While some students spent a romantic Valentine’s evening alone with their significant others, about 1,500 others crowded into Patten Gymnasium to be serenaded by Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals.

Harper and his band played a sold-out concert Wednesday night at an event sponsored by A&O Productions.

After Jack Johnson’s well-accepted opening performance, the audience stood through stifling body heat until the main act took the stage.

The folk-rocker’s fast-paced music kept the already sweaty crowd moving. Harper switched between various styles of guitars between songs, including a two-necked guitar and a Weissenborn – a hollow-neck lap guitar.

The audience clapped and sang along to songs such as “Mama’s Got a Girlfriend Now” and “Burn One Down.”

Harper heightened his fans’ enthusiasm when he played an intense Weissenborn solo dramatized by a backdrop of flashing neon lights. Audience members danced in their places, and the singer inspired a few brave students to crowd-surf.

“Who’s here with their valentine?” Harper asked before breaking into a few slower-paced melodies. Harper played his popular hit, “Steal My Kisses,” before getting up from his seat and dancing his way off the stage.

The crowd stomped their feet, clapped their hands and waved lighters above their heads, urging Harper to come back for an encore.

To their delight, he returned for a few more solos.

“I’m going to play a brand new song for the very first time,” he announced. Harper sang a ballad entitled “When She Believes” and another soulful love song before leaving the stage again. But the show still wasn’t over.

Harper returned a second time with The Innocent Criminals to play one last set. He thanked the audience for not chatting during his concluding songs.

“Some people want to get inside the music,” he said. Harper then shared his philosophy on faith.

“Faith is not a way of talking,” he said. “It’s more a way of walking.”

Harper then encouraged students not to let others tell them what to believe.

“Just believe what you feel,” he said.

Harper performed his own rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.” He then jumped into the still-energetic crowd before he and his band left the stage one last time.

Robby Berliner, a Speech freshman, was lucky enough to catch a drumstick flung by one of the band’s drummers. Berliner said the concert was one of the best he had ever seen.

“The energy was non-stop,” he said. “I hope they can come back again.”

Speech sophomore Erica Singer also said she enjoyed the performance.

Ethelbert Williams, a Medill senior, said the concert was a Valentine’s Day present for his best friends.

“We wanted to go out because we were all single and we wanted to hang out,” he said.