Waiting on Ben is Cincinnati’s quintessential “flex-rock” band. Named after frontman, Ben Alexander’s “alarm clock malfunction” before a gig one evening, this revolving cast of players is as diverse in its lineup as it is in its style. Actually, the ONLY consistent elements are: Ben Alexander, a microphone, and six guitar strings.“After that, you never know who’s gonna be there!” says Ben, “I only have three rules about being in this band: You gotta be extremely reliable and
Waiting on Ben is Cincinnati’s quintessential “flex-rock” band. Named after frontman, Ben Alexander’s “alarm clock malfunction” before a gig one evening, this revolving cast of players is as diverse in its lineup as it is in its style. Actually, the ONLY consistent elements are: Ben Alexander, a microphone, and six guitar strings.
“After that, you never know who’s gonna be there!” says Ben, “I only have three rules about being in this band: You gotta be extremely reliable and loyal. You gotta be willing and able to sing. And you gotta be a whole lot better than me. I wanna be the worst guy in the band.”
So far, nobody’s contesting that!
Ben Alexander’s musical style has been compared to that of other acoustic-electric based singer/songwriters such as John Mayer, James Taylor, Dave Matthews, and Jason Mraz. But Ben, with a smile, modestly describes it as “music that you can crank up the volume if you want, but don’t necessarily have to turn it down when Mom comes in the room.” His listeners would probably say Ben failed to mention intuitive songwriting with well crafted hooks, solid guitar work, and sing-along lyrics dealing with the ups and downs of life, love, fears, frustrations, and the appreciation of the beauty of our surroundings.
Ben has played over 800 shows, released five independent cds, created a growing local following, and slowly built up his revolving cast of band members. Today, Waiting on Ben is: Devon Leigh (drums, percussion), Mark Rudy (drums, trumpet), Kristing Agee (percussion, drums, vocals), Jude Hayden (bass, guitars, melodica, vocals), Jon Lattier (bass, guitars, flute, vocals), Dave Swift (saxophones, keyboards, vocals), Daniel Martens (keyboards, vocals), Carlos Vargas (guitars, vocals), Tony Birckhead (guitars, vocals), Paul Alexander (guitars, percussion, harmonicas, vocals).....and of course, Ben Alexander (guitars, harmonicas, vocals).