Concert Review: Ben Howard Feels Like Autumn At Manhattan Hammerstein

In his Manhattan Hammerstein concert, Ben Howard felt like all those moments when you stayed under the covers, closed off all the drapes, and shut your eyes to enter your imagination. You didn’t fall asleep, but you stayed quiet and still enough to to think and let your mind take its course while your spirit rested. Howard’s music are like the visions you get that are worth remembering. 

In some ways, we are all creatives. Churning in our heads the memories and perceptions that build our life. Howard’s music flowed like clips building and explaining how a human being works to create his/her own story. From “Evergreen” to “Towing The Line” his songs pixelated like home movies, with his image pixelating behind him, and the crowd hugged them both with nostalgia.  It is a strange exhilaration to have a quiet, moody song hit you like adrenaline, but that is the power of Ben Howard; he makes a good, sad song strike your heart like an energy force. Hence, your body has to move because your should has shifted. 
Ben Howard – Nica Libres At Dusk

“Small Things,” “The Defeat,” and “Sister” might as well have been episodes from This Is Us. They played with beauty, tragedy, and a self-awareness that certain moments in life do change who you are. For better or worse, there are experiences that alter your being, and your job, as a soul, is to make sure its for the better, even if such a healing feat takes awhile. Hence, you appreciate Howard’s stilling presence; barely moving beyond the strike of his fingers upon his guitar or the motions of his mouth to release a guttering, glorious voice. The man rakes lyrics like the leaves of Fall, and helps you ponder how something so green and vibrant became stale and crushed under passing boots. 

In life, there are moments when we will feel so wonderful, we truly see ourselves as a part of nature. Then, like the leaves, we will also feel so low that lying down on the sidewalk seems appropriate. For either feeling, Ben Howard’s songs bridge how they can transition to each other. From “What The Moon Does” to “Agatha’s Song,”  his tracks were the smoothest, most poetic explanations for life’s turns, and it was magnificent such a massive crowd take that in. For an instance, nobody felt alone in being lonely, and Ben Howard’s show did that. For More Information on Ben Howard Click Here.