Ben Folds @ UMW

This week Katie and I caught a great concert at the University of Mary Washington. The draw was Ben Folds, who has been a recent favorite on my iPod and whose new album, Way to Normal, is particularly great. And due to musical associations with Amanda Palmer and Regina Spektor, my daughter Katie was willing first to give Ben a listen, and then actually excited to join me at the concert. And the night began with a concert first for me, a free gift at the door in the form of a commemorative plastic Ben Folds shot glass. The night was filled with promise!

A commenter on Katie’s Facebook page tipped her off to pay close attention to the opening band, Jukebox the Ghost, and they did not disappoint, we really enjoyed them.

Ready then for Ben, there was one more surprise opener, The Virginia Sil’hooettes, an all-female a cappella group from the University of Virginia. Later this month, Ben is releasing an album titled Ben Folds Presents: University A Capella, a compilation album of, obviously, University A Capella groups performing Ben Folds music. The Virginia Sils performed a couple songs, including their rendition of ‘You Don’t Know Me At All‘.

After a painfully long wait, Ben and his band took the stage, starting off with ‘Errant Dog’, followed by ‘Annie Waits’, and from there heading into a lengthy and fun performance o songs new and old. During ‘The Bitch Went Nuts’, Ben stopped twice, having messed up the words. And that led to a brief bit of storytelling, about a time he was performing in England and stopped mid song about 20 times. He said each time there was the slightest noise from the audience, he would stop and start the song at the beginning, and he did eventually finished when they achieved absolute silence. They thought he was an uptight performer, he says he was just fucking with them. And speaking of ‘Fuck’, that was of course a shouted sing-along highlight of the song ‘Rockin’ the Suburbs‘.

As is typical, I tried to share some tunes, calling my brother Kevin to share ‘Effington‘, and my sister Jennifer to share ‘Brick‘. Not sure if either got through, but it’s the thought. Later, I finally got around to getting my sibs something for Christmas (yes, last Christmas, yes, I know it’s April), buying each of them Jukebox the Ghost’s album titled Let Live and Let Ghosts. I hope they enjoy it, I am.

Thanks to Katie for joining me on a great night of music. It a pretty cool thing, taking your daughter to a concert (maybe less so from her point of view, but cool for a dad anyway).

dig deeper …

Review of ‘Let Live & Let Ghosts’
The Washington Post – March 7, 2008