Concert Review: Ben Taylor @ Borders

Ben Taylor featuring Sonya Kitchell and David Saw
Friday, December 1, 2006
Ann Arbor-Downtown Borders

Ann Arbor's 107one, local radio station, has a feature on their station called Studio A2, where they have national artists perform and get interviewed. Last year they started doing Studio A2 ON THE ROAD at the downtown borders. This was an interesting event, since it was technically just a live radio interview, that just happened to be at Borders.

For those of you who don't know, Ben Taylor is the son of James Talyor and Carly Simon. I first saw Ben when he was on tour with his mom as the opening act. He immediately blew me away with his great acoustic guitar lines, brilliant lyrics, and his voice sounds exactly like his father! After seeing him that one time, I became addicted to his album "Another Run Around The Sun" and was hoping he would come back to the Ann Arbor area. A year later, he finally returned! Unfortunately I couldn't go to his concert at the Ark, but 107one set up this great in-store appearance.


The set up was incredibly simple, just 3 stools, the sound equipment, and a backdrop. I was really impressed with how good everything sounded eventhough the venue isn't suited for this kind of performance.

Finally, between the cookbooks and coffee shop, Ben, Sonya, and David appeared from behind the backdrop and were introduced by the local radio personality. Sonya Kitchell performed her song "No Matter What" first, which had a great guitar line, lyrics, and featured her voice really well. David Saw accompanied her on guitar, and Ben provided back-up vocals.

I was completely floored to find out during the radio that Sonya was only 17 years-old! She says that "[I] was born, and started singing." She was raised in a very creative household, since her parents are both visual aritist, and they have always been supportive of her music career and her dreams.

After the brief interview with Sonya, Ben played a new song called "Wicked Way," which was a really witty song that immediately had the crowd laughing and clapping at his lyrics. The song will hopefully be on his next album, which “About...0%” has been recorded, according to Ben.

Once the song was over, Ben talked about growing up as the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Their advice to him was to always remember that "music is blue collar; don't be fooled that everything is glamorous." He took this to heart, understanding that his parents came from a time when it was much easier to be successful in the music bussiness, and that the industry has changed a lot since they started.

Sonya played one more song live on the air for the radio audience, which had a very sophisiticated melody, and wonderful lyrics. David and Ben both played guitar, and their strumming/picking styles blended very well together. Unfortunately, the song hasn’t been recorded yet, and probably won’t be any time soon, since she’s touring in Europe in the spring, and will be unable to get any recording done until the fall of 2007.


Ben played one more song for the in-store audience, which is one of my favorite songs off of Another Run Around the Sun, called “Ghost”. Ben apologized to the audience, since he had flown from Dublin the night before and on top of that he was pretty sick, so he was afraid he sounded terrible. But honestly, I thought he sounded great!

Over all, I thought the morning was really fun, and this intimate setting made me enjoy it all the more. I hope that next time Ben comes through town I’ll be able to see a full concert of his!

Concert Review: Dashboard Confessional

Dashboard Confessional 10.28.06
Eastern Michigan Convocation Center
Opener: Brand New

Saturday I spent my evening at the concert for one of my favorite bands, Dashboard Confessional. I’ve listened to Dashboard since it was just Chris Carrabba touring out of a van without a band to back him up, but through unfortunate events, I’ve never been able to see them play live. Since this was my first official DC concert, I was pretty excited to go.

So, my roommate Meg and I headed out for EMU. Upon our arrival we found that only the farthest parking lot was still open, and the line to get in was stretched into and around the main parking lot…which we weren’t too keen on standing in. Luckily, will call customers were allowed to jump the line, which I happily did and picked up my tickets.

Brand New had already started playing, which was ok with me. I’ve never been a huge fan of Brand New, because it’s too much screaming and not enough music. Plus, the guitar reminds me a lot of Nirvana, which is my least favorite guitar style ever. The lighting design was terrible too, with too many lights flashing into the audience and not enough lights on the actual band. I couldn’t see anyone onstage half the time, so I didn’t even have anything interesting to look at. Luckily there were only 4 songs left in their set once I got there!

So, my first complaint of the night came after Brand New’s set when their fans started chanting “Dashboard Sucks”…Now, as I see it, if you go to a concert to see the opener and don’t like the headliner that much, THEN LEAVE, don’t ruin the experience for the rest of the crowd. Meg and I decided to move closer to the stage during the change over, so we got away from the annoying Brand New fans pretty quickly.

During the change over to Dashboard, a large white drape was pulled across the front of the stage, but once DC’s set started, the lights came up behind the drape, silhouetting the band as it started to play “Don’t Wait,” the first single off their latest album. Once the vocals came in the drape dropped and revealed a gorgeous set. The set consisted of a red velvet drape in the background, and hanging paper lanterns that lit up and could change colors. During the second song, the red velvet drape raised up in the center revealing a New York loft style brick wall with large windows that could be lit to show trees behind them and even a moon, through lighting effects. The set reminded me a lot of RENT. The lighting design made it even better. I snuck my camera in and got some great shots of the band.

I was expecting the band to play all their new stuff with only a little of the stuff I’ve loved for so long, but there was actually a really good balance of old and new. The highlights off the new album were Don’t Wait, So Long So Long, and a new version of Stolen, which is a lot faster than the album version, and much less effective in my opinion. Dash sounded great on old favorites like The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, Hands Down, Bend and Not Break, and Screaming Infidelities. The song that made the entire night worth it was This Ruined Puzzle. The band hasn’t had This Ruined Puzzle in their set for a few years now, so to have it back was great to hear, especially since it is my favorite song ever recorded by Dashboard.

Chris’s voice sounded great, and didn’t stumble or get off key once during the night. His stage presence is much different now, appearing more cocky and putting up a front for the crowd. I could have done without the very obvious scripted banter though…but he did show his personality throughout the night (commenting on the lack of high-fiving he and his friends do, etc). Scott on bass and Mike on drums were very solid, giving a muscular backing for the guitars and vocals to flow over. Johnny Lefler, the lead guitarist, is a hard working musician, switching between guitar and keys, and providing the signature “dashboard” guitar style that everyone has grown to know.

The two new additions to the band, a third guitar player and the violinist Susan Sherhouse, bring a much fuller sound to the band. The third guitarist also allows Chris to put his guitar down on songs like Don’t Wait and Hands Down, giving him a Bono-like stage presence. Susan’s violin is very subtle, but she takes the foreground on songs like So Long So Long, and brings the song to a new level.

My only major complaint about the show was the crowd. While trying to enjoy Dashboard’s set I was forced to stand next to four idiot boys from Dearborn Heights, who insisted on shoving and eventually moshing. I have no problem with moshing if the concert is one that you are supposed to mosh at, but this was not. The music isn’t fast enough, or hard core enough to be moshed to...just because you’re at a concert doesn’t mean that moshing is required. It’s quite obvious that those guys weren’t as concert experienced as they were acting. Anyone who actually attends concert regularly knows the correct etiquette. In the end they were just making themselves look stupid.

Despite the annoying boys, I enjoyed myself quite a bit. Dashboard played flawlessly, and though it is obvious that Chris Carrabba has changed quite a bit since his earliest days, as long as the music stays good, I’ll continue going to their concerts. I only hope that Chris goes on a solo tour sometime soon so that I can experience the dashboard confessional that I have loved since the beginning, now that I have experienced the full-band electric dashboard confessional.

Rating: &hearts &hearts &hearts &hearts (out of 5)

(*Pictures taken by me, so please don't steal them without asking*)