Racounteured

Brendan Benson
The Earl
Atlanta, GA
12/11/09

I apologize for the lapse in writing, but I've been super busy of late. Well, that and Christmas shopping has left me too broke to buy anything worth reviewing, and the shows worth going to see have been few and far between for the last couple of weeks. Until going to see the film It Might Get Loud a couple of months ago, I had very little interest in anything Jack White had ever done. I swear this would have been totally different had I known that he was the drummer for the early-90's Cowpunk/Alt-Country outfit Goober and the Peas. I never made the connection, because he was credited under his given name, John Gillis. Regardless, I never paid a lot of attention to what the guy was doing, but he made quite an impression on me after I realized what he was really about. While I like certain things about the White Stripes, the fact that most, if not all, of it lacks a lovely invention called the bass guitar leaves a little something to be desired. I love what little I've heard of The Dead Weather, but that's only a couple of songs. Much like White Stripes, I'd largely ignored The Raconteurs. After giving it an honest chance, it's the most conventional of all of Jack White's projects. Coincidentally, it's the one I think I enjoy the most. Another thing that I didn't realize until digging a little deeper is that The Raconteurs is really more Brendan Benson's band than Jack White's.

When I saw that Brendan Benson would be playing a solo show at The Earl, I didn't know what to expect, but I also knew that I probably didn't want to miss it. I had never heard a single song from his solo catalog going in. That, coupled with the fact that I once again got pretty drunk (a recurring theme, I know), means that you're not getting too thorough of a review out of me. Let me put it to you this way, though: I may not have known any of the songs he played, but this show was absolutely brilliant. Benson is a great singer, a fine guitar player, and he was backed by stellar accompaniment, which included fellow Raconteur Mark Watrous, and Brad Pemberton and Jared Reynolds, sidemen of Ryan Adams and Ben Folds, respectively.

Watching and hearing Benson was like going back in time and watching one of the early-to-mid 70's power pop masters have a go of it. For me, it conjured up many of the great ones like Big Star, Cheap Trick and The Raspberries. The hooks were ubiquitous, and it seemed like with each song, you'd hear the first verse and whether you were familiar with it or not, you'd be singing along before it was over. And he did this non-stop for over an hour. When the set finished, he came out to do an encore with the opening act, Cory Chisel, joining him. They closed the set out by doing an outstanding version of Tom Petty's "American Girl", and a really good version of one of the more non-descript Petty hits that I can't recall (as I said, I was pretty loaded, and honestly I don't care much for Tom Petty), that brought the nearly packed house down. Yeah, this guy really knows what he's doing.

I was impressed enough by Benson to pick up a copy of his latest LP, My Old, Familiar Friend. I haven't given it a listen yet, but he appeared to have played most of the album, so I think I'm going to like it enough to work backwards and pick up some of his earlier records. I regret that I was only able to catch the last couple of Cory Chisel's songs, because based on those, he seems to be pretty good, too. I'd recommend checking either of these acts out in the future. And while I never thought I would find myself saying this, I think I'm going to have to see The Raconteurs next time they hit the road.

That's all for now, but expect a barrage of lame-ass 'Best of '09' posts between now and the end of the year. After all, I can't let Pitchfork and Paste have all the fun. See ya.