I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 18, 2016] Ben Folds and a Piano

Back in July, we saw Ben Folds play with yMusic at Steel Stacks in Bethlehem.  We were about ten feet from the stage and it was terrific.  Before the show or perhaps just after, he announced that he’d be doing a solo tour in the fall.  And even though we were literally watching him, I decided to get us tickets for that show as well, because it was going to be just him and his piano.  What could be better?

For this show, at the lovely MayoPAC (the sound was amazing), our seats were much further away.  But unlike with yMusic, this time, he and his piano faced sideways.  And our seats were dead center, so we could watch him bang the hell out of that piano.  We could see every trill, every stomp and every riff. It was a perfect view.

Of course it being a dark theater, I was respectful of my neighbors and took only two pictures and only right after he sat down to start the second set.  Not to mention, a venue like that gives you crap photos anyway…witness the one below.

He started out playing a few rockers (watching him pound the piano keys is so cool since even when he is pounding with his fist (or his arm!), he’s always right in tune somehow).  He opened with “Annie Waits,” one of Sarah’s favorites by him, and one we’d never head before.  It was pretty great and set the tone for a fantastic set.

He complemented our ability to get the “clap” in the song solidly on time.  And because of that, he imagined we’d be up for a four-part harmony challenge.  So when he played “Bastard” he had us do the challenge–four vocals parts for people with different ranges.  It was really fun.  One thing I’ve always admired about Ben is how he really encourages his audience to sing along.  He seems to genuinely want people to sing (not just a cursory scream of the chorus), but like he’s trying to get people I who think the can’t sing to realize that maybe they can.

There was some overlap with the yMusic show, because he’s still pretty excited about the album he made with them.  So he played 4 songs from that album–which sounded different from the versions with the orchestra.  I also assume that he played so many songs from that album because the second half was an all request show, (and he knew that people would be digging deep) but more on that later.

Ben is a fun storyteller, often giving some background on his songs.  He told us that “All U Can Eat” was inspired by a conversation with his dad at a Denny’s or a Perkins (he says things that are really great).  I’d not heard that one live before, so that was a treat.

He also played “Kate,” an old song that invites a singalong (houselights going on) and one he did at Steelstacks.

Ben always makes up a song (or two or three) on the spot.  This time, someone shouted something about Janet Lemansky.  I don’t know who she is.  But he said that he had lived in New Jersey for a little while and then he sang this song about driving around NJ in a VW with Janet Lemansky and the car breaking down. It was really funny and wonderfully spontaneous.  There were enough details to make it sound real, but who knows.

“Effington” sounded better with yMusic because there are orchestral parts to it, but it was fun to hear him play it just on the piano.   And “Landed” sounded fantastic.

He introduced “Not a Fan” with a story about a guy who got backstage at one of his shows a long time ago.  he said “I’m not a fan but my girlfriend is.”  And they wanted to know what Brick was about.  He said he had an idea what it was about and then pulled a knife.  (Nothing bad happened to anyone in the band).  Ben assured us that “Not a Fan” was not about that incident but that it inspired the title.

When he ended the first set he told us that he’d be taking a 15 minute break, during which time everyone was invited to go out the lobby to write a request, and then at the appointed time, everyone could send their paper airplane requests to the stage.  The entire second set would be requests.

he told us that he’d brushed up on about 40 songs and had a binder full of the other 110 songs that he’s written.   He must’ve made a decent educated guess about what people would request.  Sarah and I didn’t even go the lobby, fairly certain that songs we wanted to hear would be requested.  But of course, as soon as he started playing songs I kept thinking of songs I wanted to hear.  But it was great watching him play all the songs that were requested.

He said you could request any song he has recorded, including covers.  Of course I have to ask, why would anyone request a cover song?  I mean, we’re there to hear Ben Folds songs, right?  And while, yes he played an excellent cover of Elton John’s Tiny dancer” (including borrowing someone’s sunglasses for the song), but when he has so many amazing songs, why choose someone else’s?

Someone else wrote to him that she had written a song as a tribute to a woman who was a hero at the Newtown school shooting, and she hoped that they he could hear it and maybe even record it.  He told her to contact him via Twitter and then proceeded to create a song out of the note–picking out the best style and melody to accompany the letter.  And it was really cool–I hope the lady who wrote the letter was honored.

The requests ran the gamut from loud rockers, like “Jackson Cannery,” to slow ballads, like “Alice Childress” (great to hear, although I missed the harmony vocals!).  But despite his brushing up, an audience member (a hilarious woman who ran up the aisle shouting “he took the paper right from my hand!!!” stumped him.  She requested “Lonely Avenue” a song he wrote with Nick Hornby.  He said this was one that he hadn’t played since then.  He got out his book with the lyrics and then noted that the song has a fuckton of notes, and indeed it did.  But he played it perfectly.

The one song that Sarah and I had never heard him play was “The Luckiest.”  I understand that that song has become something of a wedding staple now, but I like to think that we were ahead of the curve when we had it played at our wedding in 2004.  The fact that our reception was just a few miles from the venue made it extra cool.  And he played a really beautiful rendition.

Then he asked for someone from the audience to grab a bunch of requests and curate the last five songs (holy cow, how cool was that?)  And Maria, it turned out, was a rocker (which made me happy because “The Luckiest” is such a beautiful ballad, I didn’t want anything else like it.  It was time to just rock out.

And who doesn’t love singing along to “Song for the Dumped” (again, I would never tale a child to a Ben Folds concert–I hope the cute little girls who were there were their mom weren’t traumatized!

For his last five songs, I imagined some of the most rocking Ben Folds songs I could (I hoped for “Rockin’ the Suburbs” or “One Angry Dwarf,”).  I was not expecting a cover of Dr. Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit.”  He seemed to laugh a lot at the request especially since there were a lot of kids at the show.   He even warned parents that they may want to step outside for this song.  And, most amusing, he said he was really embarrassed about singing the middle verse and asked the two women who requested the to provide the lyrics, which I assume they did as he was smiling as he quietly played and listened to them sing.  It was pretty hilarious, especially as he had us all sing the ending “bitches can’t hang with the streets” and then encouraged “just the kids now” … “sing to your mom and dad” … “on a Sunday Night.”

He left after four of the five songs, so we knew there’d be one more song.  And he ended with “Army,” a  song I never get tired of  hearing live.  And, as always, he got us to sing the “bah bah bahs” as he conducted us. It was a great ending to a fantastic show.  It was an excellent companion show to the one we saw this summer.

Knowing that he is doing an entire set of covers makes me want to see him at other shows too (but I can exercise some restraint).

For some eason, Ben Folds’ fans don’t seem to update his setlists on line very much.  So I’m only going by my memory about this show.  And the one from Bethlehem was never foramlly updated, so it’s all guessed here.