Last Saturday New Ground Booking and Concert Works presented A Celebration Of The Life Of Ben Sir at the Starlite Room in Edmonton. This was also a record release show for Worst Days Down album "Stay Innocent".
For those that don't know who Ben Sir was, he was an Edmonton musician who fronted the band Worst Days Down. He was also a bartender at The Buck on Whyte Avenue. Sadly Ben passed away in April of 2023 in Vancouver. Ben was an absolutely amazing human being. I first met Ben when I saw him do an afternoon solo show at the Pawn Shop in March of 2012. Ben and four other artists played that afternoon, with Ben being my favourite of the artists that played. I got talking to Ben after his set and instantly felt a connection with the man. Not only did his music strike a chord with me, but so did his kindness, demeanor and generosity. At that show Ben gave me a CD he had recorded as Worst Days Down and a t-shirt all for free. You just felt like you got sucked into the orbit of Ben. It was about a year later that I visited a new bar on Whyte Ave. (The Buck) and met Ben again bartending there. We got talking and he had remembered me from the show. My Cuz and I would visit the bar every once in a while and every time we did, Ben always served us a free pint of beer and took the time to chat. Lots of times we would just go there for one beer and end up staying for more then just the one as it was always fun to talk with Ben and just hangout and talk music and what he and his band were up to. Eventually I got out to see him perform solo shows and shows with his excellent band Worst Days Down. After years of this, I got to see how Ben treated everyone, he was just the coolest most down to earth guy. No wonder he had such a great following in Edmonton and beyond.
A picture from the first time I saw Ben perform (far left) in March of 2012.
Anyways, last Saturday my buddy A-Bomb and I went to the Celebration Of The Life Of Ben Sir show. This show had an early start as there were nine bands on the bill. We got there a little late, missing the first two bands. All the bands and artists on the bill had a connection with Ben. I wasn't sure how this show was going to be, was it going to be sad and heavy on the heart. It had it's moments but for the most part it was a celebration of Ben Sir. Some great stories about Ben and a shit load of bands. Most of these bands I had never seen before, but that didn't matter as I was there to celebrate Ben.
The first band we caught was Edmonton band Medical Pilot. I had never seen them before. They had an alt 90's kind of sound and were alright.
Next up was KJ Jansen of Calgary band Chixdiggit. KJ did a fun solo acoustic set playing such songs as "Spanish Fever" and "I Wanna Hump You". KJ had the audience singing along to these two songs. KJ's set was fun with some good stories about Ben.
Next up was Chris Cresswell of the Toronto band The Flatliners. I'm not familiar with his music but have to say I enjoyed his solo set very much, and again some great stories about Ben. By the time Chris hit the stage the venue was packed. With the weather outside being near minus 30 degrees Celsius, it was good to see so many people out at the show.
Next up was the Vancouver band Schedule 1. I was ready for some loud music after two acoustic sets. But have to say Schedule 1's post-punk style of music wasn't much to my liking.
Next band up was the Edmonton punk band Choke, who has been doing shows off and on for the past couple years. A band that has been around since 1994. I don't know much about them but thought they were alright.
Next up was the punk band Strike Anywhere from Richmond, Virginia. Again, another band I didn't know much about until I heard the line up for this show. I had heard the name for years but had never listened to them before. So, of course I listened to a few albums before the show and thought they were alright. Live they were pretty good, high energy, political slant to there lyrics. Overall I liked them.
It was finally time for the headliners Worst Days Down, of course this was going to be a whole lot different without Ben Sir fronting the band. This show was the album release for the album "Stay Innocent" that Ben and the guys were putting together before his passing. they only had three songs recorded which are all on this album, but there is some demo versions of some older songs and such as well.
For the live gig this night, Ben's brother Ethan (Henry Sir he also goes by as a stand up comedian) was sitting in on guitar and vocals. I can't imagine how hard it was to play and sing these songs for all the members in the group. But they pulled it off very well, with guest vocalists through out the hour long set.
Worst Days Down opened their set with the song "Fumes" from their album Elsewhere with Ethan on vocals. What a heavy song to open with, had me tearing up a few times during this song. The lyrics just have a whole different feel to them now. But they pulled it off very well. I wish I knew the names of all the guest vocalists through the set, but I don't. One of the guests was a gentleman by the name of Ben Olson , he was great, as all of them were, but I really liked his energy and vocal style. Chris Cresswell joined the band for the song "A Song For David" that hits hard as well. They also played a couple of the new songs "Stay Innocent", "Carrol And Cordova" which was amazing. And to end the set it was just the band with Ethan on guitar and vocals belting out the song "Entropy", again from the album Elsewhere. They fucking rocked this one out, indeed there were some heavy hearts in the city again. Nice to see that even almost two years after your passing Ben, you are still bringing people together through music and with the crowd that showed up, how awesome of a person you were. We miss you Ben Sir!!!!
All proceeds from this show went to two causes that meant a lot to Ben.
The iHuman Youth Society and Save the Manatee. And anyone that knew Ben well knows how much he loved Manatees.
Pin I bought at the show.
T-shirt
The Worst Days Down album "Stay Innocent".
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Last but not least, checkout Ben's brother Ethan aka Henry Sir's stand up comedy by clicking here.
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