Last night, I was excited to get photo credentials to shoot Ben Folds Five at Chicago Theater.
I’m a long-time fan. My brother introduced me to them after his band opened for them back in 1999 or so. I’ve seen them live and seen Ben Folds solo.
As a photographer, you only get three songs to shoot, and I always hope for at least one favorite. But last night, BF5 didn’t play a favorite in the first three songs. They played three lame sleeper lullaby songs that made shooting from the wings of the theater even worse, because all I shot were variations of Ben’s different faces whilst singing and the one or tow variations of the bass and drummer.
I don’t always think straight when photographing, but only one opener was familiar, and I can’t remember what it was. I was singing along behind my viewfinder, though.
As soon as our three songs were up, they blasted into Philosophy as if to say, “Fuck you, Photographers! Now we’ll stand up and bang around.” Then they followed that with “Selfish, Cold and Composed.”
They played a new song that kicked ass. Ben stood up and said, “Those of you who have seen the set so far have accused me of a Catholic service: standup sitdown standup sitdown.”
It got a laugh.
He played one song with muffles in the piano wires that took him about 2 minutes to awkwardly place them. One song, Ben had to count off explaining that he doesn’t have the new song in muscle memory yet.
The concert felt more strained than strong. There were a few people who were really into it. There’s nothing as funny as couples who are headbanging to his music, because they have no idea how to move to piano-lead rock and roll.
BF5 is playing on Colbert tonight so be sure to check it out. I heard the song they’re playing, and then left.
Hopefully, the tour will pick up steam, because it really can’t get any worse.
We caught them here in Austin, and had a similar let down of an experience. Lots of poor choices in the song selection, in my opinion. I wonder if he had the same opener in Chicago. Was the opening act the worst thing you’ve ever seen? If so, it was probably the same girl.
I’d seen Ben once before, by himself, and I thought it was boring and left early and I hoped the 5 would be different. And really it should’ve been. The Complete Sessions at West 54th DVD is one of my favorite live DVDs ever, so I think they just chose too many sleepers for this tour’s set.
The end of the set started to pick up and be more fun, but almost too little too late. We still had fun though.
I promise our set at The Beat Kitchen on Oct. 26th will be solid from start to finish. Can’t wait to hang out then!
Yes, the same opener. She was an Aussie woman who sang all folksy and then she broke into operatic vocals. It was crazy.
I didn’t watch from inside the theater. I wasn’t impressed.
She did a hip-hop cover at one point. Oh, it was slim-shady. And for some reason, I felt the need to apologize to the cool kids who were there working as ushers.
So about Oct 26, we got an evening booking, but I’m still going to come out. If I miss the set, I’ll probably cry until Christmas.
Yes, do everything in your power to be there. We are doing a second acoustic house show in Chicago the next day, but it’s no substitution for the big rock show. And you should definitely come to both.
Haha, I just got a text from Wally D saying they’re setting something up.
Do you know where QC will be in the line up and approx what time?
Oh, I will go out of my way to get there asap and for both events.
Yay! We’ll be real friends, not just E-friends or iFriends or whatever the fuck the kids say these days.
Sah-weet.
So you think you’ll go on around 10:15 or 10:30?
Depending on our gig, I might miss a couple songs.
We’ll be headlining, so it will probably be later than that. I’m not real familiar with The Beat Kitchen, but unless they have abnormally early shows, I think you’ll be OK.