Saturday, February 18, 2012

Ben Rector and Needtobreathe Concert!

Wednesday night, NEEDTOBREATHE (don't worry, I will refer to them in a less-enthusiastic way for the duration of this post) and Ben Rector started their tour in Houston. And I went! It was one of the best concerts I've been to in a long time, and here are my thoughts about the highlights.

First off, both Ben Rector and Needtobreathe lead singer Bear Rinehart have the vocal strength and style that makes the live experience more like a CD-listening party than an unfortunate karaoke night. Both guys sounded so good throughout the night, and their voices being so strong really led the audience into a sing-along concert feeling.

For Ben Rector's portion of the concert, he did a great job of just being an opening act. He enlisted the help of the crowd to sing the chorus of one of his songs. He did his traditional impromptu writing of a third verse via audience suggestion. His finale song was a classy, timely cover of the late Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)". And through all of this, he got to show off his stellar vocal range and tone.

Then Needtobreathe came on and just blew my expectations out of the water. If you closed your eyes, you definitely could've convinced yourself that they just played the CD over the speakers. They rocked hard, Bear's voice rang out loud and growly over the top of all the music. The guys looked like a bundle of nervous energy (with it being the first night of the tour, that's totally cool with me), and every guitar solo and breakdown section of a song was pumped so full of energy and just pure rock 'n' roll. The band is going to get used to the crowd knowing every lyric through the rest of this tour - it seemed to kind of catch Rinehart off-guard when the crowd was effectively drowning him out at points.

With that slight negative aside, the connection between crowd and band was strong - and definitely escalated as the concert went on. This all culminated when, during the encore when all 5 guys were playing unplugged in a tight semicircle, the entire audience collectively shut up and just...listened. Rinehart, having stepped away from his turned-down microphone, belted out the refrain of the studly chorus from "Slumber". The emotional connection between the crowd and the singer at that point in time is something I've never felt before. Then, the band hit a final chord and walked off the stage, and the audience just kind of sat stunned before coming to our collective senses and applauding. I know that concerts are largely a practice in crowd manipulation, but that refreshing take on an encore didn't seem forced - it seemed natural and just special, honestly.

All told, the concert was an incredible experience. It combined the luxuries of a big-time concert with all the intimacy of a living room jam session. If you have a chance to see this tour when they come (near) to you, I highly suggest you take the time. If this post catches you a day or two late, never fear! that's what iTunes (or let's be honest: Spotify - welcome to 2012) is for! Check out any and all of both these bands' music, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.