Begin the Ben Gunning

Ben Gunning used to be in The Local Rabbits. Now he's got his own thing. He's one of those artists who slides between genres; he's a little bit Jeff Buckly, a little but John McLaughlin (circa the Cellar Door), a bit garage rock ... He has an extremely capable band, a remarkably tensile voice and he really gives his all on stage. (Not that it's easy squeezing a whole band on there, for the obligatory group shot, if nothing else.)

Ben at the microphone!



Dafydd Hughes plays the keyboards, handles the electronics, etc.



That rhythm section. Drummer Robin Buckley is now handling the traps in Kepler. As for the bassist, as the show was going on I was thinking "Gee, this guy has a small Gallien-Krueger amp, just like Doug Friesen, who I recently saw playing bass for another former Local Rabbit, Peter Elkas! He has a Gibson bass just like Friesen. And the same haircut and glasses!" The reason: He's Doug Friesen. It took me a little while to figure that out. It was late, eh? He's also played in a band called Egger along with former Inbred Dave Ullrich that has a record, Force Majeure, out on Zunior.



Ben gets down!



Why should Gunning have all the odd facial expressions to himself? The members of the band enjoy entertaining each other, so here's Buckley's best go.



Ben shouts, the rhythm section rhythms ...



Microphone-wrasslin' action!



Jazz-rock-pop action!



The also obligatory silhouette shot.



For the encore, Mantler came back on stage to join in on a Spinners' cover (I'll Be Around, if memory serves).



A swell show; a pity the crowd was small.