It was over 20 years ago that a friend first told me about Ben Kweller.
We were at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in rural Tennessee. A young Kweller was touring in support of his first album, ‘Sha Sha,’ which had recently been released and made waves in the indie scene. On the way to see his set, another friend convinced me to see another band, causing me to miss Kweller’s set. I’ll always regret that decision, for two reasons.
1. My friends who saw Kweller play ended up being on the Bonnaroo DVD release for that show.
2. I eventually became a huge Ben Kweller fan, but I never got the chance to see him play after that.
That fortune finally changed last night, when Kweller stopped by the Grog Shop while on tour promoting his latest album, ‘Cover the Mirrors.‘ No more regrets, because the energy of the show is undoubtedly the same energy he had 20 years ago. It cemented the fact that he hasn’t lost a step in the 20-plus years since he started, and that he is still a fantastic (and underappreciated) songwriter.
Nashville’s own Ryman opened. At a young 21 years of age, this is the singer/songwriter’s first tour ever, and one could see he and his keyboard player were genuinely happy to be on stage, soaking up every minute of it. He spoke about the inspiration for his song, “Luck of the Draw,” which he wrote after learning more about Bob Dylan, as well as many other inspirations for his tunes. A highlight of his set was the Jackson Browne cover, “These Days.” Ryman was an excellent opener. Kweller caught some breaks from more seasoned musicians (see: Dave Matthews Band’s 2002 tour), and it’s nice to see him provide opportunities for others, albeit on a smaller scale.
Kweller’s setlist starts the same on this tour, with him solo on the keyboard, singing “Thirteen,” one of the many amazing love songs for which he’s known. Followed by “Falling” (now with the full band), another love song, but this one already shows signs of the band’s ability to melt faces. Parker Twomey filled the big lead-guitar shoes quite well, alongside Christopher Mintz-Plasse on bass, and drummer Ryan Dean.
The set built from slower songs to driving rock songs. Kweller is known to seamlessly oscillate between the two. Often songs start slow and then hit hard out of nowhere. The most rocking of those songs were “Make it Up” and “No Reason,” the fourth and fifth of the set, respectively. They cooled off again with the song “Trapped,” which was a song Kweller’s then-16-year-old son, Dorian Zev Kweller, started writing before he was tragically killed in a car accident two years ago. Kweller has since finished the song and will be releasing it on the new album.
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And that’s what is bittersweet about this tour. It’s Kweller’s first trek since the passing of his son, which was also the impetus for this album, appropriately titled ‘Cover the Mirrors.’ While this tour is promoting the album, since it hasn’t been released yet, the setlist features only a few singles that have been released, along with two others that are not yet available. The album will be released on May 30, which coincides with his late son’s birthday. The underlying theme of the death of his son added an emotional element that hit home, and it made the newer songs that much more poignant. In such an intimate setting like the Grog Shop, you already feel like you are having a conversation with the musicians on stage, and because Kweller’s songs are so personal, it only heightens that feeling. You felt like you were sitting in on something intimate; peering behind the curtain of a private life. But Kweller made sure to say that these songs were for anyone who had been impacted by something difficult in their life, which is everyone.
The rest of the songs in the set were classics from previous albums, many from ‘Sha Sha.’ Something else he’s doing on this tour is taking two requests from the audience to play solo while the rest of the band takes a quick intermission. Cleveland’s were “Hospital Bed,” a personal favorite, and “On My Way,” both from the 2004 album ‘On My Way.’ Personally, I would have liked to see even more songs from that album on the setlist. But the thing about Kweller is that he has so many great songs that you could build an entirely new setlist of songs he didn’t play and have the show be just as fantastic.
The set closed with the most recent single, “Dollar Store,” and one of the original singles, “Wasted and Ready.” The crowd seemed equally excited about both the old song and the new one, a rare occurrence.
That’s because Kweller is one of the greatest living American songwriters. Full stop. That’s a sentiment also shared by songwriter Jack Antonoff, who posted about it on his year-end wrap-up last year. I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops since the ‘Sha Sha’ days, so it’s good to see Kweller get some of the recognition he deserves, although it’s still not enough. And from the little preview he’s giving of the newest album, he’s still cranking out heartfelt and passionate songs that also have the tendency to rock.
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