Posted on April 12, 2007
Just after 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Ben Folds walked on stage at the Convocation Center, stood at a Steinway grand piano and got right down to business. Folds’ fluid fingers danced along the piano’s keyboard as he led his drummer, Sam Smith, and bass player, Jared Reynolds, into an explosive two-hour set.
After the third song, Folds began his rapport with the audience.
“It’s damn good to be here,” Folds said.
Folds, an acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician, was the main attraction at UPB’s Spring Convo show, with Eef Barzelay as the opening act for this tour. Folds has released numerous albums over the past decade, making him a crowd favorite.
Looking out into the audience after the third song, Folds said he could “turn this into a porn movie.” He turned to his small synthesizer and laid down a funky music line, perhaps something out of an adult film. The audience erupted in rapturous applause.
After fidgeting around on the stage for a bit he gave an accolade to the venue.
“I talk a lot of shit … but this is the best sounding stadium,” Folds said.
Song after song, Folds and company built a palpable intensity that shook the audience for the entire night.
Things softened a bit about 40 minutes into the set when Folds began playing his nostalgic ballad “Still Fighting It.” But just as quickly as things slowed down, Folds quickly ratcheted things back up. The band jumped right into “You to Thank,” during which Folds played with one hand on the piano and the other on his synthesizer.
After the band played a single from Songs for Silverman, “Landed,” Folds gave thanks for the Steinway piano the university had provided.
“Finally I have a piano tonight with low end,” he said as he struck the low keys.
Then the performance began to descend, only briefly, into a low-brow, though highly entertaining, repertoire of Dr. Dre, a parody of the situation of Anna Nicole Smith’s child and a little bathroom humor, quite literally.
“This is a very sad song,” Folds said, “in a major key.”
The band then proceeded to play the Dr. Dre song “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” The audience chimed in during the refrains — “Bitches can’t hang with the streets.”
“That’s beautiful,” the frontman said. “People singing together.”
After two more songs, Folds said he’d found out who the real father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby, Dannielynn, was earlier. He didn’t sound convinced though.
“I wanna be tested,” Folds said. “It could be my baby.”
Folds’ low-brow humor didn’t stop there.
He played around with his synthesizer even more, striking very low notes, which vibrated the bleacher seats ferociously. To this, he said he’d explain the “significance of this low end.”
Beside the banter and rapport, the band led the audience through a sonic roller coaster. Folds has a penchant for writing songs that are extremely explosive. Though only consisting of three members, the band is capable of making a wall of sound. At points during the concert, Folds looked as if he were about to lunge into the open piano; he hardly sat and his fingers nonetheless nailed every note.
A musical gem rested between the Dr. Dre cover and his thoughts on the situation surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s baby and the “low end.” Smith and Reynolds left the stage and Folds was alone at the piano to perform “Brick” from Ben Folds Five’s second album, Whatever and Ever Amen. Folds seemed to play the ballad about an abortion with arrested emotion — he sat, hunched over the keys, careful not to reveal too much.
The concert ended with highly energized encore. At one point, Folds stood up on top of the piano and conducted the audience’s voices during the ballad “You Were Not the Same.”
As the audience’s voices rose to a cacophony, Folds grabbed his stool and threw it at the piano and walked off the stage to a thunderous applause.
Juniors Dylan Love and Rachel Day were both impressed by the band’s performance.
“It was badass,” Love said.
Love said he particularly liked the band’s performance of “One Angry Dwarf.”
Day said she was impressed that even with so few people, the audience still participated loudly in the encore.
On his sixth time seeing Folds, Love was able to take something else away.
“I’m going to sleep well tonight,” he said.
