Ben Taylor @ The TheklaSocial, Bristol
With support from Amy Macdonald.
Sunday 4th February 2007
Meg Rowell went to see the show...
Ben Taylor Band
It's a cold Sunday night in February, and there's a crowd of about forty people huddled together inside the hull of a boat on Bristol's mud dock. The reason? Ben Taylor's in town.
Kicking off the night, and supporting him on his entire UK tour, is the small yet perfectly formed Amy Macdonald, whose delicate looks and thick Scottish accent make her powerful, sultry vocals, and jazz-folk delivery a pleasing surprise, as she commands the stage in a way that most nineteen-year olds could only ever dream of. She even manages to pull off a cover of The Killers' Mr Brightside with startling ferocity and charm.
After a brief interval, the main act makes his way onto stage. Being the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon, Ben Taylor is naturally burdened with both the curse of expectation, and the troubles of association. Nevertheless, he appears to make light of the fact, mentioning both his parents between songs, dedicating one to his mother and casually referring to his father as 'JT'.
He has a gorgeous voice; it's smooth, effortless and instantly likeable. However, I can imagine its perfection beginning to grate after a few listens, and if I close my eyes, which I do, it could just as easily be Jack Johnson who I've come to see.
After a short introductory song, and with a cheeky grin, Ben launches into Wicked Way, a track, he tells us, that he wrote in an attempt to remove the sugarcoating found on most standard love-songs; 'I just wanna take you out and get you drunk so I can have my wicked way with you...' The audience laugh, and so does Ben. 'Don't you fight it, I know that you'll like it, show me some skin I might bite it...' More laughter, it's all very light-hearted, if a little sleazy.
The crowd isn't exactly, huge, but those who have made the effort to come are enraptured by the entire set. Mainly older types and couples, they know the words and can tap out the beats; these are Ben Taylor fans.
After a couple of solo tracks, he's joined on stage by his bandmates, the most notable of whom is Meredith Sheldon, whose sumptuous vocals bring a distinct richness to the set. The band are tight, they work well together and the songs are nice but that's about as far as it goes. Nice, unfortunately, doesn't hold interest for very long. They rattle through a set of pretty standard stuff, at one point launching into a rather odd rendition of Amy Winehouse' Rehab, and a pretty good, if rather brave considering where they were, cover of Portishead's Glory Box.
Ben Taylor certainly has talent; a great voice, a knack for catchy songwriting and the effortless charisma of a natural rock star. The people watching him tonight would undoubtedly agree, and from the looks on some of their faces, they'd be willing to fight to prove it. Maybe its his legacy, or maybe he was pipped to the post by the likes of Jack Johnson and Paolo Nutini, but based on tonight's performance, Ben Taylor is lacking a certain something. What that is, I can't quite put my finger on, and his fans certainly don't see it. Amazing? No. Mind-blowing? Not really, but it's affable enough and, all things considered, there are worse ways to spend a Sunday night than on a boat, in Bristol, with Ben Taylor.
To see the rest of Ben Taylor's tour, click here.
