Tim and I went to see Ben Folds in concert last Friday night. This was the third time I have seen him perform and it was the best performance. I first saw Ben Folds Five back in 1997, before I really knew who they were. They were playing at the old Flood Zone, I had been back in Richmond for about 2 weeks, and Steph gave me a dub of Whatever and Ever Amen on cassette. She also convinced me to go see them in concert. It was a good show, but I was not a huge fan yet, so I wasn’t into the music as much as I would be at future shows.
My next live Ben Folds experience was a couple of years ago when Tim and I traveled up to the Wolf Trap to see Ben with Rufus Wainwright. I like both performers, but since there were two headliners, there was only about an hour allocated for each star. They both played well, but did not dig deep into their repertoires to wow the audience.
Last Friday, this was remedied by a two hour show put on by Ben at The National Theatre (note for Richmonders: this renovated venue is pretty nice with decent sound and lots of space (and bars), although we did notice that pieces of the ceiling seemed to keep falling from above). The show was phenomenal. Ben has truly become an amazing, all-out performer. He played some rare tracks (some of the 4.6 songs that he had to write to fulfill a recording contract), some new tracks, and some classics (he played Kate, which just makes me happy).
I have realized that I am old. I knew I was old prior to the concert, but Friday just confirmed it. Tim and I headed directly to the seats in the balcony upon entering the venue and stayed there for the entire show. I drank one beer while Tim had a ginger ale. We did not sing or dance, and I’m not sure why. I used to love singing and sort of dancing (it was more like jumping, flopping my hair around, and pumping my arms – sometimes I would extend my arms and circle around like an airplane). I remember a great Carbon Leaf concert I attended with Jessica at Randolph Macon Women’s College. We danced all over the place and sang at the top of our lungs. I felt free and happy. But somehow, I have become self-conscious or too mature or something that prevents me from being free. Perhaps it is the feeling that I don’t fit in with the teens and twenty-somethings who compose most of the dancing crowds at a Ben Folds show. But a better reason is that I am afraid and lazy. So yes, I had a great time listening to Ben Folds play and entertain us, but did not experience the entire concert as it should have been experienced.
I always thought that I would like Ben Folds and get along with him were we ever to run into each other on the street and he asked me to go have a drink and we stayed up all night talking (just interjecting a small fantasy I have). After this recent show though, I think not. He seems to have become almost too much of a performer. This makes his shows better but makes him less likeable to me. He seems a little cocky and a little practiced with his banter. That makes me sad.
