Ben Cooper, previously of Electric President, has been making music under the moniker Radical Face since 2003, with his first album released in 2007. His most recent album is set to release next week and is entitled The Family Tree: The Branches.

It’s a very cool thing when you can go to a show familiar with the music and leave more curious about the guy behind the music. That happens at most good shows while wondering where they are from, what inspired which song, etc.; but Sunday’s Radical Face show at Cambridge’s Sinclair left me with more questions than I have for people who claim to enjoy Jack Johnson (seriously, why? How? Are you severely tone-deaf? … But, why?). But at the end of the night, I was left wanting to learn everything there is to know about this man calling his emotionally gutting musical creations Radical Face. I wanted to know why he wrote songs, what specific lines meant to him and what he referenced. You name it: I wanted to fucking know about it. I wanted to get a Ph.D. in Radical Face.

What I left knowing for sure was that this guy isn’t just a musician and songwriter, he is a storyteller, tale-spinner, and an artist at making you feel a certain way with just a chord or well-placed line. The hour-plus set took place on a stage lit by fake candle flames, filled with songs from Cooper’s ten-year catalogue. While those that knew the albums well were met with a slightly more subdued sound than the recorded material due to real instruments rather than drum machines and computers present, each song was prefaced with the inspiration story behind them. These ranged from tales of lost love, to draft dodging and widow-haunting ghosts. The set culminated with a sing-a-long of crowd favorite “Welcome Home” and an encore with a lighthearted and nostalgic cover of “Oo-de-lally” from classic Disney film, Robin Hood.

In the end, the guy in the corner cried, the girl next to me cried, and I cried; we all cried for MORE RADICAL FACE! (Plus, isn’t Radical Face a sick-ass name?)