Ben Harper’s voice was great as usual, and it was really cool to finally see him live. Harper was great; Relentless 7 I could’ve done without. It seemed that the lead guitarist of R7 was more the center of attention than Harper was (WAY too many guitar solos on his part). I would definitely see Harper again, but not with this band.
I will NOT, however, go to another concert at the NIU Convocation Center. The beer ‘area’ was a small pen that could only hold 125 people at a time; you could not bring your drinks into the show. The seating on the floor was unnecessary; with the small amount of people that attended this show (only about 500), everyone could have easily stood/moved around/danced while enjoying the show instead of being confined to the space in front of your assigned folding chair. There was plenty of available stadium seating for those that wanted to sit and watch, but for those that prefer to move around a bit it wasn’t cool. While the facility was newer and very clean, I didn’t feel that it was rock concert friendly. The crowd was lame too- no one seemed excited to be there; not a very lively crowd, very weird vibe.