[ATTENDED: August 27, 2022] Ben Folds [rescheduled from August 28, 2021]
Last year, a few weeks before his scheduled concert, Ben postponed this show (Parx couldn’t comply with his COVID requests). So we waited a year for this show.
I feel like we’ve seen Ben practically a dozen times, but this was only our fifth show.
I thought this would be a great show because Parx is close and easy to get to and I had a great time at the Flaming Lips show here and there was no opening act.
But things were kind of weird right from the start. He was really late coming out. I accept that a start time is fungible, but the lights went down and it took him a solid five minutes to come out. During which time someone loudly made a I’ll bet he had to rush to the bathroom joke which really set the tone.
It’s hard to say is Ben was annoyed, but he seemed to be. He didn’t like the camera set up (one was on the keyboard) and he just didn’t seem as fun as he has in the past.
Of course, he’s professional, so he sounded great and his playing was wonderful.
The crowd around us was weird. It was a much older crowd than a typical show that we go to and I’m guessing a Saturday night show at a casino is going to lend itself to a lot of drunken people. Because the bad behavior was in evidence.
A lot of talking, a lot of singing loudly and a lot of talking back to Ben.
The singing loudly isn’t really a problem per se, especially when he requests it, but when no one else around you is singing and you are singing very loudly, well, that’s pretty rude. But I will admot that everyone sounded quite lovely during the Regina Spector parts of “You Don’t Know Me.”
When somebody shouted the inevitable “Bitches Ain’t Shit” request, Ben sang something about being in a “fucking casino.”
The one genuinely new piece of information we learned was that “Feed Jones Pt.2” is indeed a Pt. 2. It’s not a secret, really, but I never noticed that the song “Cigarette” on Whatever and Ever Amen” is about Fred Jones (its a 90 second song that I probably never really paid attention to). So it was neat that he played these two songs in a row to connect the parts.
But astonishingly, when he played an encore of, “The Luckiest,” a gentle, sad, heartwarming song people actually talked all the way through it. It was really shocking as this is regarded as one of his most beautiful songs.
When we saw him five years ago, he played two sets–one all request. And it wound up being six songs longer than this show. Indeed, when he played Morristown, he played several more songs and even did a New Jersey improv song.
So, for whatever reason, this show didn’t feel as great as the previous ones. I blame the casino. And the drunks.
| (Live and in Person) Bensalem 2021 |
(And a Piano) Morristown, 2016 |
|
|---|---|---|
| So There ⇓ | Annie Waits ® | |
| Annie Waits ® |
The Last Polka 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
| Capable of Anything ⇓ | Capable of Anything ⇓ | |
| Sentimental Guy § | All U Can Eat ‰ | |
| Still Fighting It ® | Effington ⇔ | |
| The Last Polka 5ß (Ben Folds Five song) |
Bastard §
|
|
| Evaporated 5ϖ (Ben Folds Five song) |
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
| Effington ⇔ | Phone in a Pool ⇓ | |
| Landed § |
I’m Not the Man ⇓
(followed by “Song About Janet Lemansky” improv)
|
|
| You Don’t Know Me ⇔ | Landed § | |
| Rock This Bitch ♦ | Give Judy My Notice § | |
| Jesusland § | Not a Fan ⇓ | |
| Cigarette 5ϖ (Ben Folds Five song) |
Encore
|
|
| Fred Jones Pt. 2 ® |
Song for the Dumped 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
|
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
Tiny Dancer
(Elton John cover)
|
|
| Zak and Sara ® |
Alice Childress 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
|
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
Don’t Change Your Plans 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
| Encore |
Emaline 5Õ
(Ben Folds Five song) (followed by “Newtown’ improv)
|
|
| The Luckiest ® | Doc Pomus Ø | |
| The Luckiest ® | ||
|
Jackson Cannery 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
||
| Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head) ⇔ | ||
|
Bitches Ain’t Shit
(Dr. Dre cover)
|
||
|
Philosophy 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
||
| encore 2 | ||
|
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
| Bethlehem with y music 2016 | Ben Folds Five Holmdel 2013 |
Starland Ballroom 2004 |
|---|---|---|
|
Beautiful Mechanical
(yMusic cover)
|
Philosophy 5ß | Hiro’s Song ® |
| So There ⇓ | Michael Praytor, Five Years Later 5§ | Zak and Sara ® |
| Capable of Anything ⇓ | Alice Childress 5ß | Annie Waits ® |
|
Rock This Bitch
(about SteelStacks)
|
Erase Me 5§ | All U Can Eat ‰ |
| Phone in a Pool ⇓ | Landed § | Late § |
|
Music in Circles
(yMusic cover)
|
Brick ϖ |
Careless Whisper
(George Michael cover) (with Rufus Wainwright)
|
| Still Fighting It ® | Sky High 5§ | Philosophy 5ß |
| Not a Fan ⇓ | Do It Anyway 5§ | Gone ® |
| Effington ⇔ | Underground 5ß |
Where’s Summer B.? 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
Erase Me 5§
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
Song for the Dumped 5ß | Rockin’ the Suburbs ® |
| Jesusland § | Army 5⊗ | Army 5⊗ |
|
Improvisation
(No “Bitches Ain’t Shit” Tonight)
|
Steven’s Last Night in Town 5ϖ (This included a drum battle with Brian Rosenworcel of Guster) |
|
| I’m Not the Man ⇓ |
Fair 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song) (with Guster) |
|
|
Boxing 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song) |
Not the Same ® | |
|
Song for the Dumped 5ß
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
Encore | |
|
Steven’s Last Night in Town 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
Short Bus Benny | |
| Encore |
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
|
|
Landed §
|
||
|
Kate 5ϖ
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
||
|
You Don’t Know Me ⇔
|
||
|
Army 5⊗
(Ben Folds Five song)
|
® Rockin’ the Suburbs
§ Songs for Silverman
⇓ So There
⇔ Way to Normal
♦ Live
Ø Lonely Avenue
‰ Sunny 16 EP
5§ The Sound of the Life of the Mind
5ß Ben Folds Five
5ϖ Whatever and Ever Amen
5⊗ The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
5Õ Naked Baby Photos
Ben Folds announced he was doing a new solo tour. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold MessnerI grabbed tickets for myself and S. Initially we considered going to the Mayo Center, but that show was right during the first few weeks of school and that’s chaotic enough. So this show, which was just before school started seemed like a fun way to say goodbye to the summer.
Then
Update On My Fall 2021 Tour.
Here are new COVID protocols for my upcoming indoor concerts:
You will be asked for proof of vaccination, and masks will be required at all times inside venues for any indoor shows I perform in 2021.
My York, PA show on August 27 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.
My Bensalem, PA show on August 28 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.
And the venue sent us
Dear Ben Folds fans, out of concern for the health and well–being of the community, his audiences, venue staff, and his crew, Ben Folds is instituting a vaccine mandate and requiring mask wearing for his upcoming tour.Due to this decision once most tickets had been sold for the August, 28 performance here in Bensalem, working in cooperation with Mr. Folds, the difficult decision has been made to postpone his concert in the Xcite Center until Saturday, August 27, 2022 rather than try to retroactively impose this policy after tickets had been sold.
To be honest, it has been a hectic couple of weeks and not having to go out is really not a bad thing. So we’ll see him next year.
Back in May, Ben Folds announced he was doing a new solo tour. I grabbed tickets for myself and S. Initially we considered going to the Mayo Center, but that show was right during the first few weeks of school and that’s chaotic enough. So this show, which was just before school started seemed like a fun way to say goodbye to the summer.
