Under a perfectly clear sky (but a little chilly) last night at the Filene Center, Ben Folds performed a 100 minute set rich with tunes from his Ben Folds Five years, multiple selections off LPs Rockin' the Suburbs and Songs for Silverman, and a handful of tracks from his upcoming September release which is yet to be titled. Much to my surprise, the crowd consisted of predominantly 20-25 year olds, with the occasional high school posse mixed in, helping to counterbalance Wolf Trap's general attendee age range of 35-60. Folds definitely has his share of hits, and the Wolf Trap employee gathering at our usual spot on the lawn referenced the crowd as jumping beans, or popcorn kernels given their eagerness to pop out of their seats or spring from their blanket at the first hint of notes from "Kate", "Zak and Sara," or "Army."
Folds is a quirky guy with an extremely witty and infectious sense of humor, so if you've never seen him live, don't expect 90 minutes of straight music; rather get on board for on the spot antics and impromptu songs that make his performance more of a well rounded "show" than a "concert". For example, a high point of the evening was one of a few improv songs during which he tested the sign language vocabulary of Wolf Trap's hearing impaired interpreter situated on the wing of stage right. I can't exactly share with you the words that were on his little musical quiz, but you get the idea. :)
Overall, the performance was excellent, emphasized by Folds incendiary key riffs, his wide vocal range, and a very accomplished bassist and drummer who both impressed me with their ability to keep pace with Folds' ever changing set list and deviations from standard song arrangements. I thought you'd enjoy seeing this scan of his original set list, although Folds deviated from it a bit, adding "Gracie," and "Kylie," and removing "Brick", "Lullabye," "and "B*tches Ain't Sh*t."
I'll post a slideshow of photos once our house photographer uploads them to our archive.
Talk soon,
Graham
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5 comments:
Loved his show - try to hit it every yeat. But, either by choice or technical difficulty, there was some obnoxious distortion from the house sound (at least as heard from the back of the lawn). Was that just me? I'm usually impressed with the sound mix at Wolf Trap. Did Ben forget to take that clever cookie tin lid out of his piano for the rest of the set?
Now I see what he means about not sticking to the set list. Damn!
Here's the complete setlist, from thesuburbs.org.uk. Looks like he just gave up on the setlist after "Hiroshima".
Brick was on the set list?
sigh.
Thank you for the concert review.
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