Last Saturday night, Ben Harper stole kisses from a packed house at the American Theater. Dressed in jeans and a simple red-plaid shirt, Harper walked onstage, joined by the Innocent Criminals, to a roaring and enthusiastic St. Louis fan base.

He sat down among his Persian rugs and burning candles and began to play and play and play. In a fairy-tale world, he would never have had to stop.

Whether a die-hard fan or a hit-single addict, it’s hard to imagine that anyone went home disappointed, except from a remaining disgust from the show’s opener Project Logic.

Favorites like “Gold To Me” and “Burn One Down” brought fans new and old to the aisles dancing while new songs like “Burn To Shine” rocked the house as well.

Even in the shadows of Harper’s mastery of the guitar, bassist Juan Nelson, drummer Dean Butterworth and percussionist David Leach each found his way to shine. In many cases, a strictly guitar and drum group would come off overpowering in a live show setting if their recorded works demonstrate a solid balance.

For Harper and his Innocent Criminals, this just wasn’t the case. As musicians, they knew the limits of their instruments and came together as a whole to continually push the band’s sound to the breaking point when music loses its harmony and lands in mediocrity.

Their ability to push their recorded sound in a live setting only served to make it stronger and support the passion of their lyrics.

When Harper tilted his head back, closed his eyes and belted out his song, you could feel the experiences and thoughts that were written in the lyrics and the music.

However, the band played not only to the sense of sound but also to sight. The tech crew solved the continual challenge of lighting to enhance the show not detract from it.

Perhaps it was new stage technology, but the lights seemed to follow musical cues such as Harper’s voice, or the syncopated rhythm of the bongos rather than a series of computer-programmed lighting schemes.

The show consisted of two sets, the first of which featured the entire band and distinctive rock feel. Highlights of the first set included the band’s performance of “Woman In You,” a single from the new album Burn To Shine and the set’s closer “Steal My Kisses.”

They delivered a live version of “Woman in You” that will forever stand out in the band’s performance history.

The song opened with a soft, longing lull played by Harper that transformed into an unusual musical wail for female understanding that fit perfectly.

The intro powerfully exploded into a rich guitar and drum jam session packed with rifts that continued to push the envelope.

The band closed out the set with the radio hit “Steal My Kisses.” Nick Rich, the human beat box, joined Harper and The Innocent Criminals for an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser.

The syncopated rhythm ran so deeply in the composition of the song that at one point Rich carried the tune single-handedly as the rest of the band joined the audience by keeping the beat.

The full band was great, but when Harper returned to the stage for a shorter solo set it was phenomenal. Harper strummed on his guitar creating a lullaby effect on the crowd.

The theater became so quiet that you could have heard the tears falling. It was as if the guitar version of the pied piper had come to take away anyone willing to listen. For a moment, it felt as if Harper was sitting in a living room playing because he loved to play but had decided to invite some friends in to listen.

After introducing “Power Of The Gospel” from Fight For Your Mind explaining his personal faith and his stance on religion, it would be hard to believe that every member of the audience didn’t feel as if they’d found a close friend.

Harper said that during his travels as a musician people often stopped to question him about his personal faith.

In classic Ben Harper style, he explained to his audience that faith was a personal thing that he had and would continue to spend his life defining.

He continued on with his candid definition of faith by commenting that the different religions of the world were man-made not created by God.

Harper encouraged everyone to simply be brave enough to believe in something whether it was the Almighty of the Christians or that of the Buddists.

For a guy who only needs a guitar to be at home, his philosophy of faith and religion fits perfectly.

As a special treat for being so quiet, St. Louis fans were blessed with an extra solo performance. The solo set featured acoustic hits such as “Waiting On An Angel” and “Mister, Mister.”

As a final thought, Harper thanked his fans for listening. According to Harper, the band receives very little audio and video time and the fan base that has come to love Harper and The Innocent Criminals grew simply from word of mouth.

The 2000 world tour combines Harper’s newer full-band sound with the older solo acoustic style that he started with. Together the two sounds combined to form a show that concert goers will forever remember-at least those of us who knew that the only way to spend last Saturday night was with Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals.

Give the man a guitar and he’ll steal your heart and mesmerize your soul-all it takes is one evening and you’ll be a fan for life.