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Archive for the ‘Ben Folds’ Category

Ben Folds and a Piano (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, April 20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Ben Folds, Bethlehem, PA, Wind Creek Event Center on April 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 20, 2024] Ben Folds and a Piano

Two years ago, we saw Ben Folds for the fifth time.  This was at Parx Casino.  And As I wrote then,

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.

For whatever reason, this show didn’t feel as great as the previous ones.  I blame the casino.  And the drunks.

And this show, at another casino, in an auditorium with dicey sound at the best of times, just didn’t seem worth the bother.  I was surprised that neither of us wanted to go, but we both felt the same way.

And this doesn’t matter, really, but his setlist was pretty short too.

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Ben Folds: In Actual Person Live for Real Tour (Xcite Center, Parx Casino, Bensalem, PA, August 27, 2022) [rescheduled]

Posted in Ben Folds, Bensalem, PA, Parx Casino, Xcite Center on August 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[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.

 

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Guster / Ben Kweller (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, January 14, 2021) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Ben Folds, Ben Kweller, Ben Lee, Cancelled, Coronavirus, Guster, Montclair, NJ, Quarantine, Wellmont Theater on January 14, 2022| 2 Comments »

[POSTPONED: January 14, 2021] Guster / Ben Kweller [moved to August 10, 2022]

indexCOME ON!

In March of last year, Guster was supposed to come to NJ to play An Evening of Acoustic Music & Improv–a tour that had been going great.

Then it was cancelled.

The band waited almost a year to reschedule a NJ show–who knows if they were going to do an acoustic show or not.  (Probably not as the last show all tickets were seated).

And then the jackasses who didn’t get vaccinated caused the virus to mutate and infect all of us.

I tested positive last week and tonight was going to be the date I was allowed back into society.  I don’t blame the band for cancelling–literally everyone is catching it.  I blame the idiots who trust Facebook more than science.

Who knows when they’ll want to come back–although come back they will because Guster doesn’t give up!

UPDATE: Until Maryann commented, I didn’t realize (or I forgot) there was a special guest (I didn’t look at this poster very clearly, obviously).  I know Ben Kweller from the compilation The Bens, which has Ben Folds and Ben Lee on it.  I didn’t think I knew much else from Ben Kweller, until I just saw that he sings lead on “I Hope Tomorrow is LIke Today.” which, how did I not know that?

I hope that he is still the opener for the rescheduled date.

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Ben Folds: Live for Real Tour (Xcite Center, Parx Casino, Bensalem, PA, August 28, 2021) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Ben Folds, Bensalem, PA, Coronavirus, Parx Casino, Postponed, Xcite Center on August 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: August 28, 2021] Ben Folds [rescheduled to August 27, 2022]

indexBack 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.

Then on August 13, Ben sent out this message:

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.

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Shaun David Hutchinson–A Complicated Love Story Set in Space (2021)

Posted in Aliens, Ben Folds, Bon Iver, CARM, Coronavirus, Death, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futility, Groundhog Day, Huh?, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Outer Space, Paul Simon, Quarantine, Romance, Set at School, Technology, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, YA Books, yMusic on May 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CARM-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #192 (April 15, 2021).

CJ Camerieri is a co-founder of yMusic, which is how I know him (I saw him perform with Ben Folds).

This is his new project, CARM.  Camerieri is also a member of Paul Simon’s band, a collaborator with Bon Iver and a Tiny Desk alum. (You can hear his French horn with The Tallest Man On Earth from their 2019 Tiny Desk Concert.)

“Soft Night” is the first track and introduces us to what CARM is about.  He plays trumpet while Trever Hagen plays electronics and sets up the melody and drums.  Then Camerieri switches to French horn while Hagen plays some trumpet.  Then in a fun moment, Camerieri picks up the trumpet with his right whole still holding the French horn in his left.  He plays the trumpet melody and then puts down the trumpet and starts on the French horn.  For the rest of this five-minute instrumental, the two jump back and forth playing trumpet riffs and leads as the electronics build satisfyingly.

For CJ Camerieri … home is where the art is. He performed his concert at the Pablo Center in Eau Claire, Wisc., where [he] conceived and recorded all the songs for his 2021 debut solo album, CARM. “This particular community has been a really big part of my musical life for 10 years,” CJ says after playing the calming tune “Soft Night,” “so it seems like the perfect place to be doing this.”

He made “Song of Trouble” with Sufjan Stevens.  They wrote it before the pandemic but the lyrics have taken on new meaning.  S. Carey plays piano and sings.  This is another mellow song with some lovely muted trumpet and simple electronics backing the song.

“Nowhere” is a little stranger.  It opens with jittery trumpet and skittery and loud electronics.  The juxtaposition of the organic horns and the electronic instruments is very cool.

“Slantwise” opens with some rapid and wild drum loops.  Then Camerieri loops the French horn and trumpet giving the song a rather majestic feel.

[READ: May 11, 2021] A Complicated Love Story Set in Space

The librarian in West Windsor recommended this book to my son.  He didn’t read it, but I loved the title and was really interested in reading it.

And wow, did I enjoy it.

I have not read anything by Hutchinson before, so I’m not sure how this compares to his other books, but this was, indeed, a very complicated love story.  In the acknowledgments Hutchinson says that originally the story was called Gays in Space.  And while that is a fun title, I think the final title is wonderfully compelling.

The story opens on Noa.  Noa is a normal teenager from Seattle.  But he has just woken up and he finds himself in a spacesuit, floating outside of a spaceship.  He has no recollection of how he got there.  There’s a note that says “You are in space floating outside a ship called Qriosity.  There is no reason to panic.”

Well, thank goodness for that.

After getting his bearings, a voice speaks to him.  The voice is from a teenaged boy named DJ.  DJ is from Florida and he is aboard the Qriosity.  He also has no idea how he got there.

They are each tasked with a pressing problem and if they don’t fix them immediately, the ship will explode.  Noa panics (as he tends to do) but DJ calms him and talks to him as they work together to fix the ship.  Which they do.  But as Noa is heading to the airlock, his tether is not attached and he is flung from the ship.  He has nowhere near enough oxygen and soon enough, he is dead.

That’s a rough start for the protagonist of the story. (more…)

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Christopher Boucher–“Lady with Invisible Dog” [The 2017 Short Story Advent Calendar #3] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, Alternate Reality, Anachronisms, Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds, Bon Jovi, Bright Eyes, Canadian Content, Christmas, Christmas Album, Christopher Boucher, Coldplay, College, Dan Wilson, Dogs, Huh?, Invisibility, Jack Johnson, Jimmy Eat World, Loreena McKennitt, Meta, Mystery, Oddities, Phantom Planet, Romance, Ron Sexsmith, Sarah McLachlan, Sense Field, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Vanessa Carlton on December 3, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MAYBE THIS CHRISTMAS (2010).

This is one of my favorite Christmas discs.  There’s not a lot of traditional Christmas music on it, but the originals are all either spot-on Christmas songs or at least work nicely for this time of year.  The only song that doesn’t fit is Ben Folds’ which is funny and vulgar.  It is not safe for Christmas and should be skipped in a family setting and saved for the drunken debauchery part of the night.

PHANTOM PLANET-“Winter Wonderland” Back in 2010, Phantom Planet was a kind of buzzy, talked about band (you’ll have to look up why).  But this is a great version of the song, I especially love that it’s kind of rocky and slightly dissonant but still really pretty.

RON SEXSMITH-Maybe This Christmas.
It’s a shame that this series of records is named after this song, which is so forgettable.  I usually like Sexsmith’s stuff, but I can’t keep this song in my head at all.

COLDPLAY-“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Unlike Phantom Planet which was all buzzy when this was recorded, Coldplay had yet to take off and had a small hit with “Yellow.”  It’s interesting to hear this spare version (just Chris Martin singing and playing piano) and how he modifies the words in small ways.

VANESSA CARLTON-“Greensleeves”  This is a lovely version of this song, even if Carlton’s voice is a bit affected (and its technically not a Christmas song in this lyrical version).

BRIGHT EYES-Blue Christmas
This is a nice version of this song, mellow and catchy.

SENSE FIELD-“Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” The more I listen to this song, the more I think it’s really weird.  “The yellow and red ones” (?).

JIMMY EAT WORLD-“12/23/95”
This is a very catchy Jimmy Eat World song (once again, before they got huge for a time).  It’s hard to realize its Christmas-related until late in the song when they mention the holiday.

JACK JOHNSON-“Rudolph”
I love this version of “Rudolph” so much because Johnson tacks on an ending where the other reindeer feel bad of making fun of Rudolph.  And Johnson’s vibe is just always so mellow and chill.

BARENAKED LADIES & SARAH McLACHLAN-“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
This recording is quite old–from 1996.  The artists work very well together and Sarah’s voice sounds great.

BEN FOLDS-“Bizarre Christmas Incident” [NSFC]
Ben played all of the parts himself on this song.  I love Ben and I love when he is funny and vulgar.  But this song which is very vulgar and mildly funny is so out of place on this disc.  You can’t play this for the kids, whereas everything else is totally fine. I might like it on a vulgar CD collection bu I dislike it a lot here.

DAN WILSON-“What a Year for a New Year”
Dan Wilson always writes pretty, catchy songs.  This is a lovely song that seems (possibly) even more appropriate in 2017 than it did in 2002 when he wrote it.

NEIL FINN-“Sweet Secret Peace”
This is a very pretty, delicate song with a wonderful chorus.  It’s not necessarily a Christmas song, but it works at this time of year.

LOREENA MCKENNIT-“Snow”
McKennit’s voice is amazing, and this song is hauntingly beautiful.  It’s a stark and lovely ending to this disc.

[READ: December 14, 2017] “Lady with Invisible Dog”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

This story was pretty bizarre and really wonderful.

There’s so much going on.  And much of it is pretty weird.  The story is set in 1995.  The narrator, Edwin, has had a run-in with a man called “The Narrator.”  And that has set all of the action of the story in motion. (more…)

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Mark Tatulli–Reheated Liō: A Delicious Liō Collection Ready to Devour (2011)

Posted in Aliens, Ben Folds, Birds, Blondie, Bloom County, C., Calvin and Hobbes, Cats, Children's Books, David Foster Wallace, Death, Death Cab For Cutie, Demons, Dennis the Menace, Dogs, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, For Better of For Worse, Foxtrot, Funny (ha ha), Games (Non Video), Hagar the Horrible, Halloween, Holidays, Hospital Ships, Humiliation, Inventions, Liō, Loch Ness Monster, Mad Scientists, Mark Tatulli, Ministry, Nancy, Non Sequitur, Parenting, Peanuts, Pigs, Rats, Shearwater, Squids, Supernatural, Surreal, The Enfield Tennis Academy, The Far Side, The Lockhorns, The Mountain Goats, The Weakerthans, Tiny Desk Concert, Vampires, Yuck!, Zombies on October 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE ENFIELD TENNIS ACADEMY-“My Missing Eye” (2017).

The Enfield Tennis Academy is one of the major locations in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.  So, of course, a band that names itself after it must be listened to.

This is the first release by the band (which states “The Enfield Tennis Academy is TR.”

The bandcamp site describes this song as

“Garbage thrown together on a free trial of Reason. Song’s about missing a fucking eye. Real music soon.”

This is two minutes of noisy instrumental metal math rock.  There’s a lot of different sounds in this two minute song.

It opens with some staccato pummeling sounds–the guitars are interesting in that they sound like they are chords yet ringing out at the same time.  The middle is a really fast pummeling section that reminds me of Ministry.  Those opens stringed chords come back late in the song, and they sound really cool.

I’m curious to see what TETA’s “real music” is going to sound like.

[READ: July 20, 2017] Reheated Liō

I have really enjoyed the Liō books (going forward, I’m leaving off that line over the o, because it’s a real pain).

The strip has been going on for some 12 years now, which is pretty amazing.  And yet, there don’t seem to be any new or recent collections out.

So Lio is strip about a boy named Lio.  Lio is a dark, dark kid.  He has a pet squid, he loves monsters and he’s delighted by chaos.  Over the years his character hasn’t changed much but Tatulli has given him some surprising tenderness, which is a nice trait. (more…)

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Shane Jones–“Defamer” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #20] (2016)

Posted in Ben Folds, Canadian Content, Funny (strange), Guster, Kate McGarrigle, Loudon Wainwright III, Marriage Trouble, Parenting, Philip Glass, Poo, Rufus Wainwright, Sexism, Shane Jones, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk Concert, Work on December 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT-Tiny Desk Concert #237 (August 20, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

rufusPreceding his sister by a few months at the Tiny Desk was Rufus Wainwright.  I love Rufus’ delivery and style.  I really like his voice too.  The problem is I don’t really like his music all that much.  I wish I did, because I love hearing him sing.  But for some reason it doesn’t do anything for me.  We even saw him live (on a bill with Guster and Ben Folds) and left half way through his set because it’s such a different energy than the other two.

But I love this little bit of information about this show:

We’d never tried to squeeze a piano behind the Tiny Desk, but when I saw a chance to have Rufus Wainwright play here, I wouldn’t — and he probably wouldn’t — have had it any other way

That’s particularly funny because now some five years later they have had all kinds of things behind his desk.

He plays three songs on the piano.

“The Art Teacher”is a sad story about, yes an art teacher.  Really listening to the lyrics (full of art references) makes the song come alive.

Before the second song, he says I’m promoting my new album Out of the Game…yes, you may applaud if you wish.  Covers a lot of genres of music, one is, briefly, country.  Today is a lazy hazy day in the South–while we’re near the South.

“Respectable Dive”is a slow song (the country song, but not sounding country here) and again, the lyrics are great.

“Montauk” is about several people.  His daughter Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen and his fiance.  Viva’s bilogical mother is Lorca Cohen who is Leonard Cohen’s daughter.  The last verse is about “my mother, the great Kate McGarrigle” (Rufus’ father is Loudon Wainwright III).

This song is, as the blurb says:

Wainwright at his best. The piano lines flow with forward motion in a Philip Glass way, and there’s also a hauntingly beautiful story. Wainwright sings to his daughter Viva, [imagining her] grown up and visiting her two fathers in Montauk, a small community on the eastern tip of Long Island.

So I am torn between really liking his voice but feeling that his delivery is a little too slow to fully understand the great lyrics.  There’s so much greatness in his stuff, and yet I can’t find my way in.

[READ: December 20, 2016] “Defamer”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

I really liked yesterday’s story and I really liked this one as well, even though it is very different.

This is a the sad story of a woman named Birdie.  Boy oh boy everything goes wrong in her life.  She works at an office.

Big boss takes a four-hour lunch.  He has suffered no major disasters in his life.  [He and his wife plan] their vacation to Maine a year in advance.  This is one way to live.

Birdie works in a corner cubicle near Bog Boss’ office… [She] makes $20,000 a year forwarding emails to people who make $15,000 a year.

Birdie assumes that her boss is having an affair on his four-hour lunches.  But one day she see him during his lunch break working at a deli, frantically making sandwiches for customers.  Nothing makes sense. (more…)

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Ben Folds and a Piano (Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ, September 18, 2016)

Posted in Ben Folds, Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ on September 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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

2016-09-18-22-37-01Back 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. (more…)

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Ben Folds with yMusic (Levitt Pavilion, Steelstacks, Bethlehem, PA, July 16, 2016)

Posted in Ben Folds, Bethlehem, PA, Gracie Folds, Guster, Levitt Pavilion, Regina Spektor, Steelstacks, yMusic on July 15, 2016| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 14, 2016] Ben Folds with yMusic

2016-07-14 22.42.16This was the third time that Sarah and I have seen Ben Folds and he never fails to put on a great show.

Both of the previous times had been as an opening act (and both times were with Guster, interestingly).  So it was great to see him headlining.  I didn’t know a lot about yMusic before the show, but I enjoyed his disc with them So There.  It promised to be a great show.

And since, as I mentioned with Gracie Folds, we were literally three people from the stage, we knew the show would be special. (more…)

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