Relentless 7 @ Mercury Lounge - 12/11/08

Last Thursday night (Friday morning), I went downtown to see the Relentless 7 at the Mercury Lounge. For those of you unfamiliar with the group, Relentless 7 is Ben Harper's new side project. The gig was billed as a "late show", doors at midnight, R7 on at 1am. The Mercury Lounge is a really small venue, I'd guess they can hold maybe 150-200 people max and the room was just about full to capacity.

I've gotten to see Ben many times over the years and it was great to see him in such an intimate venue. The R7 is more of a pure rock band and a slight departure from his work with the Innocent Criminals. Ben seemed to really love the lead singer role (he was more animated than usual) and at times it felt like we were watching a guy rock out in his garage with a bunch of buddies. One thing that was strange for me was going to a show without knowing any of the material, but a couple songs stuck out, specifically "Fly One Time" and "Boots Like These". Overall it was a pretty cool show and I'm looking forward to the official release.

Here's the setlist:

Number With No Name
Shimmer and Shine
Lay There and Hate Me
Betterway
Fly One Time
Keep It Together
Dressed In Black
Skin Thin
The Word Suicide
Boots Like These
Up to You Now

One other interesting thing was that I spotted photographer Danny Clinch before the show and during the set on stage taking a bunch of pics of Ben, the band and the crowd. I'll be interested to see what happens with those....


Here's a couple video clips I found online and some pictures I took......

"FLY ONE TIME"




"BOOTS LIKE THESE"