Ben Kweller

There are a couple of specific things I find rather unnerving.

*1)* Cult movie conventions where people queue up in the relevant tee-shirts so that someone who dressed up as robot can sign some of their prized dusty memorabilia – dunno about you but I find that strange..

*2) *Tribute bands are another peculiar thing; the whole idea of doing nothing more than copying someone else’s art, conjures up the same emotions somewhere in the pit of my gut, just like half cows in formaldehyde.

The Monarch is packed to see the return of Ben Kweller who used to be in Radish. For anyone who isn’t familiar with Radish, they were around in the mid-nineties, heavily influenced by Nirvana and Weezer. You could say they were the American equivalent of Snug who sounded rather similarly weezery – much like the bands around now on m2 who play cheery three cord grunge. Neither band ever got very big but both had respectable top 40 hits in the wake of ‘Nevermind’. Snug spawned Ed Harcourt, and Radish, tonight’s headliner - there is probably some psychological research to be done into this sugar-metal turned acoustic-based philosopher phenomenon.

Ben, dressed like he’s fresh from the set of ET (4months since his last haircut, off-brown stripy shirt..), takes to the stage and the crowd cheer and whoop. Just him and an acoustic, lash against one another for 40minutes or so. His lyrics try desperately to be as funny as a sitcom whilst attempting to live up to a moniker of “the new Bob Dylan” as one friend foolishly told me. Far too much anticipation was built up from that statement and Mr.Kweller with all his sweet, over-teeveed boss eyes and Weezer b-side accidental tributee-ing just didn’t cut it for me. The moments of piano-led sincerity nearly struck me but the indulgent repeating and repeating and adding another bridge and repeating and repeating of the chorus’ wore thin, very, very, very, very quickly.

He leaves the stage. People whoop’n’whistle some more. He returns. He plays a cover of Weezer’s ‘undone (my sweater)’. People sing along and cheer. He promises to come back soon and play with “his band”. I feel queasy. Why didn’t he play a Radish cover?