There's Never Someone Cooler Than Ben Folds

(Published 2/24/05)
"You're going to learn a great deal tonight," Ben Folds said with a smile last Thursday at the sold out Jorgensen Theatre at University of Connecticut in Storrs.

Behind him on stage were a bassist and drummer. Folds has not performed an entire show with a band since 1999, when his former band, Ben Folds Five, broke up.

Overnight sensation Gavin DeGraw opened the show for Folds. However, his piano skills, lyrics and overall show seemed juvenile and flaccid in comparison to what was to come.

The audience liked DeGraw, but there was an overwhelming level of respect for Ben Folds throughout his entire 2-hour show. It was as if Folds was teaching a well-disciplined class of some sort. Maybe he was.

Lesson One: How to Choose a Song to Cover.

Folds has been known to cover such piano-based classics as "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, which is perfectly fitting. But it is always more impressive and enjoyable when an artist attempts a cross-genre cover. Ben chose a song by Dr. Dre called "Bitches Ain't Shit."

The chords that made up the song were among the most beautiful and uplifting of the whole night. Dr. Dre may indeed have something to learn from this jazzed out version of his famous vulgar ode to working girls.

As Fairfield University's Whitney Maus '08 put it, "I discovered the meaning of life somewhere between 'Bitches Ain't Shit' and 'Zak and Sara (played after the Dr. Dre song).'"

Lesson Two: How to Conduct a 2,600 Person Audience in a Four-Part Harmony.

"If a couple thousand people can't do it, how can three guys?" Folds pointed out as he began teaching the audience the four complex harmonies of "Bastard," an unreleased song off his upcoming CD. He cut the audience into four neatly defined sections. He taught each section a different part of the song. He lifted his arms into the air. The audience sang. He became the conductor of nearly 3,000 people, all eager to learn from the master.

In a slightly more famous display of his musicianship which appears on his official live CD, he later transformed the audience into a horn section for the song "Army."

"This side's saxophones, this side's trumpets," he said. The next minute, the audience was singing like the Vienna Boy's Choir.

Lesson Three: How to Nearly Murder a Piano.

For those who have ever known anyone with a piano in their house, the convention is to tune it once or twice a year. Ben Folds, though, wailed on his Steinway & Sons ebony grand piano with such passion and intensity Thursday that after only 2 hours of playing, it could no longer hold a sufficient tune.

Commenting on the encore, pianist John Cusick '07 of Wesleyan University said, "the piano was noticeably out of tune, which is next to impossible. It's the musical equivalent to a lightweight boxer taking down a guy five or six times his size, in one punch."

Lesson Four: Ironic Stage Presence.

Ben Folds arguably has one of the largest cult followings today and he seemed to handle it quite well on stage. This powerful man has an appetite for commanding melodies and brilliant rhythm that shines through his humble and slender existence.

He successfully personifies his ironic humor and anger by pounding on the black and whites while giving the audience a goofy look or two.

At one point during the concert, he told a vulgar story about Santa, stood up, ran around the stage and beat-boxed a bit, only to sit down and say, "after you build up this kind of weird vibe, the best thing to do is to go right into a slow real song."

In another possible attempt to entertain, he only brought ten t-shirts and 20 or so singles for merchants to sell at a fold-out card-table, while pop sensation Gavin DeGraw had an endless supply of merchandise set up in an elaborate display.

Folds performed songs mostly from his solo career. He did, though, perform some Ben Folds Five favorites such as, "Where's Summer B.?" "Emaline," "Army" and "Philosophy."

With constant smiles from Ben to his band mates and to the audience during and between songs, Storrs stood witness to a proud and joyful Ben Folds, despite rumors of recent dissatisfaction with performing.