The night Ben folded five

My experience at the Ben Folds Five concert was mostly hearing an opening riff and saying, “Oh, I love this song” and taking a few seconds before realizing what song it actually was. I like the band but sometimes I have a hard time recognizing songs until they’re a bit of the way in. Steve was probably happy I didn’t keep asking him, “What’s this song called again?”

I very much enjoyed the show. I had never seen the full band together; just Ben solo on a double bill with Tori Amos. It was sublime hearing the three band members break into a harmony on the gorgeous “Missing the War,” one of my favorite of their songs. I’m a sucker for a good harmony. The guys played pretty well all night. 

The show was pretty much some selections from the Five’s new The Sound of the Life of the Mind and other greatest hits, making it perfect for someone like me who isn’t familiar with a lot of deep album cuts or B-sides. The end of the show was especially fun, with Ben Folds Five tearing through “Philosophy,” “Kate,” “Song for the Dumped” and another of my favorites, “Army.” The final song “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces” was rollicking. I think the best of their songs project an atmosphere of bitterness that’s somehow jaunty and insouciant. 

There were a few other songs I would like to have heard, like the grandiose “Narcolepsy,” and Steve had lamented that they didn’t do much from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The only Ben Folds solo material they did was “Landed” and Steve noted that during this, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee had looks on their faces like Pink Floyd did as they gritted their teeth through their reunion a few years ago. 

Of course, there was “Brick.” I wonder if the band only performs this because they feel obligated. Like Radiohead’s “Creep,” when I heard “Brick” on the radio, it was a song I thought Ben Folds Five couldn’t top but then I heard the rest of their discography and discovered they had much better material. The song doesn’t fit in with the rest of their upbeat stuff and I just can’t get sing along to a ballad about an abortion. 

One thing I noticed at the show – do we still do this? – was that people were throwing around a beach ball. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we were at an outdoor Jimmy Buffett show. I’m all for fun but batting around a ball just didn’t fit with a concert on a rainy night at the Tower Theater. The guy next to us caught the ball and deflated it. 

Anyway, I’m glad I got to see the group live.