“I was going to the write a song about always being right, but my mom told me, ‘Don’t lie to people,’ so I wrote a song about being wrong,” Ben Taylor told a small but mesmerized audience at The State Theatre last night.
Taylor, whose parents are Carly Simon and James Taylor, came from a strong musical background and it showed during his performance.
Opening act Grace Weber and Taylor drew a predominately older crowd at The State Theatre for their fourth stop on their tour.
Weber, singer-songwriter originally from Wisconsin, sang several emotion-evoking songs either fit for a romantic movie montage or a night for crying when listening to Adele doesn’t do the trick.
“She was awesome, a lyrical genius,” Alex Scudder (junior-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) said. “The pianist with her was incredible too.”
Scudder came to the concert with friend and mutual fan of Taylor, Kristina Polachak (junior-psychology) after walking by the Taylor poster outside of the State Theatre.
“We’re surprised to see an older generation here though, I guess adults like the theatre atmosphere, but I could see more students being here,” Scudder said.
Travis DeCastro (senior-bio-engineering and music technology) worked the box office and speculated for a larger turn out than about 145 people.
“Maybe there is less people because it is closer to midterms,” DeCastro said, “but Ben Taylor is well-known and established so we were expecting more but its still a good turn out.”
However, size of the audience is not always an indication of how devoted the fans are or how interested the audience is in the performer’s craft.
As soon as Joe Pillot (junior-integrative arts) heard Taylor was coming to the Theatre he said he had to come see him.
“I started listening to him sophomore year of high school and I like that he doesn’t do the same thing as his parents because he’s got his own unique style and vocal arrangements,” Pillot said.
When Taylor came on to the stage, he casually took a seat donning shaded glasses with a guitar in hand.
Two guitarists and a drummer joined Taylor and the band spent the rest of the night telling warm anecdotes about how each song before performing them.
After seeing OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” music video on MTV years ago, Taylor said he wondered why sensitive singer songwriters had to beat around the bush when singing about girls, so he wrote a song with a similar message.
“I just wanna have my wicket way with you, so don’t you fight it, cause I know you’re gunna like it…” Taylor crooned away with his band.
