Media and Trailers
Ben Folds Pittsburgh Concert reviews
Not What I Expected in Knoxville
I came to this concert with high expectations. I will readily admit that my expectations were based on my limited exposure to his music of several years ago. I expected to hear a highly piano driven style. I was anxious when I did not see a grand piano on the stage. The yMusic group supporting him looked interesting and sounded very talented and skilled. After a few songs I noticed that I could hardly hear the piano. The yMusic mostly diluted his playing with very poor balance. I could not understand his lyrics. I have been to many dozens of live concerts in my 64 years, several at this venue. This was one of the worst concerts I have ever attended. . I considered leaving but hoped things might improve. I really enjoyed the style of The Ben Folds Five and have much on my iPod. This current stuff is crap. Too much time spent trying to banter with the audience.
I feel like the luckiest
Ben Folds has had an amazing career. Over that career he’s been a prolific songwriter. All this comes to a glorious head at his paper airplane request tour. The first set was a predetermined group of his music where he explains the origin of the songs he. Then there’s a break where you grab some paper. When he comes back for the second set the fans write their requests in the form of paper airplanes and fly those paper airplanes to the stage. He then picks 10 at random for what ends up being a magical ending. In this particular evening he ended with the luckiest. Which is particular special for me since this is my 10th wedding anniversary and that was the song that my wife and I danced to in our wedding! Overall something I think that was very very special that I feel blessed to have been a part of! Tall Heights opened for him and I must add here that they were an incredible band that I’ve never heard of! Well worth your time to check them out!
So good!
This was my first seeing the ASO since I moved to GA. It's a great venue and the ASO is phenomenal! I love that Ben Folds is playing with orchestras now. It's a quite a different experience than just hearing a live band play their tunes. The scope of the music is really expanded when you add a full orchestra.
I got a little turned around trying to find the parking garage amongst the one-way streets, but we got there eventually. There was plenty of signage for valet parking, but not clear signage to get to the garage. I think the normal walking paths are closed off due to Covid, so we had to walk around the buildings to get the front of the venue, but it wasn't too confusing.
Ben Folds at Sound Board Motor CIty Casino
The opening act was Jason Waggoner and he was a very good singer. He seemed nervous and talked a lot between songs and tended to ramble, but when he perfromed it was very good. Ben always puts on a solid show. However, it was a little bit difficult at times to hear is vocals about the piano playing. The show seemed a bit rushed and shorter than usual. He ever seemed to not take the time he usually does after someone says "Rock this bitch" to creat a song at the moment which is also a trademark of every show he does. He has so many songs and since this tour was just himself at the piano, I am surprised he has been keeping to a setlist that does not vary from show to show. I loved the idea when people would thow a piece of paper on stage or zoom a paper airplane and he would read it and play that song. I was thankful he played Fred Jones Part II as he frequently leaves that great and poignant song out of his show. I liked that he ended the show, with the encore being The Luckiest, which has become such a fan favorite years after it initially came out.