Ben Harper

Last summer we went to the Nice Jazz Festival both so that we had a good excuse to go to the South as per usual but more importantly to catch the best live act this side of the Atlantic: Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite. We saw some live music in Grenoble but not a lot; it's kind of a small place and there wasn't much to choose from (but The Cranberries did do a show at the Stade des Alpes in November 2012). Anyways, after attending said Nice Jazz Festival, it was reinforced upon us that Ben is certainly an act that's worth re-visiting. So, tabs were kept on what might be next in this aspiring artist's touring repertoire. All of a sudden, as I was surfing through www.benharper.com/tour, I noticed the name of a small city that I once called home: Grenoble! For some crazy reason, this cat is playing one of his only 4 shows in France (the other 3 are all in Paris) on this summer's European tour in that teeny tiny place where we no longer live. Craziness! So, this seemed like as good an excuse as any to arrange a trip to the old homestead, say hello to old friends and colleagues, eat a baguette or two, sneak in a Vercors mountain-summitting bike ride, and, of course, experience the thrill of another edition of one of contemporary music's hottest live acts. But then, woe is me, (as Job might say), when all seemed to be falling into place, Mr. Harper went and let all of his Grenoble show tickets sell out before we could get our grubby little fingers on a single pair of them! Total suckage. But, if you'll remember a few lines up, it is a European tour, and though we'd love to fit in all that biking and colleague-visiting, all was not lost yet. It seemed that Ben, his tour manager, and whomever else may have been involved in the decision making related to such a large-scale touring event, felt like they really wanted to see Italy this time around. Granted we've never called anywhere in Italy a home, but we have enough connections and memories there that a trip due-south of here into the promised land could involve more than simply a concert attendance. We perused the proposed Italian docket, and hit upon the perfect parameters: show in Florence, mid-May, landing on a Saturday. Can't ask for much more, right? I made the appropriate network set-ups and soon the new plan was all but assured and all that was left -- essentially -- was to mark it down in the old iCal for posterity, reminding-purposes, and next year's Christmas Card. We would stay with friends in Florence, attend the concert with them following an aperitivi at one of Florence's hipper locations, and cap off the night with a visit to the infamous night-time swimming pool as we once did in a time far removed from today (2007)

I wonder if it's still there?

Everyone was on board, the flights made sense, we could taste the Campari. But just then, something that I wouldn't have expected happened: those tickets were sold out too. Man! People must really like this guy! But we were not licked yet. When some people are knocked down in life, they stay down. If they do get up, it's only much later, and their spirit has been broken. They are weak and easily breakable now, like an Ikea wine glass. Not us, though. This experience only made us stronger and further fuelled the burning desire that we held to attend another Ben Harper concert. Come Hell or high water, we would spend an average weekly salary to push Live Nation's executives that much further into the one percent. So what did we have left? Rome? Sold out. Milan? Turin? Sold out, sold out. Geneva, Lucerne, Brussels? Sold out, sold out, sold out! But wait, what's this? Padua? THE Padua? The setting for Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew? One and the same. Could we make it there? Was there a train? Did it matter? Would I continue to ask myself questions that I would in turn answer immediately afterwards? And most importantly, were there really tickets still available? Yes, Yes, Probably, Unfortunately, and YES!

So, come Friday May 9th (if indeed we can find the right train tickets), we will set off on an epic journey from the Ostbahnhof, through the Bavarian and Italian Alps, stopping briefly in the town made famous by Romeo and Juliet (though I guess it was probably famous before then [Verona, of course]), and then slightly changing direction to continue east and little bit northwards, we will find our way to Padua (Padova), to the Gran Teatro Geox, to An Acoustic Evening with Ben Harper, and to our salvation. Amen.