Ben Harper & Friends Benefit For Babette Ho

Ben Harper played a special benefit show at The Mint in Los Angeles to raise cancer relief funds for Babette Ho, wife of legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys / Zephyr surfboard maker Jeff Ho.  Harper was joined by numerous special guests, including: Jackson Browne, Joan Osborne, Tom Morello, and Tal Wilkenfeld.

It was a brilliant night of music and community; an evening that cannot be summed up in words.  For now, here are some videos from the amazing benefit show last night.  I hope to add more insight later.  Then again, you kind of had to be there:

WATCH THIS:

Huge thanks to The Mint, Ben Harper, all the participating musicians, and the amazing community of fans who were there!

Matt Morris

It’s a rare occasion that Justin Timberlake performs at a venue with a capacity of less than 200. So what brought Timberlake to The Mint last night? Matt Morris.

Justin jumped on stage to lend backing vocals on Morris’s tune “Bloodline.”  Portions of last night’s Matt Morris CD release show were broadcast live on Justin.tv – you can watch the archives there.

Meiko performing at LP33.tv

Tuesday kicked off with an interview and live acoustic performance from Meiko at LP33.tv. After exchanging information about some of the restaurants we frequent in LA, Meiko, one of my favorite musicians from The Hotel Cafe family, chatted with LP33.tv about overcoming stage fright, her musical inspirations and writing process, and getting ready to record her next album.  She then performed “Boys with Girlfriends” and her rendition of “Super Freak.”  After Meiko sang “Boys With Girlfriends,” one member of the LP33.tv  team was overheard saying, “that gave me chills!” A little close to home, eh?

Black Francis performing at The Mint LA

Later that night, I headed to The Mint to see Black Francis (aka Frank Black) perform. That was cool for several reasons.  For one, he’s Frank Black.  It was a nice surprise (for me anyway) to hear him chat between songs.  I’ve seen The Pixies and Frank Black perform previously and I don’t remember him being quite so chatty… or perhaps I wasn’t paying close enough attention before. Anyway, he talked between songs and he was funny, which is important because otherwise I would have wished he didn’t talk between songs.  (Remember when Flaming Lips played Coachella and rambled on about politics through 3/4 of their set?! All I can recall is that Wayne Coyne came out in that bubble, played 2-3 songs and then talked for an hour.  Such a disappointment.  And yet, I’m still going to see them at The Greek Monday night).

Frank Black... on and off stage (one of the look-a-likes)

Anyway, back to Black Francis.  He played a nice mix of  some old Pixies favorites along with his solo stuff.  It’s a good thing I was sober-ish or it could have been a very confusing show – there were at least 3 Frank Black look-a-likes in the audience.

Meiko performing “Boys With Girlfriends” at LP33.tv. Just a teaser, the Meiko feature is being edited: