It's been too late for a long time.
The ninth time I saw Ben Folds was Monday night with my sister and Mar and Katie, and afterward on the subway, Meg and I figured out what he played. In an imprecise order:
Bastard
Gone
Trusted
Jesusland
Jesusland ["single mix," rewritten to sound like Coldplay/U2]
[unfinished new song]
[Reunited]
You to Thank
Landed
All You Can Eat
Prison Food
Still Fightin' It
Bitches Ain't Shit
[band retreats]
Lullabye
The Luckiest
Eddie Walker
Don't Change Your Plans
Brick
Army
[band returns]
Where's Summer B.?
Zak + Sara
The Ascent of Stan
Rockin' the Suburbs
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
----
Narcolepsy
[backing vocals of Not the Same]
It might've been the longest show I've ever seen him play: two solid hours, two-dozen songs. I don't like his new backing band as much as the one Mar and I saw with him circa Rockin' the Suburbs but I do like the mix of full-band and solo songs. Oh, and I like hearing "Eddie Walker" a whole freaking lot. And it sucks that a Radio City rep came out and told Ben at like 10:58PM that if he didn't get off the stage by 11 it would cost him $10,000. Would Radio City really get so screwed over if they let him the five minutes to play all of "Not the Same"?
And so Ben Folds ascends the chart of rock&roll acts I've seen the most (if you count his solo and with the Five performances together):
1. They Might Be Giants (29x)
2. Ben Folds/Five (9x)
3. OK Go (8x)
4. Rilo Kiley (5x)
4. Flaming Lips (5x)
6. The Dismemberment Plan (4x)
6. Lincoln (4x)
6. Ben Lee (4x) (zer?!)
9. everyone I've seen three times, which is a bunch of people, but Mountain Goats will surely leapfrog up from those ranks soon, and so would the White Stripes if their tickets weren't so effing expensive
Bastard
Gone
Trusted
Jesusland
Jesusland ["single mix," rewritten to sound like Coldplay/U2]
[unfinished new song]
[Reunited]
You to Thank
Landed
All You Can Eat
Prison Food
Still Fightin' It
Bitches Ain't Shit
[band retreats]
Lullabye
The Luckiest
Eddie Walker
Don't Change Your Plans
Brick
Army
[band returns]
Where's Summer B.?
Zak + Sara
The Ascent of Stan
Rockin' the Suburbs
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
----
Narcolepsy
[backing vocals of Not the Same]
It might've been the longest show I've ever seen him play: two solid hours, two-dozen songs. I don't like his new backing band as much as the one Mar and I saw with him circa Rockin' the Suburbs but I do like the mix of full-band and solo songs. Oh, and I like hearing "Eddie Walker" a whole freaking lot. And it sucks that a Radio City rep came out and told Ben at like 10:58PM that if he didn't get off the stage by 11 it would cost him $10,000. Would Radio City really get so screwed over if they let him the five minutes to play all of "Not the Same"?
And so Ben Folds ascends the chart of rock&roll acts I've seen the most (if you count his solo and with the Five performances together):
1. They Might Be Giants (29x)
2. Ben Folds/Five (9x)
3. OK Go (8x)
4. Rilo Kiley (5x)
4. Flaming Lips (5x)
6. The Dismemberment Plan (4x)
6. Lincoln (4x)
6. Ben Lee (4x) (zer?!)
9. everyone I've seen three times, which is a bunch of people, but Mountain Goats will surely leapfrog up from those ranks soon, and so would the White Stripes if their tickets weren't so effing expensive