John Mayer and Ben Folds - TD Banknorth Garden 07/17/07
I'd seen both John Mayer and Ben Folds play before, but not from the second row, and not with one of the only people I know who'd appreciate and enjoy it as much as I did.
Hannah and I rolled into North Station in the early evening Tuesday after months of agonizing concert anticipation. I had purchased our tickets as a birthday gift for Hannah back in March, a span of time that seemed nearly endless. But now finally we had made it into Boston with little stress and were set to meet the buyer of my extra set of tickets for that night's show. I had ordered those tickets during the stressful internet pre-sale only to search again hours later and find a better set. After listing them on a message board or two, the first set was quickly snatched up by a young woman from the Boston area who had missed out on the pre-sale. Just as we began to grow impatient outside of the boxoffice area she showed up, we made the money/ticket exchange and Hannah and I headed out to find some food and were back at the Garden at around 6:30 to file up the stairs and down to our seats in Section A, Row 2.
We were met by a rather rude ticket checker in the front section who seemed determined to keep any miscreants from gaining access to his prime seating domain. He seated us (there were only a handful of people already there) and proceeded to check our tickets again about 5 minutes later. Evidently we looked like trouble. I commented that the venue had clearly wanted to make as shitty an impression as possible on the primarily fan-club members in the front sections in order to get a bum rap on the internet. I saw no other motivation for assigning that particular gentleman to the front sections.
Once we reached our seats and took a moment to reflect on our good fortune I was quick to notice that Folds' piano was already set up and being soundchecked. I had noticed that the third act for the Boston show, James Morrison, had never really been confirmed, and it seemed that my hopes for a Ben and John only show were going to be fulfilled (though Morrison did stroll across the stage at one point playing a tambourine). As the crowd continued to file in, Ben and his band took the stage to moderate applause and a few eager shouts from the Folds faithful.
Ben and the boys ripped through an interesting mix of old and new songs, focusing mostly on his more recent material but mixing in a couple of BF5 tunes, most notably a welcome rendition of "Underground", during which I overheard the woman next to us ask her daughter if it was new.
In general I would say that it was fairly clear the majority of folks were there to see Mayer. Granted, this was his tour and no amount of sidestepping or ass kissing would convince me that he wasn't aware of that fact. There are arguments from both sides about having Folds and Mayer on the same bill and while I am a fan of both, I would have to say that the pairing is indeed odd. Folds music seems much better suited to smaller venues where he can work his particular brand of nerdy coolness with a fully invested and attentive audience. His style of show, while still enjoyable, just doesn't lend itself sa well to the arena atmosphere. It his defense however, he still put on a strong show and made the most of his opportunities to ham it up. But during the nearly inaudible singalong for "Not the Same" it was clear that the vibe of this Folds gig would be quite different the show I saw a couple of years ago at UNH.
That not withstanding, Hannah and I still very much enjoyed his set, and there was plenty of fun to be had. Folds commented on his recent acquisition of a number of sythisizers and his recent infatuation with them. He demonstrated their capabilities by playing a few low Hertz frequencies and claiming that he was approaching the brown note, saying "I asked John and he said it was ok if I made you all shit your pants". Though no pants shitting was reported, the notes certainly were loud and a bit painful to listen to, adding to the quirkyness that has become a Folds show staple.
Folds, never one to stand on ceremony, made sure to avoid being "the guy sitting at his piano" for the entire show. He played a maraca at times, stood on his piano to lead a singalong and made good use of his synthisizers more portable nature. At one point, in order to play his piano and the sythisizer at the same time, Folds took off his shoe and sock and played with his foot to the joy of the audience (and Hannah, who's always in favor of shoeless activities).
He also stood it up on one end and played it like a keytar, mugging for the crowd and making for a signiture photo opportunity. I found myself reminded of the fact that Ben Folds is able to coax more rock out of a piano than perhaps any human before him.
Folds' talent with the keys was matched by his very capable bandmates and especially his bass player Jared Reynnolds who filled in the low end and high vocals with ease and an engaging stage presence that made me wish we had seats on his side of the stage or that I had at least gotten a decent picture or two.
Overall, Hannah and I both enjoyed Ben's set and she was especially impressed with his muscisianship. Being a piano player herself and never having seen a Folds show she was eager to share her admiration and did so both during and after the show. It's fair to say she'll be throwing some of my Ben Folds stuff on her iPod in the coming weeks and I'll continue to enjoy every piece of piano-infused rock he puts out, including the Live from Mysapce DVD I purchased after the show in the absence of any other decent BF murchandise.
--Full Set--
(out of order)
Gone
Not the Same
Bastard
Jesusland
Landed
All U Can Eat
Such Great Heights
Underground
Narcolepsy
Army
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
Kate
Theme From Dr. Pyser
The break afforded Hannah and I a chance to take in our surroundings. In the fifteen minutes we observed a predomonance of two concert staples which we felt unnecessary; tons and tons of beer and a startling array of completely hooched out arm candy. Without belaboring the point, I never realized being bombed added to a live music experiance. Baseball games, sure, barbeques, perhaps, but I prefer my music intake to outway my alchohol intake at a given time. Secondarilly, who knew that a major arena show was a time to pull out that upper-thigh length jean skirt and off the shoulder, wide-neck sheer blouse, circa 1983. Hannah and I exchanged more than a few startled looks due to these two factors but it made for an entertaining break in the action.
One of the pieces of merch that night was a necklace that held a bright led which a fair number of the concert atendees has chosen to purchase. They created an interesting affect in the dark and I took a moment to look around and snap a couple of pictures before John stepped out onto the stage to thunderous applause.
The stage setup for this tour is relatively minimal. The backdrop is made up of three sets of three monitors hung vertically being fed by a pair of camera men in front of the stage and one behind who took turns filming John and the rest of the band, creating some really cool affects throughout the set. Other than that, some backlit projections on the rear screen and a plethora of other lights made up the rest of the visual stimulation, a departure from the complicated, industrial setup from the winter tour (example). I found myself watching the monitors quite a bit even thouh we were so close to the stage and tried to get a bunch of pictures of some of the choice screen moments.
I only had two small issues with the stage setup. The first was that the band was very spread out so that it was hard to see the always entertaining David Ryan Harris wail away on his guitar. It also put drummer J.J. Johnson and the ever present David LaBruyere on bass directly behind John for most of the show. The other issue was that while the camera men did a wonderful job of helping the folks farther back get a better look at the goings on at stage level, they were also frequently in the way for the folks near the front. While it was a minor annoyance, the camera man closest to us managed to get into nearly all of my pictures and was a frequent distraction. However, I see it as a small price to pay for such amazing seats and the cool visuals the cameras created.
Another intresting part of the scenery were the omnipresent handmade signs that peppered the crowd. It has become common practice for Mayer to address these crafty folks and question them about what they've made. In the case of this show there were only a few and John took time to point out a pair of them (chooseing to ignore the large two part, five foot sign being held up stage left that read "Three Some"). The first was a sign that read "John Mayer, read our sign" on the front. Inviting them to turn it over, the back simply read "Yo Yo". Mayer commented that they had put a lot of work into a sign that they clearly hadn't put a lot of thought into. The second sign he brought to the crowd's attention was being held by a girl directly behind and to the right of us. It read "I cam all the way from VENEzuela" with the word "Venezuela" starting off quite large and tapering off as the creater realized she wasn't going to have enough room. John took note of this and paid the sign maker a complement as she proceeded to absolutely freak out that he was talking to her. You can see how it went down by clicking here. Hannah and I are just off camera to the left.
There was other crowd involvment as well, besides the standard sing-along parts at one point somebody tossed a beach ball up on stage with a message on it. John read it to the crowd, "Please play Wheel tonight tomorrow or Satruday". He pointed out that whoever had thrown it up had given him far too much leaway. "You just stop at tonight, don't give me choices". In general, Mayer seemed to be in particularly good spirits, cracking jokes often and taking extended solos to rock out with and for the cheering bostonians.
In gerneral the band sounded really good and Mayer seems keenly aware of the caliber of muscicians in his band, giving them all their turn to solo, a feat that's pretty impressive given the size of the touring band which also incudes Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Tim Bradshaw on Keyboards, Bob Reynolds on saxophone and flute, and Brad Mason on trumpet. All add their own flavor to well known Mayer songs as well as the new jams that feature a lot more acompanyment. The horns in particular add a lot to the Continuum as well as the touring sound.
I found the set at this show to be particularly fulfilling. While it was overtly Continuum heavy, as one would expect, there were plenty of lesser played favorites and oldschool hits as well. I left feeling like I had heard every song I wanted to and thuroughly entertained rather than lamenting the songs he didn't play. I also spent much of the set marveling at the insane number of guitars in John's posession. While I'm well aware that Mayer makes crazy bank it's still shocking to see a rack with 30 guitars on it. I realize many of them are used as backups in case of broken strings or other malfunctions but it's still impressive and having spent a fair amount of my life around guitars I also appreciate how different a song can sound when played on the right (or often more glaringly the wrong) guitar.
The set came to a close with the crowd pleasing Gravity and John bid the audience a brief goodbye while the crew set up for what would be a very special encore.
Sitting on a stool center stage with minimal lighting and just an acoustic guitar, John announced that we would be playing a medly of the songs he had written during his time at Boston's Berkley College of Music, including some of the first songs he every wrote. It was a major surprise and real treat for some of the more dedicated fans who had never had a chance to hear these old jems. The six minute medely was a highlight of the set for me and made for some great photo opportunities. Check out a video of the encore here.
The show came to a close with an extended jam on the "made to end a set with" I'm Gonna Find Another You. John and the band took the oportunity to soak in the appreicative Boston crowd who didn't stop giving off energy for the entire performance. The whole show had an amazingly positive and fun feel and the smiles and jokes exchanged on stage by John and the band seemed to mirror that.
Of the major stage shows I've seen, this one was the best example of an audience feeding off the band and vice-versa. I couldn't have asked for a better show in better company. It will go down as a forever memory for Hannah and I and I hope to see many John Mayer concerts with her in the future since I don't see him leaving the road for any major length of time any time soon.
--Full Set--
Waiting on the World to Change
No Such Thing
Belief
I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)
Dreaming With A Broken Heart
Clarity
Vultures
Bigger Than My Body
I Don't Need No Doctor
Why Georgia
Gravity
-- encore --
Lifelines > Love Soon > Man on the Side > Comfortable
I'm Gonna Find Another You