After tramping through the Downs the day before, my feet were not super happy to face another day of high heat and lots of standing. My only consolation was the prospect of a nostalgia filled day of music, the first of which was Ben Folds. My best friend introduced me to his music years ago while he was still part of Ben Folds Five, so I was looking forward to his set, heat baked and swollen footed as I was.
He opened up with "Still Fighting It" and then amped up the crowd a bit with a completely improvised "nice, filthy, broadway song", his words, not mine. You could tell that most of us in the crowd were familiar with his music, especially when he next played "The Secret Life of Morgan Davis". I had the pleasue of standing behind a flock of girls who sang along with relish, as well as in front of a guy who didn't hesitate to shout out that Ben Folds was his hero. The rest of Ben's set contained more of his most popular works like "Zak and Sara", "Landed", and his cover of Dr Dre's "Bitches ain't Shit" in which he picked two people from the crowd to assist him. I hate to say it, but that portion got some boo's due to the rather lame and ridiculous behavior of the two girls that were eventually picked. They just stood up on the stage too far from the mike and half-heartedly sang the words while giggling and holding hands-not good form at all. Lame girls aside, I would thoroughly advise people to go check him out. He's got a decent body of work behind him and he's very charismatic and entertaining live. He finished up with "Steven's Last Night in Town" and then rocked it out on the drums. It doesn't get much better than that. You can check him and his latest release out on his website here.
Photo courtesy of Tarsha Stith
