Unfortunately, I couldn’t make Jen‘s birthday celebration this weekend — I had plans to go to Baltimore for a pretty special event, despite my wisdom teeth extraction. Ben Folds was performing with his piano as he normally does, but Saturday’s concert included a set of back-up musicians normally known as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Becca was kind enough to pick up tickets a while back for Amy and me, so the three of us plus Steve ventured from the D.C. area to Baltimore for the concert.
Obviously, the music was amazing. Some of the orchestrations were a little over the top; where Ben is usually somewhat subtle, the orchestra added a bit of “THIS PART IS SWEET! THIS PART IS SWEET! ARE YOU GETTING IT!” and “THIS PART IS LOUD AND IT ROCKS! THIS PART IS LOUD AND IT ROCKS! DID YOU CATCH THAT?” if you know what I mean. The classy setting didn’t deter Ben from his potty-mouthed behavior (for example, the “director’s cut” line from the minor-key version of Give Me My Money Back, “You fucking whore,” was happily included).
Somewhat relatedly, I was later taught the etymology of the description “upper crust.”
My favorite arrangement of the night was Narcolepsy, which included an opera singer, but the low note for me was the last encore, The Luckiest. Ben should have known to end the concert with a different song.
Unfortunately, from where we were sitting (orchestra right), the entire concert could have been mixed better. We were not in a direct path of a speaker, so the sound we were getting was a mix between the natural acoustics of the room and the reverberation of the amplified instruments against the balcony. That might have had something to do with the problem. I often couldn’t completely determine exactly what Ben was saying between songs and the music was muddled in general. I’m sure Darren could have fixed that right up. Otherwise, the seats were great and the concert was fantastic.
Glad you enjoyed the concert. Here’s the Post’s review: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/11/AR2005111101722.html
Sometimes, when you’re dealing with a tour like that, they have to make compromises in the sound because they simply don’t have the time or equipment to fix the problems they come up against in every house they go into. Which is unfortunate, becuase it means the people who paid so much for the tickets get the shaft.
Um… I don’t remember him playing “Give me my Money Back”. At all.
Still, I had a lovely time.
Perhaps I heard it on the live CD I was listening to earlier and thought he did it in the concert.
I was just checking, because i knew *you* were drugged up for the show, but I didn’t think *I* had been. 🙂