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Post by VoiceOfReason on Feb 23, 2006 23:45:48 GMT -5
I haven't seen much talk about Ben Folds so far. Have any of you guys seen him? What's his live show like? Any live clips I've seen of him look like fun. Lots of crowd interaction.
Post by famousblueraincoat on Feb 24, 2006 1:34:14 GMT -5
He is an excellent live performer who is awesome at working the crowd (here's hoping he plays a tent). If you've never seen him, definitely a show worth seeing.
Note: I once saw him play part of "Uncle Walter" with his toes when he was still with the five. Pretty amazing.
Funny, I'm watching his "Live in Perth" dvd as I type this. Love Ben Folds but have never seen him live. Another reason why I'm so stoked to go to 'roo this yr. I have the bf5 sessions at w 54th dvd and it's good, but this Live in Perth dvd is amazing. He's playing with an 83 piece symphony orchestra, sounds amazing. right now he's getting the audience to sing along by teaching them them to harmonize. earlier he led the orchestra in an unrehearsed jam by calling out the notes. Good stuff. I highly recommend you netflix this dvd. Can't wait to see him at roo, no way in hell i'm missing his set
Folds is amazing live, I dunno if he'll have a band with him or not, but when I saw him 2 years ago he played solo and "rocked that bitch like no bitch has ever been rocked before." Great performer, very interactive. miss the drummer and bassist tho, it's not quite the same without em, that may just be nostalgia talking since I listened to whatever and ever amen thousands of times when it came out. Point is he's great, check him out if you get the chance.
Ben Folds is GREAT live. I've seen him twice and I'll be seeing him 1 more time before 'Roo. :-P
You can expect lots of audience participation, and from what I've seen, a fair bit of improv singing/piano playing.
I'm really sort of partial to just him solo with the piano, but when I saw him last year he had a bassist/drummer for probably half the show or a little less. The other half was him solo, and that was pretty fun.
Post by shamrockguinness on Feb 24, 2006 15:44:44 GMT -5
Yeah... He is amazing live. I saw him last year at the Ravinia festival in Highland Park. It was a great show. He actually made drum sound effects with his mouth and feet (he had a floor mic) and during "Army," he split the audience up into halves and made us sing the horn parts. It was a really great show.
Ben Folds is amazing live. He came to Centre College 2 years ago by himself. He makes sure that there is a ton of audience participation. At one point he divided us up into sections and had us do different parts of what the horns did on the cd. Even if you don't like his music, his show is the perfect vibe for Bonnaroo.
If he brings a band, expect to be impressed. He usually recruits great musicians who are capable of top notch vocal harmonizing.
If you haven't listened to any of his stuff recently or at all, you might want to brush up otherwise you might feel out of place. Ben Folds fans pretty much know every song and harmony by heart, and he does expect audience participation.
He puts on a fun show. Sort of like a hipster geek version of Jerry Lee Lewis.
Post by DJ DonkeyPunch on Mar 22, 2006 13:45:45 GMT -5
I have to agree with all those above and say that Ben is indeed live. I just saw him this past Saturday in Ann Arbor (probably the 15th or so time that I have seen him live) and he did indead have a backing band with him (well a drummer and basist). They also played on his latest album "Songs for Silverman" and toured with him last summer so I expect he will have them at Roo.
Here is an interesting footnote... last year at Roo when I was waiting for Kings of Leon to take the stage, one of the stagehands setting up the instruments started playing some of "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces." The sound manager promptly cut-off the sound and announced over the loud speaker, "There will be no Ben Folds played on my stage!"
i have seen him once.. and it was an awesome show even with having to sit through rufus wainwrights set, guster and benfolds were worth it... folds closed and it was a great show.. it was just him...ive read that he will be playing with bass and drums on the tour... the same dudes that are on songs for silverman.... so i imagine that they will be at roo too.. i cant wait
Post by stubbornleaf on Mar 23, 2006 0:59:02 GMT -5
Man he is so amazing live. Better than I even imagined he would be. I love when he has the audience act as the horn section for "army" when he doesn't have a real one. I'm also a fan of the made up on the spot songs he does. He's actually playing a free show at my college on april 1st and I can't wait. I feel so lucky because after the roo I'll have seen him 3 times in one year which is more than I could ever asked for.
Post by sparklybecca on May 2, 2006 14:49:13 GMT -5
Im bringing this thread back to the top. I LOVE Ben. His last album, Songs For Silverman - changed me. this man is f*cking amazing- so much so that he deserves a few curses. Who here agrees? if u dont know about him, ask me and ill give you song suggestions <3
Other than Brick, I've never been a big fan of any of Ben Folds music. That being said, he is very talented at what he does. I would love to see him sit in with several other acts. I think he would make a great addition to the superjam.
Seeing him tommorow night in Dayton (won front row seats in a raffle!). Can't wait for it, always wanted to see him live, but never had the chance. Plus, the show is only a short walk away from my dorm (the show's at the Nutter Center at Wright State University).
Post by sparklybecca on May 3, 2006 9:01:27 GMT -5
saintcash said:
Other than Brick, I've never been a big fan of any of Ben Folds music. That being said, he is very talented at what he does. I would love to see him sit in with several other acts. I think he would make a great addition to the superjam.
I saw him at the Ryman in Nashville supporting touring for the "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" It's a good one, check it out. The show was spectacular....can't wait to see him again.
Caught him last year, here in Atlanta at a free show. My favorite part of the night is when he said "This next song is one that I worked with Dr. Dre on. It was on a small album you might have heard of called, The Chronic. The song is a tragic one. It's about when I got sent to jail and all I could think about was seeing my girl when I got out. I got out and went home, only to find my girl getting it on with my cousin. It really is quite sad." Then he aptly broke inot B*tches ain't Sh*t... It was spectacular.
Post by ronburgandy? on May 3, 2006 10:33:48 GMT -5
sparklybecca said:
saintcash said:
Other than Brick, I've never been a big fan of any of Ben Folds music. That being said, he is very talented at what he does. I would love to see him sit in with several other acts. I think he would make a great addition to the superjam.
Ben Folds at Washington U. in St. Louis on a tour this spring that took him to more than a dozen campuses.
There’s an undisputed champion of the campus concert circuit this spring. Ben Folds seems to be everywhere college students are, and even though he is nearing 40, he still looks like one of them – with his hipster specs, shaggy hair and stage attire consisting of jeans and a crew shirt.
That might explain some of his popularity among the concert-going college set. Folds is familiar with college towns and college audiences: He grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., home of Wake Forest University, and got his career off the ground by playing gigs with his former band at small venues in North Carolina’s Research Triangle.
Marsha Vlasic, owner of MVO Ltd., the company that books Folds, says the singer/pianist receives 20 to 30 offers per semester to play at colleges. “Each semester, that amount grows,” she said. “He has been tied up this spring, so I had to pass on so many dates. It was a heartbreaker. He would have loved to do it all.”
In the past three months, Folds has still managed to make more campus visits than even the most thorough prospective student. Consider this concert itinerary (all since March): University of Idaho, University of Northern Iowa, Bucknell University, Louisiana Tech University, Miami University of Ohio and Yale University, to name a few. He received rave reviews for a recent performance at Harvard University, and followed up the concert with a headlining show at Cornell’s spring festival, Slope Day.
Folds has become synonymous with the college end-of-year music festival, held across the country in various forms to celebrate the coming of spring — and often the temporary suspension of drinking rules.
What exactly is Folds’s appeal for these shows? Matt Jones, a junior business major at Washington University in St. Louis, says it is the artist’s dependability and name recognition. It was a soggy day in St. Louis on April 29, when Folds played at the university’s bi-annual musical festival called W.I.L.D (Short for: Walk In, Lay Down).
“The tour manager went on stage, and said [to Folds], whenever you are done, the show is over. That was about 20 minutes into it,” said Jones, co-chair of Team 31 Productions, the student group that organizes the event. “He played for an hour and forty minutes. The guy loves to perform.”
Folds earlier had passed Jones’s test to determine whether a band or performer is worthy of a top concert billing: “Can you put on your [instant messaging] away message, ‘Ben Folds Tonight’? Jones said. “In this case, the answer was absolutely.”
Students say it’s important not to underestimate the sing-along factor, either. When Folds taps the first notes of his melodic, mega-hit anthem “Brick” on the piano, crowds immediately recognize the tune and provide the chorus. “His songs are geared toward college kids and a live audience,” Vlasic said.
Recognizable music is a must for performers looking to make it big on the campus circuit, said Steven Klinger, who manages Uptown, a campus night club at Bucknell University that has hosted Folds. “We steer away from underground bands,” he said.
Jones said it is important to select a performer who isn’t just serving a niche audience. His production team determines who has mass appeal by monitoring its own Web site, where hundreds of students suggest artists for future concerts. Steve Janowiak, director of student activities and leadership at the University of Idaho, said he looks for a certain “coolness factor” and for bands that aren’t considered sellouts.
College concerts can be a springboard for up-and-coming artists, and often are a chance for bands to promote new albums to a population that downloads music more religiously than any other age group. Among artists who were requested by numerous college groups to play campus concerts this year: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Switchfoot, Jason Mraz, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Robert Randolph & The Family Band and Jurassic 5.
Students often make initial contact with some of the lesser known bands through social interaction Web sites such as MySpace, where many bands maintain home pages. In other cases, a band’s agentmight contact a university, which was the case when the company that books Switchfoot called Josh Gudmundson, a junior at South Dakota State who coordinates concerts.
Those who book shows say knowing your audience is important. Big budget shows, such as the Virgin College Mega Tour (featuring Yellowcard this spring), often make stops at the larger state universities — and this year also at Towson University, in Maryland. At Green River College in Poultney, Vt., blue grass and reggae are the most popular genres, said Bryan McGrath, director of student involvement and leadership. “We’re kind of an earthy crowd, so upbeat music suits us best,” he said.
Spring concerts can be about more than just debauchery. Southwestern University in Texas raised more than $5,000 for displaced Hurricane Katrina victims with a concert by New Found Glory. Guster’s Campus Consciousness Tour was designed to raise awareness for an environmental nonprofit group the band supports.
At some colleges, students welcome any concert whatsoever. At Salisbury State University, in Maryland, the spring Field Day concert has been canceled because of rowdy parties last year. When a concert does goes go on, some organizers say it’s never a bad bet to stick with an old standby. Say, George Clinton — often a popular choice, says Mike Bobeldyk, adviser to a student production group at the University of Northern Iowa. “For him to still resonate with the kids is unbelievable,” he said of the aging founder of the Funkadelic and Parliament.
i've seen him . . . about six times i think. always solo, never with the band, but he's been incredible each time. so much of the time, it seems like artists are so much more low key when they tour solo as opposed to with a band, but that's not at all the case with ben folds.
incidentally, i was mistaken for him once outside the venue where i was seeing him.
Post by DJ DonkeyPunch on May 12, 2006 9:43:24 GMT -5
I have seen Ben live all over the U.S. and even in Japan (with the Ben Folds Five) when I lived over there in the late 1990's... needless to say, I am pretty psyched about him coming to Bonnaroo!
Also, for those of you who haven't seem him live, just seeing with the fans that will show up at his set will be quite an experience. He may not draw the biggest crowd at Bonnaroo but I can garauntee that 90% of the people watching him will likely know the words to every song he does. I have probably seen 500 seperate artists since I started going to concerts, and I can honestly say that I have never seen as consistently fanatical of a crowd as the crowd I see at Ben Folds' shows.
Post by ronburgandy? on May 12, 2006 11:10:38 GMT -5
djdonkeypunch said:
Also, for those of you who haven't seem him live, just seeing with the fans that will show up at his set will be quite an experience. He may not draw the biggest crowd at Bonnaroo but I can garauntee that 90% of the people watching him will likely know the words to every song he does. I have probably seen 500 seperate artists since I started going to concerts, and I can honestly say that I have never seen as consistently fanatical of a crowd as the crowd I see at Ben Folds' shows.
Post by DJ DonkeyPunch on May 13, 2006 12:05:56 GMT -5
ronburgandy said:
djdonkeypunch said:
Also, for those of you who haven't seem him live, just seeing with the fans that will show up at his set will be quite an experience. He may not draw the biggest crowd at Bonnaroo but I can garauntee that 90% of the people watching him will likely know the words to every song he does. I have probably seen 500 seperate artists since I started going to concerts, and I can honestly say that I have never seen as consistently fanatical of a crowd as the crowd I see at Ben Folds' shows.
have you ever been to a pearl jam show?..
Nope... but I am going to see them here in Detroit (well, the 'burbs) in a couple of weeks. I just cannot imagine that the crowd will be as fun and festive as those at a Ben Folds show.
Man the old bf5 cd's were like my high school soundtracks.... I loved them so much and saw them perform 5 times. I've seen Ben solo twice. He does put on a great, interactive show... but I'm fearing if he conflicts with someone else who I haven't seen before and really want to, I might have to give him up
Bonnaroo really listens to the fans. After last years event, they provided an email address to suggest future additions to Bonnaroo. I suggested Ben Folds, because his live show is amazing and he now resides in Nashville. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who suggested Ben, nor am I saying I am the reason Ben is playing, but it's cool to think that they really pay close attention to what the people want.