Ben Kweller @ Oran Mor

Saturday night I saw Ben Kweller play Oran Mor. There was no support as this wasn’t part of a tour but just a gig he decided to squeeze in while he records his new album in London. In a show billed as ‘An Evening with…’ he took to the stage with just a guitar and a piano. With bundles of confidence and enthusiasm he opened with his cover of Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby, ad-libbing so much he forgot the words midway through.

For a show that was sold out weeks in advance there was, much like Giant Drag, an awful lot of chatter throughout the room. The last third though seemed quite up for it and he played audience requests throughout the night. This included a shambolic yet still quite smooth version of Harriet’s Got a Song and also I Need You Back where he got the audience to fill in for the missing second guitar.

Walk on Me, Wasted and Ready and The Rules were among the evening’s highlights for me, but in truth he was cracking all through his set and could have went on for another hour without losing the crowd.

There are some photographs below.

EDIT: Tommy has pointed out that BK has put on his own thoughts on the gig on his MySpace. There's also a few comments from other people who were there.