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Ben Folds’ quirky, endearing stage presence makes him a musician you have to see perform live to truly experience. From his hilarious stories to his energetic style of piano playing, (a little like watching an eight year old kid bang on piano keys with rock star enthusiasm, except that Ben can actually play the hell out of it), he is as much a gifted performer as he is a musician. On the song rockin’ the suburbs, a sarcastic anthem for the middle class white man, Ben beat boxed with impressive skill over the upbeat piano layer. He explained that this song was written in response to all of the musicians who have somehow managed to make a living out of whining and complaining about being famous. Ben is not much of a complainer. In fact, he is able to see the positive side of everything including being called a wussy on the cover of Spin Magazine. Evidently, the band Korn isn’t exactly a fan of Ben Folds Five, although there are many people who could say the same thing about Korn. While in the airport, Ben saw Korn on the cover of Spin with a headline reading, ‘Korn Takes On The Wusses’. Ben thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool. They’re taking on wusses’, and invested his three or four dollars in a copy. When he opened up the pages he saw in bold type something to the effect of, ‘Ben Folds Five sucks. They sound like Cheers music,’ (which Ben said he took as a compliment by the way). Apparently, he and his band mates were the wusses they were referring to. Ben saw the bright side of things though. ‘You have to kiss a lot of ass to get in that magazine and they did it for me. I got my name in there without having to do anything.’ According to Mr. Folds, comments like these have gotten him permanently banned from Spin Magazine who has refused to ever print his name again. ‘It’s nice they can print whatever they want about you but if you say anything about them then they say, (spoken in a little kid pouting tone), ‘We’re not going to put you in our magazine anymore,’ ‘But, I’m doing fine. I’m still here.’ The crowd applauded wildly in support of him while he launched into a cover of the Divinyls hit ‘I Touch Myself’. Performed in a way that only Ben Folds could do it, he played the masturbation theme song in a soft, dead panned, Air Supply meets Elton John sort of way. Brilliant… Other songs Ben performed included 'annie waits', (written from a woman's point of view in response to the Rolling Stones song 'Waiting on a Friend'), 'not the same' (a true story about a friend who took acid at a party, climbed up a tree and came down the next morning a born again Christian) and 'philosophy', (in which Ben forgot the lyrics but recovered quickly). He also played his biggest hit 'Brick', a song he only recently began putting on the set list again. ‘Too many morning DJ’s’ ruined the song for him for a while. He performed the Ben Folds Five song 'Eddie Walker, This is Your Life', written about a friend of Ben’s whom he went to visit in college only to discover his friend was not in college, but instead in a mental institution. While visiting, his friend sat him against a wall while he played Ben a song he had written about his ex-girlfriend who had a restraining order against him. Ben was kind enough to sing us a brief synopsis rendition of the song, which was disturbingly and humorously terrible.
Tori Amos was
the headliner on the bill, but it was obvious Ben had many fans in
the audience. One girl in particular was trying to get Ben to
remove an article of clothing, (yes, he has officially reached
rock star status, although, she didn’t fling her bra at him or flash
him her breasts so…). Either way, if you have a chance to see a
Ben Folds show, you would be crazy not to go. Fun, humorous and
beautifully moving all in one artist. This is the complete live
experience. |
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