'Lights' at the Basement Bar

Worse still, I arrived to catch the end of a slightly awkward teen-indie set (frequented mostly by parents and school kids) who seemed to have unplugged their guitars and packed up before the reverbs of their final strums and drum-crashes had finished sounding; probably not quite sure what to do with the attention.

But thankfully the clientele swiftly stepped up a few notches, and the act that followed more than lived up to its rather swish folksy myspace page. Ben was shy and down to earth, and laid himself bare on stage with thoughtful lyrics, and a simple style with nothing but a guitar to hide behind. Effortless skill and silky-smooth vocals had the room entranced for forty minutes of acoustic bliss. Local college boy Ben’s music has the meditative depth of Damien Rice, some of his myspace recordings even do the cello thing, but his sound is undoubtedly original, which is quite an achievement in such a near-overflowing genre.

It was immensely relaxing, but rather than sending me to sleep in my tired state, it lulled me into a dreamy state of relaxation in which I lapped up poetic lyrics, which he says are about the things that stand out in life: ‘like lights would in the dark’. Now thoroughly relaxed, I was hungry for something a bit more upbeat. My hunger was satisfied in the slightly more urgent ‘when are you coming home?’. It was a shame technical problems meant I couldn’t hear parts of the set with the back up guitarist, but I heard enough to highly recommend seeing this guy if you ever get the chance, and I’m intrigued to see what a bit of life’s roughing up or polishing will make out of this jewel...

'Lights' at the Basement Bar, 7th February 2008. Check out Lights’ myspace at: myspace. com/lightsyork, and catch him at The Little Num Num Club at the Basement Bar on 8th March, or at Fibbers on 28th March.

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