Me, me and Ben Lee, it's all about gigs supreme ...

It may be past 1am in Portland, but I'm compelled to write about what was probably the best concert experience I have, well, experienced after just returning from the Ben Lee/Rufus Wainwright/Ben Folds gig held at the beautiful Roseland Theater last night. I went along with Soule Sista's sister, kT, and one of her friends from high school. I felt like their chaperone. I'm that old or maybe they're just young.

I was skeptical going to the concert as I did not own one piece of music produced by these three amazing dudes. I can now say I'm poorer, but wiser, for admitting that fact.

First up was Australia's own Lee. He must have began before the doors were meant to open at 8pm and consequently we only saw two songs from a very short six-song set (again, say that three times quickly). But we were fortunate to hear his latest single, "Catch My Disease" and to meet with him afterwards. He signed my ticket stub and agreed to pose with yours truly and my Aussie passport for this here blog, although he told me he doesn't live down under anymore. In fact, he doesn't live anywhere as he's always on tour. Even the t-shirts sold at the concession stand said so.

Next was Wainwright. I've read he's a gay Canadian singer-songwriter and I've slept on him for far too long. Geez, that sounded bad. What I meant to say was that I never bothered to check how great this versatile artist is. He reminded me of Jeff Buckley and even performed "Hallelujah" during an inspirational set that went over an hour. He said that Portland was one of the few American cities with its soul intact, or words to that effect. I just nodded my head. I'll have to get some of his albums. Like Folds, he's on the I Am Sam soundtrack, singing "Across The Universe", which would be my favourite Beatles song and he does it justice.

He even came back and joined Folds for an awesome cover of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper". The best cover was Folds and his band performing a Dr Dre track, which was so good and funny that I forgot the original. He capped off the night by throwing his stool on the piano, ending a successful North American tour. We then caught the MAX home.