Last night, I had a low key evening planned - play with the dog, do spanish homework, have dinner with a friend, and return to finish homework. Said friend works for a local alternative weekly paper and sometimes covers the music scene. Her boss (& owner of the paper) texted her during dinner and asked if she wanted the two extra tickets he had for the Ben Folds show.
Hmmmmm... Neither of us were very familiar with his music. We both had early mornings the next day. Just a dude and his piano... On a Tuesday night... Sounded like it could be a bit sedate...
But.
The Jefferson, a recently restored beautiful concert venue, was literally just across the street. And the tickets were free. Why not drop by for just a bit to check it out?
The place was packed. The audience members were loyal and enthusiastic (and surprisingly high percentage male). And the dude - the dude can rock a piano. The show was incredibly interactive. The audience did a lot of singing - sometimes voluntary, sometimes Ben Folds divided the crowd and directed beautiful harmonies. The most unusual interactive part was when a stagehand brought out a laptop and a projection screen lit up on stage. Long story short (I didn't know the whole background at the time. Click here and here for links to more of the story), we were logged in to a site called chatroulette.com. The site name is pretty self explanatory. Random strangers log in and are, at random, connected to each other. The connection provides video, audio, and chat capabilities. One box on the screen showed the random stranger. In the lower box appeared Ben Folds at the piano with his audience behind him. Ben improvised and sang to/about the random stranger. There was quite the assortment of random strangers... and the occasional flash of a random penis. It was, well, random. And yet strangely mesmerizing to the entire audience. Who knew surfing the net could be fun with one computer and a couple thousand people. Another "interactive" feature of the show is that he took requests. I really appreciate an artist that listens to what his fans want to hear.
We ended up staying through the entire show and the encore. I was thrilled when he played "The Luckiest" during his encore - I'd heard the song as part of the cool down mix in a class I took at the gym four or five years ago. It's the only Ben Folds song I own and I'd completely forgotten that he sung it and how much I loved it. I also recognized "You Don't Know Me" from radio play. It was great live, especially with the audience singing back up. I didn't really know any other songs but I enjoyed all of it.
Anyway, the night was topped off with yet another text from my friend's boss. Did we want to go backstage? Hell yeah. I'd only been backstage at one other concert. The worst concert of my life. I won't even go into it. I was only there as a good friend - at the concert, I mean. I didn't go backstage willingly - I was a prisoner with no other way home. Back to last night - I assumed it would be 20 or so folks getting a quick picture or autograph, a handshake with a "Great show, man" thrown in. Nope. It was just me, my friend, and her boss hanging out with Ben Folds. While it wasn't an official interview, we had fun throwing out all kinds of questions...
The piano for the show was rented (this had been a subject of debate between my friend and me during the show). He loves to play the drums. Favorite sports are tennis and soccer. His dad got a guitar upon recommendation by his doctor to take up a hobby to de-stress some. Father Folds never made much progress playing but his son Ben took it up quickly. At some point his dad, a capenter, was paid in piano instead of cash by a customer. Talked about his kids. He's a really laid back easy guy to chat with - I could completely see him as an average joe neighbor mowing his yard and then sitting on the front stoop drinking a PBR. We each took a picture with him and called it a night.
Needless to say, I'll be doing Spanish homework after I finish posting this entry.
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