The Wake

It’s a little known fact that Australia’s number one export these days is clever pop music. Starting their tour in Minneapolis on Nov. 3, Ben Lee and New Buffalo showed the audience at the Fine Line that music can simultaneously be fun and legitimately artful, and that songs with great pop hooks are not necessarily mundane.

Opening the show was the one-woman band New Buffalo, whose latest CD, The Last Beautiful Day, is now available for the first time in North America through the Arts and Crafts label. Also known as Sally Seltmann, New Buffalo tours with a microphone, a keyboard, a guitar and an iPod for her samples. “I like having a really simple setup when I record and when I tour,” Sally told me. The stage felt a little empty as she sang her way through some of the album’s more elaborate tracks such as “On Sunday,” which uses big band horn samples. And while the live show couldn’t fully capture the lush sounds of The Last Beautiful Day, it did prove what a commanding yet airy voice Seltmann has.

“I started this project so I could be able to change my sound a bit, whenever I wanted,” she said, elaborating on the reason for the one-person show. “With a rock and roll band, its drums, bass, guitar, vocals, and I’m quite interested in maybe working around that.” Both on the record and on the stage, New Buffalo proves that this is the intent, as the arrangements often times lack what listeners would typically define as sounds in the rock ‘n’ roll palette. The audience greeted this novel sound with a mixture of reactions. Some fans seemed to enjoy the music; others seemed disinterested as Sally worked her way through the song on The Last Beautiful Day.

“Thanks,” she said, as she finished her set. “My friend Ben will be out in a minute.” As the audience (which was predominately female) waited for Ben Lee to take the stage, the typical between-act set-up took place. The roadies carried the instruments on stage, tuned them, and did a short sound check. Then, they returned with bouquets of flowers, which adorned each of the microphone stands. The fact that he performs amidst fresh floral arrangements should’ve been he first hint that Ben Lee isn’t just another singer-songwriter.

Playing a large portion of his latest album, Awake is the New Sleep, Lee showed that his pop music has more potential than may appear at first glance. And while some of the songs are so standardized that you can set your watch by their predictable verse-chorus structures, they function really well in concert. His style creates accessibility for people not familiar with his music, while slight changes to the recorded versions will keep Ben Lee fans listening for nuances.

His on-stage behavior was equally amusing. Whether he was making a joke about how he’d rather be at the G. Love show at First Avenue that evening or walking out into the audience for his encore, the Australian exuded the feeling that he loves doing this night after night. There was little sense of going through the motions on stage, and the gratitude he expressed to the audience seemed genuine.

With a good mixture of contemplative tracks and up-beat numbers, the show was well-paced. Transitioning from softer songs like Lucinda Williams’ “Metal Firecracker” (a duet performed with Sally Seltmann) and “Whatever It Is” to the anthemic “We’re All in This Together” kept the show from becoming stale.

Although the show required nothing from the audience in terms of critical thought, it was thoroughly enjoyable, a chance to relish in the fact that writing a good pop song is an admirable ability.