currently reading/listening to.

currently reading:

learning evangelism from jesus - jerram barrs
your first two years in youth minitsry - doug fields

currently listening to:

of the blue colour of the sky - ok go
the unauthorized biography of reinhold messner - ben folds five
broken bells - broken bells
all killer no filler - sum 41

just if you're interested. that's all.. oh wait one more thing - i've always thought the dude on the front of reinhold looks like kevin bacon. ok now that's all.

okay fine. april fools on sum 41.

-apc.

ben folds comes to kstate - postblog.

might as well just kick it off with the set list. asterisked songs are tracks that i listed in the preblog:

bitch went nuts (new version)
effington
zak and sara
sentimental guy
battle of who could care less
trusted*
free coffee (altoids mix)*
cologne
dr. yang (new version intro)*
hiroshima (b-b-b-benny hit his head)*
annie waits
jesusland
you don't know me (sans regina spektor)
fly (joke song)
philosophy
lullaby
landed
army*
rockin the suburbs
not the same*
fair (encore)
one angry dwarf and 200 solemn faces (super fast remix) (encore)*

he played 7 of the songs that i hoped to hear. i was a bit nervous at the start because it took a long time for him to come to the tracks i was amped about hearing. it seemed like he structured the start of the show around Way to Normal, but eventually moved along to some of his more familiar songs. as i mentioned in the preblog you never know exactly what to expect from ben. he has quite the repertoire to choose from.

highlights for me:

not the same/army - i'm coupling these because i love them for the same reason: audience participation. the first time i saw ben in concert i didn't get to be apart of the three part harmony or the saxophone/trumpet duet that he leads the audience in when he plays these song. this is what makes ben folds so entertaining - the crowd becomes apart of the song. definitely makes the highlight reel.

one angry dwarf - he played it as the final encore...which i have a feeling he does almost all the time. he played it last when i saw him in des moines too. this has always been one of my favorite songs so it's a great one to end on for me. it's insanely fast to begin with, but just to show off his impressively quick hands - he played it somewhere in the vicinity of 231 times faster. i don't understand how he does it. it's absolutely mesmerizing to watch.

gone - what a surprise! i always forget how great this song is, and i totally didn't expect him to play it^. i don't really have anything more to say about it beyond that. love this song and so pumped that he played it.

great show overall. he's just incredible to see play in person. he just seems so comfortable when he's up there. he talks with the crowd and makes up random songs while he's up there. he tried his best to make up a song about some big eyed fly that he saw on stage mid-show (that's the song 'fly' that you might not have recognized on the set list), but he was totally failing coming up with interesting lyrics about it so he decided to bail himself out by telling jokes in verse form instead. including but not limited to The Pirate Joke.

and i TOTALLY called him doing something sweet with the 'free coffee' track. turns out here's how he got that wacky sound: he takes an altoid box, wedges it into his piano, turns an effect on, and it suddenly sounds completely different.

well guys. that's all i know.

-ap.

^ - other songs i didn't expect to hear: sentimental guy, lullaby, cologne, JESUSLAND, and fair for an encore!?! freaking awesome. that's my #4 highlight probably.

ben folds comes to kstate - preblog.

today is a big day, and not only because i've blogged three times today.

i am going to see ben folds play music about half a mile from my home at bramlage coliseum. this will be the second time i've seen ben in concert. the first time was in des moines in summer 2007. when his latest album came out in october i wasn't terribly enthusiastic about it, but the more time i've put into it the more i've really enjoyed a handful of the songs on there. i don't like it as much as most of his other LPs, but it's alright. i just hope he doesn't structure his show around it.

here is what i'm hoping to hear tonight:

- one angry dwarf and 200 solomn faces
- narcolepsy
- army
- the last polka
- trusted
- you to thank
- not the same
- hiroshima (b-b-b-benny hit his head)
- dr. yang
- underground
- jackson cannery
- some unbelievable cover you'd never expect from ben*
- some random song he wrote this afternoon**

if i hear a handful of these songs...lets say 7 of them...then this show will be epic. but you never know what to expect from ben. the guy is one of the most theatrically spontaneous artists ever. i could be 100% off the mark, but even if he doesn't play a single one of these - i'm certain that he'll rule.
kthxbye.

-ap.

oh one more addition: i hope he does something great with the synth track on "free coffee". i feel like that song has a lot of potential for greatness in a live show with ben. we'll see. sort of a hopeful prediction.

* - examples: postal service - such great heights, ray charles - them that got,

** - when i saw him in des moines he played a song called "march to reenergize iowa" that he'd written the afternoon before the show. he pulled the lyrics from some flier someone handed him while he was walking around downtown DM. so who knows what i'll hear tonight...ben probably doesn't know himself.

sorry ben.

i need to apologize to ben folds for publicly bashing his new album online. i was naive and had clearly not digested enough of your album to write a decent album review. Way to Normal is pretty great. not life-changing, but great. i still think you've gotten angry, or maybe you just fooled me all those years with songs like "brick" and "jesusland". i guess you've just taken your anger and put it into pretty chords and terrific harmonies.

you rule man. i'm sorry. you're still in my favorite artists on facebook.

-ap.

Review: Way to Normal

somehow in the transition period after the Rockin the Suburbs/Songs for Slverman era and now Ben Folds managed to create himself as solely a performer. no one could ever develop an argument against ben's ability to entertain the masses - he stands on his piano, plays with his toes, and conducts audiences in three part harmonies - who knows what he'll do next. when i saw him in des moines when he was touring with john mayer last year he finished off one angry dwarf by chucking his tripod stool at the keys for the final chord.

but it seems to me that his ability to entertain hasn't crossed over well into his LPs. he's gone from a great artist who happens to be an incredible entertainer to a great entertainer who doesn't consistently put out solid work with which to entertain.

that isn't to say that Way to Normal is awful, but it's really hard to take him seriously as a 42-year-old. his immaturity is really starting to bother me instead of make me laugh like it used to. songs like "bitch went nuts" (a detailed account of what his girlfriend did to wrong him) - and "effington" (a ballad incorporating extensive use of the word 'effing') just don't thrill me anymore. when he's on stage improvising tracks like these on stage they're hilarious, but in album form i can't help but wish there was a heavier theme behind some of his songs.

he does throw down a solid synth track in "free coffee" a catchy head-bopper in "you don't know me" - with regina spektor - and a thundering piano track in "hiroshima (b b b benny hit his head)". the album isn't a total bust, but overall it's a relatively weak record (much like the handful of EPs he's released since Songs for Silverman). he just comes across as ticked off.

however, i'll be thankful to know all of these songs when he starts performing them live soon. i'm beginning to feel like his only motivation in releasing new tracks is so that the crowd will know them when he entertains with them later. it's not a total bust, but i would've been much more pleased with a less-angry LP.

-ap.

EDIT: upon further review, the pound-it-out piano tracks are super fun when driving and when cleaning my room. it's a productive album apparently, and i can't wait to see ben perform these.