Audio CD review:
Ben Harper - Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Ben Harper - Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Band: Ben Harper Title: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Rating: Release Date: 2003-11-18 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Brown Eyed Blues 2: With My Own Two Hands 3: Sexual Healing - Ben Harper, Gaye, Marvin 4: Amen Omen

Amen Omen alone is worth the price of admission Like other reviewers I liked two of the four songs more than the other two (but not neccessarily the same two), and that's why this EP gets four stars. This is a fine and tantalizing sample of Ben Harper's live performance at Hollywood Bowl and as with most great EPs it is much too short! This is definitely a gem to add to any Ben Harper collection. I'll give a song by song run down: Brown Eyed Blues: mellow, relaxed and fun. A good version. The only problem is that this is not one of my favorite Harper songs. With My Own Two Hands: Awesome! The medley with war in the middle is very effective and a bit chilling. There is a very nice guitar / keyboard "duet" between the first Two Hands section and War. Played loud this song rocks! Definitely my favortie version. Sexual Healing: Another reviewer called this song boring. I wouldn't go that far, since it does have some steam to it. But as was also pointed out, it is redundant. This track was on Live From Mars and this version is no better, worse or different from that one. So it doesn't add a lot to your collection. Amen Omen: This is the absolute best song on the EP. Here's how good it is: Amen Omen was one of my least favorite songs on Diamonds, but this version is one of my favorite Harper songs of all time! His voice has so much emotion that the words penetrate the soul. And the guitar work, wow! This song alone is worth the price of admission. Good EP Ok, so why did I give it just 4 stars? Well, I don't really like 2 of the songs on it. Ok, I'll start out by telling you that if you have never heard Ben play his music live then you are missing out just as much as someone that has never seen DMB play live. I love almost everything that Ben has ever written, but I don't like "With my own two hands" and "Sexual Healing" is not on my top 20 songs of his. Now remember, I DID give 4. Trust all of our online reviews, "Amen Omen" could not have been recorded and performed better. At a point Ben holds a note and the band stops as Ben shows us how talented of a vocalist he is (it's BEAUTIFUL). Last of all, "Brown Eyed Blues" has more soul to it in this recording than could even be imagined (the studio version was good, but this live version could put it in my top 10 list). Very good, well worth you money. too short, worth buying for 2/4 songs end of amen omen is awesome. very good version of with my own two hands/war. sexual healing is boring and redundant with live from mars. brown eyed blues was a dissapointment compared to the album version. wish there was more songs from the concert on the CD. Good Stuff What's great about this is that it lets us hear some live performances of songs that come off of Ben's most recent album which came out after the last live offering. This little EP is the audio version of some of the tracks off of Ben's newest live DVD "Live At The Hollywood Bowl", and is definitely worth checking into if you enjoyed the Live On Mars album. It's fun to hear the extended live cuts of the tracks which have a lot more dynamics and life to them than can be found on the album, particularly "Amen Omen" which is absolutely tremendous here and alone is worth your money. This is a great little EP, and really makes me hope that there is another live full-length in the works. The only thing holding this back is that I wish there were more tracks on it that we haven't heard a live recording of before, but then again this is just an EP and you can find those tracks on the DVD. Definitely worth picking up, and reminds us once again of why we all love Ben so much. He's such an amazing performer. You can see a complete list of all Ben Harper discography, or go back to the Ben Harper tabs