Anyone that's seen Ben Folds in concert typically knows what to expect when he makes his rounds throughout the country. Raucous piano mixed with enough cursing to make Mr. Pink blush have always been his trademark, and last night at First Avenue, that tradition stayed intact. Ben Folds has received a ton of press lately...maybe the most he's gotten his entire career. Thanks to Lonely Avenue, his recent collaboration with wordsmith Nick Horby, and the a capella centric competition The Sing Off, the horn-rimmed heartthrob turned host has been introduced to a whole new generation of fans. Being that I've seen him (or his dearly-departed "Five") a solid eight times, I went in with some higher expectations than much of the sold out First Avenue crowd.
After Sing Off Runner-ups Street Corner Symphony surprisingly got the crowd buzzing, Folds took the stage with every intention to showcase Lonely Avenue heavily. He kicked off his set with "Levi Johnston's Blues," arguably the most talked about track on the new record, thanks to its digs at Sarah Palin, her uncoordinated daughter Bristol and the major toolbox for whom the song is named. 30 seconds into the song, Folds was improvising lyrics as his bass player was seen but not heard. After attempting to salvage the song, Folds just abruptly ended it, allowing for the tech crew to make the bass operational again. To fill time, he did the only thing that made sense....told us about a nightmare he had, which somehow involved Sting forgetting the names of his Police bandmates.
While Folds has been known to stop in the middle of songs, the technical difficulties on the very first one of the evening seemed to rattle him just slightly. The next few songs seemed a little shaky as he was trying to make up for what happened early on. He played a couple more tracks off the new record before he was able to get the crowd pumped again...and that was thanks to a cover...of Ke$ha's "Sleazy." Yup. You read that correctly. After Folds and the four musicians that accompanied him ripped through a rearranged version of a Top 40 hit, they really hit a groove. Excellent renditions of "Cologne" and "Still Fighting It" were followed by boisterous versions of "Effington," "Annie Waits" and "Zak & Sara."
As expected, Folds did his improvisational "Rock This Bitch" near the end of the evening, immediately followed by his biggest crowd-pleaser, the participation-warranted "Army." The quick encore that followed included "Rockin' The Suburbs," a brief and curious take on "Hava Nagila," and his go-to closer of late "Not The Same."
While the concert got off to a rocky start, Folds recovered admirably and provided the crowd an entertaining evening filled with at least 350 f-bombs. I can't say it was his best Minneapolis performance (and it's going to be hard for him to ever top his night with the Minnesota Orchestra on Halloween 2009), but he didn't disappoint.
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