We went to see Ben Folds in Manchester last night and I wanted to blog about it. It's slightly outside my normal remit of books and cake, but I have justified it to myself on the basis that he is on the Lonely Avenue tour, an album co-written with Nick Hornby, and including some short stories written by Nick, therefore it was a literary activity. Clear? Good!
A warning, first - below, I will talk about the songs he uses to open and close the show, and some highlights of song selections. If you're going to one of the later gigs, and would rather be surprised, stop reading now, and come back and see if you agree with me when you've been!
The gig was at Manchester Apollo which was quite a nice venue, although not in such a great area. It used to be a cinema, and the Stalls area is now all standing, with seating in the circle. The main highlight of the venue for me (which maybe tells you something about my age) - we failed to get cash before going in, so went to the bar and asked if we could pay by card. No, but there's a bar on the top floor that takes cards. Up we went, and found the bar at the end of a quiet corridor that looked like it didn't lead to anything interesting. Not only did it take cards, but it was empty (when we arrived, though others followed), and was full of big white sofas and armchairs to chill out in. A cut above the average bar at a gig!
So, duly relaxed, we took ourselves off to find our seats in time for the support act, Kate Miller-Heidke, an Australian singer-songwriter. We were unconvinced for the first couple of songs, and started to write her off as a generic girl singer (lovely voice but difficult to distinguish from any other). However, as she progressed, we were much more impressed - some really interesting songs, imaginative use of voice techniques, a bit of comedy (check out "Are you f*cking kidding me?", a song about Facebook, but please note the parental advisory warning on lyrics!!), and an absolutely astonishing range. Definitely worth a listen.
Then it was time for Mr Folds. Last time I saw him, about 9 years ago now, he dual-toured with the Divine Comedy, and did his piece solo with a piano. This time, he had a four piece band - bass, the most energetic drummer I have ever seen (sorry Dan Matthews), a guy who switched between synth, French horn and random percussion, and a guy who switched between guitars, additional drums, and other random percussion. And, of course, himself on a grand piano.
I can't remember every single song that he did. They played for just over 2 hours, with 5 or 6 songs from Lonely Avenue, and the rest spread pretty evenly across the back catalogue. Highlights for me were...
- Opening with Levi Johnston's Blues, from Lonely Avenue - probably the best song on that album, about Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy incident.
- Belinda - another great song from that album
- Still fighting it
- Annie Waits
- Bastard
- Cologne, from Way to Normal - by far the best song on that one
- You don't know me, featuring Kate M-H as the female voice, again demonstrating her fantastic range, and performed with brilliant interaction between the two of them that really brought out the character of the song
- Landed
- Hilarious cover of Sleazy by Ke$ha, chosen because it was #1 in the iTunes chart at the point where they were deciding which cover to do. Don't know the original but I'm pretty sure the cover, whilst funny, was musically better!!
- Finishing (pre-encore) with Philosophy...still brilliant.
In terms of songs, as I write this, every one I remember is a highlight, so I'll stop there before I basically type out the set list in a random order. In terms of the show, I love the energy that Ben Folds puts into it - even at the end, after 2 hours without a break, he was bounding around as frenetically as at the beginning. He plays the piano with such force that he broke one of the strings, and so quickly that you start to wonder if he has 3 hands, or at least extra fingers. I've always loved his musicianship - as a pianist (albeit not a very good one), I can recognise how advanced his piano composition and technical ability is, and love the way that he makes the piano often the leading and central component of his music. After 2 hours, it felt like every song had been a fantastic choice, but at the same time, I could think of about the same number of songs again that I'd quite like to have heard, which is a testament to the strength and variety of his back catalogue/body of work. But most importantly, for a live performance, you can tell that consideration and planning has gone into every song - he doesn't just turn up and play through the catalogue, but brings something new to songs I've heard hundreds of times.
Only one criticism - the venue isn't that big and it wasn't sold out. Manchester, what's wrong with you?!
If you haven't heard anything by Ben Folds, go and check it out. The man's a genius - fact!
Next blog post...normal service will be resumed if I ever manage to get to the end of the Count of Monte Cristo. It's good, but my word it goes on for a long time!
