"I got my philosphy, keeps my feet on the ground"

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

When I was a Senior at Eastern my roommate Sheri gave me a compliation cd that her boyfriend had made for her. I listened to it a few times not knowing what was really on it. I wrote down on a piece of paper the tracks that I really liked so I could find out who sung them. I remember asking her, "Who sings track #2?" "Ben Folds." What about track #5? "Ben Folds." This went on through all six of the tracks that I liked. I had picked out all of his songs and didn't even know it! Later that year I went to his concert at U of I and loved him even more! Since then I have worn out one of his cds and still listen to him all the time.

So I was thrilled last night when Josh and I saw Ben Folds in concert. He is probably the most talented musician I've seen live. We left for Chicago around 3:30 after almost forgetting the tickets. We got to the city around 5:30 but it took another hour to get downtown and find a parking spot. We finally parked in a lot that was for a little strip mall. There were definitely towing signs but we prayed really hard that we wouldn't get towed.

It's just such a different environment up there. You get honked at if you're not right on the green light, people driving wherever they want to... It was really cool to be downtown though because I had never been. I totally felt like Country Mouse in the big city. I was really glad that Josh was driving. Once we were finally ready to go in I realized that I had my camera in my purse and you couldn't take cameras in. So we walked back out to the car to drop it off and sat there for five minutes trying to decide if we should move the car or if it would be okay. Josh decided that it would be okay so we headed back down the block to the Riviera Theatre.

On the way a guy asked us for a cigarette and when Josh told him that we didn't have any, he was like, "Don't fabricate! If you don't want to give me one, just say no!" That cracked me up...fabricate. The we passed all the scalpers or people looking for tickets and finally got in the front door.

The Riviera is all general admission so we could go wherever we wanted. The place has a lot of character. It seems kind of like a dive when you first walk in but really it's just a little rundown. The sound was still good and it wasn't gross or anything. If anything, it just made it more interesting. It looks well used. We walked down to around the stage trying to figure out where to go. We were about 8 feet from the stage but the thought of standing the whole time and not really seeing that well... It didn't really appeal to me. So we went up to the balcony and found 5th row seats that were pretty good with a nice view of the stage. Of course we were right behind annoying kissy-face couple and an oversized mullet hair pair of Smokey Smokersons who smoked a pack each during the concert. But I didn't let those four ruin my experience.

The opening act was well interesting. A Meatloaf + Jack Black lookalike that played the accordion and had songs that sounded like something James Looney would write. I did some research and after much searching I found out that his name is Corn Mo. He was pretty unique!



FINALLY Ben Folds came out and we were stoked. He sounded awesome. He played song after song, new stuff, old stuff... He rocked. He played Josh's favorite off the new album, "Jesusland" and then played "Underground" which is classic. I love it because the whole audience gets involved. During Underground, everyone was singing along and he looked at the crowd and we all sang, "Hand me my nose ring." Some guy down in the front drew him and Ben Folds showed everyone the picture. The kid asked to hear "Kalamazoo" and even though he didn't remember all the chords Ben kept at it. Towards the end of the concert he had the audience sing the oohs in one of his songs. After the song was over he kept directing the crowd to do the "oohs". He actually jumped up on the piano and was directing us. It was hilarious. He finished the concert with "One Angry Dwarf" at hyper-speed. I couldn't believe how fast he was playing that piano. He just seems so normal and down-to-earth but his talent blows me away.



We headed back to the parking lot hoping that our car was still there. On the way a lady came up to Josh and offered him "half a million for your girl". Josh said that I was worth more than that and she went on and on about how pretty I was. She said she was giving credit where credit was due. Then she said that she just got out of jail and needed forty more cents for a beer. Josh gave her the change that he had. He told me that he's a sucker for anyone who thinks his "wife" is pretty. I told him that she was just trying to get his money. We rounded the corner and our car was still there!! Thank goodness. Josh got us out of the city and then I drove the rest of the way home.

It was a late night but Ben Folds was totally worth it.

Labels: music

posted by kimberly, 10:15 AM