Ben Folds with WASO · 27 August 2006
For those who aren’t familiar with Ben Folds, I’d probably suggest you visit his new homepage to jog your memory. Odds are, if you’ve switched on a radio or talked to anyone about music in the last decade-and-a-half, you would have heard of Ben Folds.
I myself first started to follow Ben’s work about ten years ago when Triple J started playing music from Ben’s old band “Ben Folds Five” (there were three of them.. go figure.) Classics like “Song for the Dumped”, “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces” and “Brick” flooded the airwaves and since then his career has exploded into a slew of hit albums of truly brilliant music that has had a profound effect on both fans and fellow-musicians alike.
Last year I had the good fortune of catching Ben’s two performances with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra in Kings Park. It was an amazing experience, and one that was luckily caught on DVD for international release.
Since the amazing success of these two sell-out performances, Folds has returned this year to play at the Perth Concert Hall with no less than three huge performances.
I caught the last of the three tonight (Sunday) and it was nothing short of compelling.
After changing his set order around for each performance, Ben started the gig with “Zak and Sara” before heading into the beautiful and bluesy ‘Lullaby’ which was arranged by Graeme Lyall (who happened to have a nice little solo in there.)
The performance featured some of his best music, mostly the same set as last year, orchestrally arranged by local musicians/composers of the likes of Mike Pigneguy, James Ledger, Graham Lyall, Steve Newcombe and others.
Smoke was just as amazing to listen to, though most of tonights music seemed a little subdued and somewhat muffled to accommodate the new venue. I think the open-air gig at the Kings Park amphitheatre setting was more conducive for Folds to really belt out his music to its full capacity – tonight it seemed like he was worried he’d blow out everyone’s eardrums if he played too hard.
A funny moment I’ll always remember was when Ben was about to play Fred Jones Part 2 – about the retired newspaperman who gets laid off after 25 years. He wanted to give the audience a context to the song and its history, and in doing so begain to explain where Fred Jones Part 1 came from. (otherwise known to Ben Folds Five fans as “Cigarette” off his “Whatever and Ever Amen” album.) He began explaining that the whole song (which lasts about 50 to 60 seconds) was copied word-for-word from an insanely long sentence from a newspaper article. He tried reciting the sentence about three times before failing dismally. I dutifully piped up and suggested that he “Sing it!!” ... which he proceeded to do! It was a huge thrill as it’s one of my all-time favourites – and one which he hasn’t played for ten years (and never played live one after the other with the Fred Jones Part 1 and 2 series.)
A couple of thrilling additions this year was the song that folds wrote for Perth, entitled.. “Perth, the most iscolated city on Earth”.
It was a brilliant piece that came to him in the shower on Friday, arranged and performed in an impromptu performance that saw five members of the audience hold up the chords that the orchestra were to play. It was excellent.
There was an amazing build up that I’ll never tire of with his oddly-formed song, “Narcolepsy” which he apparently wrote in a fit of boredom. Folds’ voice paired with the perfect pitch and amazing vibrato of Stuart Haycock is something beautiful. The two polar opposite voices strangely just ‘go’. The build up to the very final crescendo was amazing – to the point where you couldn’t believe that what you were hearing was being created right in front of you in the present.
Aside from that, there was the usual “Not the Same” choir-bit where Folds leads the audience in a three-part harmony in the ballad about the guy who got stoned and hid up a tree and found religion. Easily one of my favourite songs of his, yet he uncharacteristically left it until second-last before finishing with “The Luckiest”.
After the show I was invited back to the greenroom to meet the man himself. I brought my sister in with me as she’s been a fan just as long as me (actually a couple of years longer) making it a real thrill for the both of us.
My hands were clammy and sweaty as I nervously waited and considered what to actually say to him. (Probably should have thought of that BEFORE now.) I figured he’d probably be sick of being lavished with praise so I’d just stick to questions and general chit-chat. He entered the room from behind my chair, I slowly turned to surprisingly see a thin man of only about 5’9”. He looks much bigger on stage; but isn’t that always the case.
We chatted about the orchestra – I mentioned that I noticed his small peppering of “Theme from Dr. Pyser” into one of his songs tonight; he liked that I picked up on that. I suggested that he should include “Dr. Pyser” and “Selfless, Cold and Composed” into his next performance with WASO – he totally agreed regarding Pyser (as it’s an amazing energetic orchestral piece) but wasn’t too sure about Selfless, Cold and Composed, though he’d like to see it happen.
As well as this he mentioned that he was thinking of bringing Bill (William Shatner) over from LA for the next lot of performances next year, though he had doubts about his ability to withstand the huge flight to Perth (about 27 hours from LAX…. believe me; not fun.)
After having a chat about a couple of other bits and pieces as he sipped at his pint of Coopers Dark Ale.
Finally, we parted ways, but not before getting a few photos together and getting Ben to sign a couple of things; one of which being my copy of the caricature which will now sit proudly in my studio for me to gaze at in moments of inspiration-drain.
