Tuesday night, Amy and I had the pleasure of seeing Ben Folds at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The night’s entertainment began with an opening set featuring a band new to me, Lady Danville. Though they play instruments, the band was formed out of an a cappella tradition in Los Angeles in 2007 and has been touring with Ben recently.
Not only do they play your standard rock instruments like piano, guitar, and drums, but they rock the glock and uke as well. After the jump, I’ve shared videos of their songs I Want You Back (featuring Ben Folds and the ukelele) and Bed 42 (featuring the glockenspiel). At the concert, I was struck by the band’s harmonies; even with only three voices, they managed to produce rich vocals. I recommend checking them out as they open for Dashboard Confessional on next year’s tour; feel free to leave the show before the main act performs.
Ben Folds is a masterful pianist. This might be news for anyone whose only exposure is his appearance as a competent judge on NBC’s singing group contest show, The Sing-Off.
For those who have never been to a Ben Folds show, there always seems to be a point when there is a lull between songs, and people start shouting song requests. What makes this different than other rock shows is that, through tradition, people often yell a request for Rock This Bitch. From what I can tell, this originated from a concert many years ago during which an audience member randomly yelled out, “Rock this, bitch!” (note the difference in inflection and meaning). Ben Folds proceeded to improvise a song based on this phrase and the song was eventually included on an official recording.
In Tuesday night’s concert, the request for Rock This Bitch was followed by the cliche drunken rock request of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Although he claims to not know the song, he pounded it out on the keys, incorporating the first requested song, in a clever improvisation.
The last time I saw Ben Folds live was several years ago, and I don’t remember if he had his synth keyboard at the time. There were three of these red keyboards on stage, and they produced some amazing sounds. Searching the internet, I was able to find a photograph of the set-up that had enough detail to make out what it is. Along with his piano, Ben plays a Nord Lead 2 keyboard, although the branding has been somehow modified to appropriately read “Nerd Lead” instead of “Nord Lead.” I have found the next musical object of my desire.
His latest record, Lonely Avenue, featuring lyrics by author Nick Hornby (Juliet, Naked, About a Boy, Fever Pitch, High Fidelity) is really growing on me.
One annoying aspect of the concert was the security. There was no announcement regarding flash photography or video recording, but concert-goers should assume that this wouldn’t be allowed. Since we were in the fourth row of the orchestra seating area and on the aisle, we were close to the security guard who was sitting at the lip of the stage in the aisle, facing the audience. Every three minutes he stood up to reprimand one of the same four people in the immediate vicinity who were recording videos with compact digital cameras.
Of course, without stealth concert recorders, those willing to put their lives at risk through copyright infringement for the sake of sharing music, I wouldn’t be able to share the videos below.
Keep reading for some videos.
