Stairway2Drew's Full Review: Ben Folds Live [PA] by Ben Folds
You may not have guessed it from my latest spate of Bruce Springsteen reviews - and the unwieldy length of them, implying that i'd spent a few hours too many on my lifelong Boss kick - but I'm on a huuuge Ben Folds kick right now. The Folds obsession hasn't been nearly as lifelong as the Springsteen one; I was born and bred in New Jersey, Bruce is practically pumping through our veins. I didn't get into Ben Folds when he headed up Ben Folds Five and "Brick" became a hit in 1997; nor did I get into Ben Folds when an album with a title as unwieldy as The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner hit the new release bins in '99. It took Ben's first single as a solo artist - "Rockin' the Suburbs" - and its cheeky video for me to sit up and say "hmm...". The rest is, naturally, history.
But perhaps the fact that I didn't discover Ben until his post-Five days contributes directly to my lack of indignance regarding the disbandment of the Five. During BF5's heydey, I was a high school student trying to figure out what "Ben Folds Five" referred to - was it some obscure poker term that I, a non-poker-player (but an advocate and organizer of games of strip Uno), simply didn't get? What does, exactly, Ben fold five of? These conundrums - and BF5's hearty endorsement by a friend who, when given the shaft by his girlfriend, mumbled the chorus of some song i didn't know involving a biitch who apparently owes some money - couldn't even persuade me to check out a piano-rock trio. Then, of course, I got over all of my stigmas, and suddenly the idea became very cool to me - and then Keane came along and screwed it all up, but i'm getting ahead of myself.
But maybe that's why I so eagerly accept Ben Folds, the solo artist. Of course, after getting into the guy, I went through his entire career in retrospect, and the self-titled Ben Folds Five album may be, retroactively, my favorite Ben Folds-related album (it at least gives Rockin' the Suburbs a run for its money) - so there's always gonna be a space for Ben Folds Five in my heart. But I don't resent Ben's post-Five career. There are those who say he's turned into Elton John, but then again I'm enough of an Elton John fan that that doesn't strike me as in the least anti-complimentary, and anyways he's nothing like Elton John. It's kinda like saying that Metallica's James Hetfield begs obvious comparison to Bob Dylan, since they both sing and play guitar. I didn't grow up with BF5; I grew up with Ben Folds, to the extent that you can "grow up" with somebody when you discover them at age 18.
So when Ben Folds releases an album that's entirely Ben Folds - literally, just Ben and a piano - I'm down. Sure, for Five devotees there's a certain sacrilege in daring to perform these songs sans Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee; but then again, it's fascinating to see these songs re-worked, and stripping a song down to a voice and an instrument almost always reveals whether it's any good or not. Ben Folds Live culls together all sorts of Ben Folds material - stuff from all the BF5 albums, stuff from Ben's solo album, and a handful of delightful rarities that make Ben Folds Live even more necessary - and funnels them into an expansive, exquisitely unique package.
**
"We've got, uh, enough people in here to get a biitchin' horn section. So let's cut the audience down the middle - this side's saxophones, this side's trumpets. This side goes, 'ba ba ba, ba-ba ba ba ba, ba-ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba.' This side goes, 'ba ba ba, ba ba BA BA ba ba, ba ba BA BA ba ba, ba-da-ba'..."
Right before launching into beloved Ben Folds Five cut "Army," Ben Folds encourages audience participation, engaging the audience while inventively managing to replicate the swingin' original by coaxing a mass vocalisation to compensate for the lack of real brass. It's one of the most exciting tracks on Ben Folds Five - in part due to the audience-manufactured horn section, in part due to the sheer exuberance of the performance, and in part due to the way Ben replicates his former bandmates' parts (you're gonna have to listen for yourself - it's tons of fun). And then, of course, there's the way he replaces the final "thought about the army" to "thought about your mommy," which is of course neither inventive nor indictative of a performer's maturation, but will derive puerile chuckles from anyone with intimate knowledge of the original.
And this is what Ben Folds does for the duration of his live album. He takes cuts that originated with his swingin' three-piece band, and simply reconfigures them using the scope of his 88 keys, making sure that the energy of the originals is never lost in translation; he takes cuts that he recorded himself (like all of the Rockin' the Suburbs tunes) and simply transplants them in front of an audience. And, of course, he takes songs that originated as somber piano cuts ("Fred Jones, Part 2," "Brick," "The Luckiest") and plays them straight. And somehow, they never seem superfluous.
The best interpretations of BFF material come from the Ben Folds Five self-titled, from way back in 1995. This might be because they're the best songs, period, but that album relied so heavily on the band's remarkable chemistry (and the taut interaction of workouts like, say, "the Last Polka"); still, fervently attacking the ivories on something like "Philosophy" - one of the finest tunes the Five ever rocked - Ben reminds us why, exactly, the band was named after him, in one of the finest power-pop performances i've ever heard. That he ends the song by seguing into a kickin' rendition of surf guitar classic "Miserlou" is icing on the proverbial cake. Even a song like "the Last Polka" - which remains, in its original incarnation, one of the only piano-rock songs kinetic enough to mosh to - doesn't lose intensity in translation.
Curiously, Ben Folds Live is short on selections from the second Five album, Whatever and Ever Amen, an album that reveals more and more charms on each subsequent listen (but doesn't approach being quite as charming as Ben Folds Five), and proved to be the band's commercial breakthrough; "Brick," of course, is here, and it would be an act of titanic commercial stupidity to try to avoid including it, and the rockin' "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces," but that's where it ends. Final album the Autobiography of Reinhold Messner restrains its selections to "Army" and "Narcolepsy" - perhaps wisely, as Reinhold Messner is far from beloved by the general Ben Folds-loving populace.
Fortunately, these album tracks are strewn throughout, interacting with newer Folds solo cuts and rarities; the tunes from Rockin' the Suburbs come across wonderfully, particularly "Zak and Sara" (which sounds better here) and "Fred Jones Part 2" (heartbreaking). "Not the Same," though, is notable for Ben exhibiting a further knack for encouraging audience participation, this time summoning an eerie chorale to intone the chorus's spooky background vox; and "The Luckiest," already a pretty, damn-near-solo piano ballad to begin with, is stunningly touching in most any incarnation, and loses none of its resonance in its transition to the stage.
What makes Ben Folds Live essential, apart from the fact that it rocks and it would be essential anyway, is the inclusion of some tasty rarities. "One Down" is the real coup here, Ben's cheeky kiss-off to a record company demanding a difficult 4.6 songs from the singer; lines of rambling nonsense interact with the songs most telling line: "this is one i finished yesterday, and I've got 3.6 to go." Ben's reliable falsetto makes the chorus super-catchy, and a great third verse wraps up with a self-knowing "I could be bussing tables, I could well be pumping gas/ but I get paid much finer for playing piano and kissing asss." Storied rarity "Emaline" drops by at a fan's request, and a cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" should fill with unbridled joy anyone who's ever seen "Almost Famous." Even a tossed-off ditty like "Rock This Biitch" is charming, as Ben responds to an audience member's urging. "I'm gonna rock this biitch," he croons over some classical piano, "I'm gonna rock it like no biitch has ever been rocked before." Cue Aaron Neville impression. Wonderful.
Unique, clever, and unremittingly fun, Ben Folds Live is simply a wonderful listening experience; no shortage of replay value, no valuable disc space wasted (seventeen tracks!!), and no momentum lost. It's cheeky, and funny, and at times strikingly emotional. Live releases should be more like this - they should offer more to the listener than studio versions spiced up with applause. I'm not big on live releases - but Ben Folds Live is one of my most-played records. So there's incentive. And if THAT's not incentive enough, well, I don't know what more you want from me.
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