2nd
ben folds at purdue.
I saw Ben Folds at Purdue University this past Friday and it was probably the best concert I have ever been to. He sounded great and he is an unreal piano player- I think I could watch him bang out songs all day on it. He recently finished recording a new CD, and we were one of the first people to hear some of the new songs. They sounded great, and he added new sounds to his music that I have not heard from him before. In one song, he put a tin plate inside the piano to make a synthetic noise, and also used his hands to manipulate the sound within the piano. It was awesome to hear the new sound coming from a traditional grand piano.
Ben Folds was very interactive with the audience, as usual. He told hilarious antecdotes throughout the show, and he was funny as hell. He also told us that he needed to record some noises from the audience for his new CD- he directed us to cheer, gasp, and clap while his crew recorded us (I’m hoping this wasn’t a marketing scheme to convince us to buy his new CD). He also had the audience harmonize during the song “Not the Same.” Ben Folds played for nearly 2 hours! I was very impressed. Needless to say, his charisma, energy, and talent made me appreciate his music even more; I would go see him in concert again in a heart beat. And I’ll be buying his new album…considering the fact that I’m ON it! (or so I think…)
Funny Ben Folds story: He told us he was in Japan on one of his tours, and was walking onto the stage to begin his performance when he accidentally tumbled right off the edge and hit his head on cement. He had a concussion, but got up anyway, walked back up on stage, and started playing his first song. When he looked down at the keys of the piano, there was blood all over the keys! He wrote the song “Hiroshima” for his new album that tells this story- the song is even funnier.
