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11/10 Ben Kweller with Mason Jennings
at Fine Line
Ben Kweller Setlist
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Ben Kweller is celebrating the 20th anniversary (technically the 21st anniversary) of his cult-classic album, Sha Sha, by doing a 2023 tour. He stopped by the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis on Friday night.
Mason Jennings opened the Minneapolis show. After playing his intro song, “Darkness Between the Fireflies”, he explained that he’s been friends with Ben Kweller for 20 years and he was excited to celebrate Sha Sha with us. If Kweller didn’t ask him to open, Jennings said he would attend the show as a fan.
He normally doesn’t play “Adrian”, but decided to put it on his setlist, because Kweller requested it.
For “Crown”, Jennings put on harmonica… which instantly made the audience think it was going to be a Bob Dylan cover…
He ended his set with the first song off his album Underneath The Roses, called “Only Lovers Welcome”. Although he left the stage, he would come back for the encore to help play “Living in the Moment” and “Sorry Signs on Cash Machines.”
Just to give you a little background, Ben Kweller started his musical career when he was really young. He’s been playing the drums since he was seven years old… and by the time he was 12, he joined a band called Radish. When he decided to leave the group, he was 19, and started focusing on his solo career.
His debut album, after signing with ATO Records, was Sha Sha, which came out in 2002 and instantly became a hit with fans, including Evan Dando (The Lemonheads), Juliana Hatfield, Guster, and Ben Folds (who created The Bens with Ben Lee and Ben Kweller).
For the anniversary tour, we’re shown footage from 2002, on a video projector, when the album first launched in Japan. My god, Kweller looks like a baby in 2002 (when he was 21).
After the videos montage, Kweller, and his full band (including actor/musician Christopher Mintz-Plasse), would play all the songs from Sha Sha, but throwing in various hits and oddities to fill out a full show. The setlist is not exactly one-on-one with the tracklisting of the ATO album, but as Kweller explained, he had to shuffle some songs for pacing reasons. Otherwise, it’ll be “bangers after bangers” as Kweller puts it.
If you were curious about the one cover song, “How I Am”, this was a tribute to his 16 year old son, Dorian Kweller (who plays as his stagename Z’ev). His son died in a car accident in February 2023, and it was a shame, because, like Ben, Dorian was also a child prodigy, and over time, he would’ve been just as accomplished as his father.
“How I Am” is one of Ben’s favorite Dorian songs, so it felt fitting to include it on the setlist.
Fans who loved the Sha Sha album was so happy to hear these songs performed live. Those same fans fondly remembers seeing him for the first time, with Pete Yorn, at First Avenue in 2011.
Remaining tour dates:
Mason Jennings opened the Minneapolis show. After playing his intro song, “Darkness Between the Fireflies”, he explained that he’s been friends with Ben Kweller for 20 years and he was excited to celebrate Sha Sha with us. If Kweller didn’t ask him to open, Jennings said he would attend the show as a fan.
He normally doesn’t play “Adrian”, but decided to put it on his setlist, because Kweller requested it.
For “Crown”, Jennings put on harmonica… which instantly made the audience think it was going to be a Bob Dylan cover…
He ended his set with the first song off his album Underneath The Roses, called “Only Lovers Welcome”. Although he left the stage, he would come back for the encore to help play “Living in the Moment” and “Sorry Signs on Cash Machines.”
Just to give you a little background, Ben Kweller started his musical career when he was really young. He’s been playing the drums since he was seven years old… and by the time he was 12, he joined a band called Radish. When he decided to leave the group, he was 19, and started focusing on his solo career.
His debut album, after signing with ATO Records, was Sha Sha, which came out in 2002 and instantly became a hit with fans, including Evan Dando (The Lemonheads), Juliana Hatfield, Guster, and Ben Folds (who created The Bens with Ben Lee and Ben Kweller).
For the anniversary tour, we’re shown footage from 2002, on a video projector, when the album first launched in Japan. My god, Kweller looks like a baby in 2002 (when he was 21).
After the videos montage, Kweller, and his full band (including actor/musician Christopher Mintz-Plasse), would play all the songs from Sha Sha, but throwing in various hits and oddities to fill out a full show. The setlist is not exactly one-on-one with the tracklisting of the ATO album, but as Kweller explained, he had to shuffle some songs for pacing reasons. Otherwise, it’ll be “bangers after bangers” as Kweller puts it.
If you were curious about the one cover song, “How I Am”, this was a tribute to his 16 year old son, Dorian Kweller (who plays as his stagename Z’ev). His son died in a car accident in February 2023, and it was a shame, because, like Ben, Dorian was also a child prodigy, and over time, he would’ve been just as accomplished as his father.
“How I Am” is one of Ben’s favorite Dorian songs, so it felt fitting to include it on the setlist.
Fans who loved the Sha Sha album was so happy to hear these songs performed live. Those same fans fondly remembers seeing him for the first time, with Pete Yorn, at First Avenue in 2011.
Remaining tour dates:
Nov
11
Chicago, IL, US
Lincoln Hall
Nov 18 New York, NY, US Racket NYC
Nov 19 New York (NYC), NY, US Racket NYC
Nov 18 New York, NY, US Racket NYC
Nov 19 New York (NYC), NY, US Racket NYC
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Ben Kweller |
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Ben Kweller at Fine Line, Minneapolis (10 Nov 2023) |
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