Review: Ben Folds Has Audience In The Palm Of His Hand
October 6, 2016 at 4:00 p.m.
By David [email protected]
All night it was just Folds and his piano, and he banged away at it like an artistic madman, enthralling the audience every minute of the night. It was unfortunate the night had to end.
Before coming out on stage, Three Dog Night’s song “One (Is the Loneliest Number)” played over the sound system, setting a cool, laid-back vibe. He walked out and immediately began with his song “Phone in a Pool.”
It was an appropriate first song as opening lyrics are: “Take it easy, take it slow, oh / Get on with the show, ah / That's what I know / I woke in a cold sweat last night / Seems what's been good for the music /Hasn't always been so good for the life.”
After the enthusiastic applause – which Folds got throughout the entire two-hour show – he went into a song I was more familiar with, “Annie Waits,” and then said his first words to the crowd.
“Thanks for coming,” he said. “I’m pretty much going to do this. Play songs I made up, and I made up a lot of them. So I’m going to keep playing.”
Folds is not a performer who just sits and plays at the piano. He’s an entertainer who tells stories, just like his songs tell stories. He interacts with the crowd and comes across very pleasant, social and friendly. He makes the audience feel like they’re sitting around in his living room listening to him play.
In the first half of the show, he chose to perform a few songs that I wasn’t expecting to hear, but was glad he did. The first of such songs was “Selfless, Cold and Composed.” It’s about a break-up where Folds’ ex plays nice about the end of their relationship, even though Folds just wants her to hit him instead of being so cold.
The audience was just as interactive with Folds as he was with them. That interplay between him and the crowd was evident throughout the entire night, but one of my favorite spots was during the first line of the song “Effington.”
Folds sang, “If there’s a God, he is laughing at us,” and the crowd finished the line with “and our football team.”
Before going into his next song – which I was not familiar with, but liked a lot – Folds said, “Here’s a song I wrote for Al Pacino to sing in a movie and he didn’t.” Folds talked about how the song fit into the movie about an aging rocker who was a one-hit wonder and was trying to get his career back on track.
The song – which I want to find a copy of somewhere because I don’t think I have it on any of Folds’ CDs – is titled “I’m Not the Man.” It’s very introspective.
It begins, “What will they write about me? / What will the version be when all is said and done? / Will they remember all of the places seen, the poems lost / Or am I just wondering on? / Yeah, I’m just wondering on.”
There were two songs where Folds had the audience sing parts. The first was the song “Bastard,” and toward the end of the number, he stopped playing piano, got up from his seat and directed the chorus of voices before finishing.
Folds explained that he wrote the song when he was really into a Lauryn Hill record and the song was his idea of a Lauryn Hill song.
The audience did really well singing its part, and it seemed like Folds was genuinely impressed.
For the next song, he had another story about how the song came to be. It was sparked around 1998 when a guy got through security and told Folds, “I’m not a fan, but my girlfriend is. That ‘Brick’ song, I was wondering what it was about.” Fold said he replied, “I said I wrote it so I didn’t have to talk about it.”
All of a sudden, security grabbed him. Apparently, the guy had pulled a knife, which Folds didn’t know about until he saw the guy dragged away. But throughout his career, he said he still gets people who tell him they’re not a fan.
“I probably should have played it than tell the story, but you wouldn’t have got the knife part, which was interesting,” Folds commented before playing his song “Not a Fan.”
After Tuesday night’s performance at the Honeywell Center, how could one not be a fan though? Amazing performance.
On my way to Wabash Tuesday, I was listening to a mix of Folds songs on my phone. One that I listened to and really like is “Landed,” so I was pleased to hear him sing that song next.
It reminds me of a friend and some of the relationships with women he’s had. The lyrics include: “The daily dramas she made from nothing / So nothing ever made them right / She liked to push me and talk me back down / Until I believed I was the crazy one / and in a way / I guess I was.”
Then the night got really interesting. Before playing the last song before intermission, Folds told the audience how the rest of the night was going to happen.
He was going to play the song – “Zak and Sara,” wave and exit stage left. The lights were going to come on, and then everyone was to go into the lobby and write a song request on a piece of paper. To get the requests to Folds, he told everyone to fold their paper up into paper airplanes. After a countdown of 10, everyone was to fly their paper airplanes onto the stage. The rest of the set list would be based on which airplanes he picked up and the requests they had on them. It was the best way I’ve ever seen for a musical artist to take song requests.
The first plane had John Lennon’s “Imagine” on it, but Folds didn’t know all the words and chords, so he didn’t count that as the 10 songs for the second half. The next paper plane had a Folds classic, “The Luckiest,” on it, followed by songs like “Losing Lisa,” “Gracie” and “Kate.”
One particular request was for Folds to “make up a song on the spot so we can share in the creative memory.” Using the same words from that request, Folds entertained the audience with several different musical rendtions. The crowd ate it up.
After playing one of my Folds favorites, “Jesusland,” Folds asked the audience how many songs he had played. I’m pretty sure it was closer to 10, but everyone shouted out numbers like “one” or “three.”
The last song Folds sang was “Jackson Cannery,” but the audience – myself included – wanted one more. So for the encore, thanks to another paper airplane, Folds played the one song I also had requested on my paper airplane, though it wasn’t my piece of paper.
As soon as he began singing “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces,” I knew the concert was ending perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better show, a better concert, a better night. It was perfect.
Folds rocks the piano much like Billy Joel and Elton John and should be considered just as highly in my book. I hope to see his show again.
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All night it was just Folds and his piano, and he banged away at it like an artistic madman, enthralling the audience every minute of the night. It was unfortunate the night had to end.
Before coming out on stage, Three Dog Night’s song “One (Is the Loneliest Number)” played over the sound system, setting a cool, laid-back vibe. He walked out and immediately began with his song “Phone in a Pool.”
It was an appropriate first song as opening lyrics are: “Take it easy, take it slow, oh / Get on with the show, ah / That's what I know / I woke in a cold sweat last night / Seems what's been good for the music /Hasn't always been so good for the life.”
After the enthusiastic applause – which Folds got throughout the entire two-hour show – he went into a song I was more familiar with, “Annie Waits,” and then said his first words to the crowd.
“Thanks for coming,” he said. “I’m pretty much going to do this. Play songs I made up, and I made up a lot of them. So I’m going to keep playing.”
Folds is not a performer who just sits and plays at the piano. He’s an entertainer who tells stories, just like his songs tell stories. He interacts with the crowd and comes across very pleasant, social and friendly. He makes the audience feel like they’re sitting around in his living room listening to him play.
In the first half of the show, he chose to perform a few songs that I wasn’t expecting to hear, but was glad he did. The first of such songs was “Selfless, Cold and Composed.” It’s about a break-up where Folds’ ex plays nice about the end of their relationship, even though Folds just wants her to hit him instead of being so cold.
The audience was just as interactive with Folds as he was with them. That interplay between him and the crowd was evident throughout the entire night, but one of my favorite spots was during the first line of the song “Effington.”
Folds sang, “If there’s a God, he is laughing at us,” and the crowd finished the line with “and our football team.”
Before going into his next song – which I was not familiar with, but liked a lot – Folds said, “Here’s a song I wrote for Al Pacino to sing in a movie and he didn’t.” Folds talked about how the song fit into the movie about an aging rocker who was a one-hit wonder and was trying to get his career back on track.
The song – which I want to find a copy of somewhere because I don’t think I have it on any of Folds’ CDs – is titled “I’m Not the Man.” It’s very introspective.
It begins, “What will they write about me? / What will the version be when all is said and done? / Will they remember all of the places seen, the poems lost / Or am I just wondering on? / Yeah, I’m just wondering on.”
There were two songs where Folds had the audience sing parts. The first was the song “Bastard,” and toward the end of the number, he stopped playing piano, got up from his seat and directed the chorus of voices before finishing.
Folds explained that he wrote the song when he was really into a Lauryn Hill record and the song was his idea of a Lauryn Hill song.
The audience did really well singing its part, and it seemed like Folds was genuinely impressed.
For the next song, he had another story about how the song came to be. It was sparked around 1998 when a guy got through security and told Folds, “I’m not a fan, but my girlfriend is. That ‘Brick’ song, I was wondering what it was about.” Fold said he replied, “I said I wrote it so I didn’t have to talk about it.”
All of a sudden, security grabbed him. Apparently, the guy had pulled a knife, which Folds didn’t know about until he saw the guy dragged away. But throughout his career, he said he still gets people who tell him they’re not a fan.
“I probably should have played it than tell the story, but you wouldn’t have got the knife part, which was interesting,” Folds commented before playing his song “Not a Fan.”
After Tuesday night’s performance at the Honeywell Center, how could one not be a fan though? Amazing performance.
On my way to Wabash Tuesday, I was listening to a mix of Folds songs on my phone. One that I listened to and really like is “Landed,” so I was pleased to hear him sing that song next.
It reminds me of a friend and some of the relationships with women he’s had. The lyrics include: “The daily dramas she made from nothing / So nothing ever made them right / She liked to push me and talk me back down / Until I believed I was the crazy one / and in a way / I guess I was.”
Then the night got really interesting. Before playing the last song before intermission, Folds told the audience how the rest of the night was going to happen.
He was going to play the song – “Zak and Sara,” wave and exit stage left. The lights were going to come on, and then everyone was to go into the lobby and write a song request on a piece of paper. To get the requests to Folds, he told everyone to fold their paper up into paper airplanes. After a countdown of 10, everyone was to fly their paper airplanes onto the stage. The rest of the set list would be based on which airplanes he picked up and the requests they had on them. It was the best way I’ve ever seen for a musical artist to take song requests.
The first plane had John Lennon’s “Imagine” on it, but Folds didn’t know all the words and chords, so he didn’t count that as the 10 songs for the second half. The next paper plane had a Folds classic, “The Luckiest,” on it, followed by songs like “Losing Lisa,” “Gracie” and “Kate.”
One particular request was for Folds to “make up a song on the spot so we can share in the creative memory.” Using the same words from that request, Folds entertained the audience with several different musical rendtions. The crowd ate it up.
After playing one of my Folds favorites, “Jesusland,” Folds asked the audience how many songs he had played. I’m pretty sure it was closer to 10, but everyone shouted out numbers like “one” or “three.”
The last song Folds sang was “Jackson Cannery,” but the audience – myself included – wanted one more. So for the encore, thanks to another paper airplane, Folds played the one song I also had requested on my paper airplane, though it wasn’t my piece of paper.
As soon as he began singing “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces,” I knew the concert was ending perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better show, a better concert, a better night. It was perfect.
Folds rocks the piano much like Billy Joel and Elton John and should be considered just as highly in my book. I hope to see his show again.
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