My ears are healing.
Those who know me know that I’m a huge fan of the music of Ben Folds. So huge, in fact, that I had seen him in concert six times. And Monday night at Murray State University (my alma mater), I saw him for the seventh time.
Ben was late in arriving to the venue…apparently he had to undergo some kind of medical procedure earlier in the day that involved a small camera probing inside his nose…or something like that. Anyway, they arrived cold, without any soundcheck. And when he and his band hit the stage, they gave the most energy-filled enthusiastic show I had seen in all the times I’ve seen their gig.
But I can’t put it as the top performance that I’ve seen from him. The only problem? The venue.
Murray State’s Lovett Auditorium, I had forgotten, has the acoustics of a Pepsi can. If the concert had just been Ben and his piano, I’m sure it would have been fine. But amplify any bass and drums, and the sound just bounces all over the place.
(I do want to commend the Lovett Live organization at Murray for getting Ben to play. I’m proud of my alma mater for getting the coolest concert in a long time. Yes, even cooler than John Mayer.)
My friend John reminded me about a concert that had taken place there when I was in college put on by the band Dogstar. That band didn’t have any hits of consequence, but they did feature the actor Keanu “I am an EFF-BEE-EYE agent” Reeves on bass. So most of the audience consisted of teenage and college girls with signs and screaming his name.
But what I remember from that show was that the sound was just terrible.
I didn’t keep track of Ben’s setlist last night, but it was a healthy mix of his solo works, songs from his former band Ben Folds Five and a few songs from his finished, but untitled upcoming album. Ben appeared to be in good spirits, and also made up a “Rock This Bitch” riff about Murray and, I assume, a local BP station he stopped at to buy beer, but found out he was in a “dry state.”
This might be the last Ben Folds show I attend. The last one I went to, in 2005 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, I noticed that most of the audience was at least 5-to-10 years younger than me, and the show at Murray last night just increased the age difference by 2 or 3 years.
So I figured this might be the best time to list my favorite Folds performances, from 1 to 7.
1. Centre College, Danville, Ky. (Spring 2004): The second time I saw Ben in concert, when he was still just playing solo. He played for about two hours, 25 songs (I kept score that night.) Just an awesome show. He had also just recorded some songs for his last album, “Songs For Silverman,” and it was probably one of the first times he had played them in concert.
2. Uptown Mix, Nashville (Summer 2003): The first time I saw him. He played a fairly short set (the concert series only cost $10 to get in, so he probably played for an hour and a half. He opened the set with “Best Imitation of Myself,” and sprinkled it with covers of “Careless Whispers” and “Tiny Dancer.” This show was a few months after the release of his live album.
3. Lovett Auditorium, Murray, Ky. (last night): This would have been #1, except for the reasons I listed above. Ben played with a ton of energy and had the audience captivated. Plus, it was the first time I had seen him with the added synthesizers and tools he is going to use on his new album. If only there were some better acoustics.
4. Ryman Auditorium, Nashville (November 2005): The reason I remember the month is because I have a Ryman poster from this show framed. And also, a little-known band called The Fray opened for him. Only months later, their music would be all over Grey’s Anatomy. This show, which was at perhaps the best venue of its size in the country, would be closer to the top except for the setlist. Silverman had come out earlier in the year, and the set was very centric of the album. He probably played most of the album that night, which left little wiggle-room for other songs from his catalogue.
5. Uptown Mix, Nashville (Summer 2004): This was the first show Ben played with a three-piece band after giving up his truly solo tour. I can’t really put this show high up on the list, because they were basically using this gig as a process of working the kinks out before going on tour. But the best part of the show was when Ben left the piano during “Rockin’ The Suburbs” and played the bass part toward the end of the song.
6. Some symposium I forgot the name of, Vanderbilt (Winter 2005): This wasn’t really a concert, but a free question-and-answer session in a big classroom/miniature auditorium in the Vanderbilt music department. Ben answered questions from a professor and played a few songs on the piano. It was pretty fascinating.
7. The Folds/Guster/Wainwright tour, St. Louis (Summer 2004): Since all three acts had to split time on the bill (there was no true headliner), Ben could only play for a little more than an hour. So that’s really the only reason it’s at the bottom of the list.
