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October 02, 2004
Ben Folds
I would have never guessed that St. Olaf would decide to bring a decent show for my last fall concert, much less an awesome one. Last year, after all, they brought the Black Eyed Peas. But someone with good taste in music must be organizing the concerts this year, because they brought Ben Folds to campus.
The opening act was extremely mediocre. The whole time I was thinking that the Lone Strangers should have been up there instead. I pledge to get them a gig here eventually.
Ben brought a bass player and drummer with him, and they were both awesome, especially the bassist. They played some of their new songs, though, and I wasn't really that impressed. On the other hand, part of that is probably just because it's more fun to here them do songs I already know.
I love how Ben alternates between standing bent over the piano and sitting on his drum stool. And then there are the times where he's half sitting and half standing, balancing on the stool with one leg out in front of him and one stretched back behind. That made me laugh.
I didn't have the best view, but I don't think there were many places where I could have had a better view since it was in the gym. I went with about 10 other girls, and we decided that we didn't want to bother with standing in front because of the mob. So we sat in the bleachers, and one of the polls holding up the lights was blocking my view of Ben's hands. But I could see the reflection of his right hand in the back of the piano behind the keys, so I was satisfied. Also, I knew that the bleachers were the right choice when I saw the crowd surge forward when the band came onto the stage.
I had bet Jon before we went that people would crowd surf. They had done so during the Blues Traveler concert two years ago, and thankfully Pat and Matt were there to pull people off of me. Jon claimed there was no way a person could possibly surf to Ben Folds. I reminded him that the majority of the audience would have consumed massive amounts of at least one depressant, but he was not convinced. He ended up loosing the bet. More than one person attempted to ride the crowd, and not only that, the song that inspired them to do so was none other than "Carrying Cathy."
Ben even acknowledged the embarrassing these antics during "The Army." At one point, he replaced the words "been thinkin a lot today" to "someone's been drinkin a lot today." I think this was more of a response to the solitary person attempting to clap to the beat, though.
I was pretty pleased with Ben's playlist. He did "Not the Same," "Gone," and "Zak and Sara." The encore was the best part -- he did wild and crazy versions of "Philosophy" and "One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces." However, he did not do "Luckiest" or "Brick" or "Emaline." Granted, the mood wasn't quite fitting, but I'm not the only one who was slightly disappointed by their absence.
Other than that, I'm looking forward to everyone returning from the retreat. It's kind of lonely in blog land right now.
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Quote of the Day:
"I thought about ending my life." Katie, after returning from the restroom during the opening band.
Posted by Megan at October 2, 2004 01:05 AM