Monday, October 18, 2004

One of the topics we discussed earlier last week made a surprising return, gentle reader, when Neatfreak pointed out that Ben Lee resembles a hobbit. I suppose the subject of foot fetishes in The Lord of the Rings didn’t resurface per se, nor was I going to bring it up at a concert hall, but the very mention of the word “hobbit” got the cogs turning.

Ben Lee is a fantastic indie from Australia who, in addition to having hobbitesque hair, possesses an accent similar to Peter Jackson’s, at least to my untrained ear. As he rocked out and succumbed to the throes of music, I wondered if he would fall off his seat. If he hit the floor, I concluded he would shake his hobbity head, regain his composure, and say, “Watch me backflip onto this stool!” Having done so, he would proceed to smoke weed and consume multiple breakfasts.

Around the fifth song, Yoko Ohno whispered, “Claire Danes?” Indeed, if a hot actress who graduated from Yale once saw something appealing in Mr. Lee, then perhaps I wasn’t looking hard enough. There definitely was stage presence, perhaps a little too much, and his lyrics were certainly clever at parts. His entire act merely opened for Rufus Wainwright, however, and if nothing else the concert proper was relaxing. I’m no fan by any stretch of the imagination, a disability compounded by the fact that I couldn’t make out 90% of the lyrics, but there was a mellow vibe to be had. Song after song settled over the audience in a barrage of notes, and it felt like I had repeatedly bonked my head with a fluffy pillow. All right, a fluffy musical pillow.