On his way

Ben Kweller remembers his roots with a little help from Thax and "Lizzy"

By Laura Leebove
Published: July 28th, 2007 | 3:35pm

July 25, 2007, in Chicago — Everyone wants a piece of Ben Kweller. Dressed in tight pants a few shades darker than his shaggy red-orange hair, a red belt with white teardrops, a black and white striped shirt, and black cowboy boots, the singer-songwriter rocked a sold-out show at Schubas in Chicago, a venue he last played five years ago while touring for his 2002 album, Sha Sha (ATO).

Kweller, 26, has come a long way since then — he’s released another two albums on ATO, toured endlessly to promote them, performed at huge music festivals, gotten married, and had a kid — but on the tiny stage at Schubas, a venue that holds about 200 people, it was obvious he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

Eyes squinted and often shut, Kweller rarely glanced at his left hand on the neck of his guitar as he played standards from his catalogue of crowd-pleasers, including “I Need You Back,” “Penny On The Train Track,” “On My Way,” “Falling,” and “Family Tree.” But such an intimate show calls for the unexpected, like a couple of tracks that usually don’t get played live: “Ann Disaster” from On My Way (which he says is his merch girl’s least favorite song ever written) and “Harriet’s Got a Song” from Sha Sha.

Near the middle of the show, Kweller brought out his friend Thax, a local poet who carried a canvas bag from Wicker Park’s Myopic Books. Kweller played the piano while Thax read the crowd a poem about meat-eating radishes, creatively titled “Ben Kweller” (perhaps something to do with Kweller’s former punk band, Radish?).

Not only did the size of the venue allow for onstage guests, but it also made it easy for crowd interaction. That worked out well for Mike, a fan who, during the all-Sha Sha encore, requested “Lizzy” for his and his wife Kathy’s 11-year anniversary. Halfway through, the song — which Kweller says he wrote “when I first fell in love with my lady” — turned into a giggle fit when an ant found its way onto his hand. “Maybe it’s his anniversary,” he suggested. After stops and starts (due to uncontrollable chuckles), Kweller asked the band to join in to finish the song.

In classic BK style, he closed with “Wasted and Ready” — right before going off with friends to do tequila shots.