seemed like a young cat but he was very, very slick and he had a simple setup with which he extracted the maximum groove. He hit the spot. The two keyboard players were not missed either; they controlled the ambience.

The band basically played most of the tracks off their Welcome to Jamrock album and they were tireless, they had a message, and they made sure to give it their all; I was totally converted into a fan right there. These guys took some serious case and if my memory serves me right, Bill the veteran did say he preferred Junior Gong to Ben Harper in terms of the performance aspects; well, I would say both were good, relevant, and very funky.

During the break after Damian's gig, I was standing on a podium made off of wood where they had shacked up a bar; this was straight up VIP material and it had a lot of people but I thought the whole thing was going to crash down what with people running and just going nuts. Fortunately it didn’t and I met a ton of people most of whom I made friends with, strangers who I've never met before and there was this dude who gave me a large spliff and a pavilion ticket since mine had expired over the course of the Damian Marley concert. Incredible. There was this wonderful, friendly, and authentic atmosphere I have never felt in any other place before.

Screaming, and that's when I knew Ben Harper had come onstage. I ran back into the pavilion and I see Ben sitting down and being handed a slide guitar which was customized for him. One by one, the Innocent Criminals take the stage and next thing you know, it sounded like Jimi Hendrix had taken the stage; Ben was outrageously good with playing lead guitar and I hadn't known that he was that talented. The show just started with a bang and though I didn't know any of the music I was hearing, it sounded excellent; very tasteful and full of surprises; Ben's the modern day Marvin Gaye; his pleading and sympathetic vocals were a real treat and he's got this character that's interesting; you really do feel he has something very important to say and that he loves his audience very much; everyone could feel that; for an instant after the show started, everybody out there in the garden, at the pavilion, people who were just hanging around, everybody became one. It was the equivalent of a cosmic sexual experience.

The Innocent Criminals comprised of Leon Mobley on Percussion, Oliver Charles on Drums, Michael Ward on Guitars, Juan Nelson on Electric basses, and Jason Yates on Keyboards and Harmonica. The band was super tight of course; this was their last day in America and the tour would continue into Europe where audiences apparently have a lot more respect and hang onto every word.

The band with Ben performed all the tracks on the latest album Both Sides of the Gun and I was surprised that in the three hours that they performed, they covered pretty much all styles of music from Latin to Disco Funk; but it's the Blues that Ben loves; he is a killer blues guitarist and I think in this department, he has been terribly underrated simply because that is not his forte as such; he's more of a singer/songwriter and his songs are all about love, friendship, peace, and more importantly, freedom; this was the general spirit of the concert; Freedom was the underlying theme and on September 11^th , it meant a lot to the many Americans that had crowded the entire area; house full had a different meaning here; it was not about the girls or the drugs. It was about coming together and experiencing something that went beyond words and sentences. I never did think that this kind of an experience would happen; America has genre-fied everything on Earth but this concert had a different and unique vibe altogether.

Juan Nelson took a 5 minute accompanied/unaccompanied on the fly bass solo that involved the audience and I was suitably impressed; he had a lot of courage to venture into some jazz ideas which the crowd really wasn't prepared for; but he more than made up for it with his spirited musicality and funk intent. He was awesome; I'm definitely going to check out more records with his lines on them.

Oliver Charles holds the band down and makes sure everything is grooving and cooking. Leon Mobley is an amazing percussionist; this is another underrated dude; he had a commanding presence and his Jamaican joy and smile were wide enough to encompass everything he looked at. Michael Ward looked a little pissed off, I'm not sure why but he was there and he did his best and I thought he was a great player who played for the songs and not for some intellectual wanking. And of course Jason Yates obviously has spent a lot of time with his keyboards and his sound was very 60's; he's obviously spent a lot of time on the Hammond B-3 organ which has a very tasty sound. He's not a bad harmonica player either; he's with it all supporting and being musical.

Ben came back for an encore, alone with an acoustic guitar; and he performed six songs which communicated directly to the audience. I was standing so close to the stage and I could not believe the intensity this guy had with an acoustic; he really is a good guitar player and needs to be given some wider recognition in that field. The songs he sang touched everybody and I was surprised to be moved as well. When the band came back on stage, they were joined by ALL the members of the Damian Marley band; they exchanged instruments it was basically a riot; they covered three of Bob Marley's greatest songs- 'Exodus', 'Get Up, Stand Up', and 'Could You Be Loved'; it got me back into Bob's music and spirit again and it resonated with everyone there; this wasn't an ordinary bunch of cover songs; it had a lot of feeling in it and it was spot on; singing girls, everything. The Jamaican flag was high up in the air and Ben's band had visuals on the stage already; complete perceptive orgasms.

Really, there's way too much that I could describe but a good concert always leaves you with a feeling that just cannot be expressed in words. It changes you and asks of you to become a better person, and sometimes, a better musician.

For me, when I walked out, tired as hell from all the standing and dancing, I told myself that it was wrong to have ignored some of the modern music coming out today, this is my generation, I cannot ignore it; I may have been living in the 70's all along in a mental way but where I'm and what I do just cannot be ignored; the concert gave me hope and bridged the divide I had created with the music of yesterday and today. I vowed to keep an open ear and soak in as many sounds as possible without judging them; and in doing that, I'm hoping to work on becoming a vital voice in the music I play today- wherever and with whoever I am- it's really not a question of money; for me, it's about translating the influences I have and the madness in the world today to create bass parts that embrace this world, not the next; I'm going to stop running and just breathe a little now.

The future is in the Now.