Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

The Read

Harper has spent thirty years moving between slide-guitar blues, folk protest, and full-band soul, and the Innocent Criminals are the lineup that lets him do all three in one set. The Weissenborn lap slide is the signature — played flat across his knees, more resonant and more mournful than a standard guitar. When the band digs into the groove material, it becomes a different show entirely. The Basement East is a club, not a theater, which means no seats and no distance. An artist who regularly plays much larger rooms doing it here changes the economics of the night in the audience’s favor. Expect a long set, expect quiet passages the room will actually respect, and expect the floor to be full well before the headliner.

The Room

The Basement East

917 Woodland St

Mike Grimes of Grimey's opened it in April 2015 — the graduation from The Basement on 8th, with a bigger room and a bigger calendar.