[What is the protocol around here for burying two posts that only just appeared at the top of the page in the time since I started composing this post? With apologies, be sure to see Agi's All Your Carbon Are Belong To Us and Mike's If A Senator Switched Parties And No One Cared Would It Make A Difference? below.]
This is probably going to blow any street cred I may have had with this crowd, but I went to a Ben Folds concert last night. Went with my dad, who I had put on to Ben Folds Five 11 or 12 years ago. He's been following Folds since, though I have not. But he asked me to go. So I went. It was good. Dude can fucking shred on the piano. And the band was tight. Piano -- bass -- drums -- one guy who played synthesizers, horns, xylophone and other percussion instruments -- and another percussionist who was the best tambourine player I have ever witnessed, and could kick Will Ferrell's ass at cowbell any day. (Folds actually had him take a cowbell solo at one point.)
A highlight for me was a song introduced as one of a group of intentionally shitty tracks leaked on the internet as a gag prior to the release of one of their albums.
The Bitch Went Nuts
Even more highlighty, here is what can happen when you jam a couple of Altoids tins in a grand piano and play it through a distortion pedal.
Free Coffee
They didn't do a whole lot of Ben Folds Five stuff, so aside from two covers of fake doctors (Dr. Dre and Dr. Hook,) I was hearing most of the songs cold, without having heard them before, and it was still a great show.
This is probably going to blow any street cred I may have had with this crowd, but I went to a Ben Folds concert last night. Went with my dad, who I had put on to Ben Folds Five 11 or 12 years ago. He's been following Folds since, though I have not. But he asked me to go. So I went. It was good. Dude can fucking shred on the piano. And the band was tight. Piano -- bass -- drums -- one guy who played synthesizers, horns, xylophone and other percussion instruments -- and another percussionist who was the best tambourine player I have ever witnessed, and could kick Will Ferrell's ass at cowbell any day. (Folds actually had him take a cowbell solo at one point.)A highlight for me was a song introduced as one of a group of intentionally shitty tracks leaked on the internet as a gag prior to the release of one of their albums.
The Bitch Went Nuts
Even more highlighty, here is what can happen when you jam a couple of Altoids tins in a grand piano and play it through a distortion pedal.
Free Coffee
They didn't do a whole lot of Ben Folds Five stuff, so aside from two covers of fake doctors (Dr. Dre and Dr. Hook,) I was hearing most of the songs cold, without having heard them before, and it was still a great show.
Ben Folds seems like one of those artists that would put on a great live show. Speaking of street cred, the last show I saw prior to the two DJ Shadow concerts in '06 and '07 was Fountains of Wayne. Sounds like we're in the same boat, musically.
Posted by: Agi | April 29, 2009 at 09:41 AM
"Here is what can happen when you jam a couple of Altoids tins in a grand piano and play it through a distortion pedal."
Ben Folds is channeling John Cage? Sweet.
Posted by: bdr | April 29, 2009 at 10:15 AM
thanks, BDR, now i've learned my new item for the day.
from the wikipedia page on John Cage:
Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings) ...
Ben Folds did call it "prepared piano" as he explained what he was doing. also it sounded way cooler in person than it does in the you tube.
Posted by: Montag | April 29, 2009 at 10:23 AM