Went to see Ben Folds in SUNY Brockport. Was freakin awesome, but I have to get to work. More details will follow soon- here they are!
Oh but first. Yeah I threw that DVD on stage. I was trying to get Ben’s attention like all night but no luck so in the end I threw it. It broke apart. And he stepped over it. ouch. I made that DVD all myself. Oh well. Sucks to be me unless some nice stage hand picked it up and gave it to Ben. Which I’m not holding my breath for. At least I can describe to you why I liked the concert so much. I’ll try to go over some of the parts I remember about the concert in some kind of order. I thought we would be in seats there but nope, we were let in to the gym all empty and we ended up standing all evening. This was probably the only bad thing of the night and it didn’t bother me too much. The Fray opened for Ben. They were okay, nothing super, nothing terrible. I bouced a little.
Then we waited like FOREVER to see Ben. Or maybe just a few agonizing minutes. They cut all the lights FAST and shone some blue ones up on stage to tease us while the into music played. The music was from the Jesus Christ Superstar overture. I feel this might have been a nod to The Beatles stunt where they claimed to be bigger than Jesus Christ. Or just coincidence. So at the end of this they (Ben and two bandmates Jared and Lindsay) come out on stage. All in the place cheer and scream and clap. Then they launch into “Bastard” and continue to rock all night or nearly that. He did a set by himself without the drummer or bassist, and also did a set of slow songs.
During several songs he sung a da da da line to the audience and delegated parts to us like a choir. And we all faithfully sang what he gave us. First we did “Army” providing the wordless part that sounds like fake horns right before “in this time of introspection” in two parts. That sounded very nice indeed. Then he coached us in the ah-ahhh chord for “Not the Same” which he did as encore. Three parts this time, at the end of which he stops to have us sing the chord a few more times faster and slower following his conducting. He’s grinning the whole time, it must have felt so wicked awesome to have so mang people hanging on that up and down hand movement he was doing. Then someone calls out something and Ben says, “On the piano?” and climbs right up. So he’s conducting the whole audience from up there. Again, must have been magical.
He did “Rockin the Suburbs” near the end when his band was on again. I believe that when the song had it’s major curse he actually just shut up the first time and let the audience sing it. I love the way the song sounds but I’ve never been big on the cursing. That was also the one in which he stepped away from the piano to play the bass for a minute. Among the solo set he did “lullaby” which helped me fall in love with my then friend, now husband, Daniel. And he did “Last Polka” which has some ridiculously cool piano stuff; fast runs up the keys and heavy pounded chords. This sort of thing really showcased his prowess at the piano. I took some piano in grade school and again in high school so I can appreciate how hard it is and how hard Ben must work at it.
I remember that in the song “You to Thank” he said drugs instead of buzz, but I only noticed because it is on my new favorites playlist which I have memorized every word of. Then “Philosophy” which has not the rhapsody in blue riff but something else I’m googling as Misirlou. Sounded great anyway. Thinking back on the concert I determined that paying $20 was the same as two movies I could have seen, only this was WAY better. And a Ben Folds concert is worth at least 4 or 5 of the Lord of the Rings or original Star Wars movies. So I got a good deal. If only I knew for sure what happened to my DVD…
(additional memory here added 4/6/06)
It was at the end of Army when the line says, “I thought about- the army” Instead he sang, “I thought about- Shelby.” I believe she was one of the coordinators of the event. He had thanked her at an earlier part of the program.