Ben Folds at the Hollywood Palladium

One of the things I’ve learned about being a semi-regular concert goer is that you never know what’s going to happen from show to show, which is one of the exciting things about live music and the entire experience. On that note (no pun intended) I was able to catch a longtime favorite of mine, Ben Folds, last night at the Hollywood Palladium with my friend Caryl.

First off, one of the things I love about where I live is that I am afforded the opportunity to not have to deal with traffic at times as the Red Line really does go to many a desirous location and last night was no exception. We were able to meet at the North Hollywood station and it was only a 10-ish minute ride to get over to Hollywood/Vine with then a short walk over to the venue.

Of course since I’m “literal man” I saw that the ticket clearly stated 7:30 that at least the doors would be open by then (I didn’t really think the show would start then, though…I think) but upon getting to the front, there wasn’t a single person in line and it looked like nobody was around so we thought that it just meant we got there a little toooooo early (more on this in a moment). With that, we decided to head on over and get a drink at a local watering hole which worked well as we were able to catch a little bit of one of the playoff games, talk a bit, and I had the chance to admire a rather large 60’s era lamp plopped right in front of me.

Anyway, we made our way back to the venue and saw that, ummmmmmm, the entrance is really on the side which would explain the apparent situation from before but it was cool as it still wasn’t even 8:00 yet. With all of this as preface, here are some of my impressions of the show.

Actually before the music started, Caryl was good to point out the number of white guys in their thirties wearing glasses…so my people, it would seem. If I wasn’t so weird about talking to strangers I might have made a few new glasses wearing, vintage clothing adorning, and all around cool folks as friends. Of course once she made this observation we were both on the lookout for “my people” which was a fun game.

Okay, but this is really about music so here we go…really this time. The show started with Ben and singer Sara Bareilles coming out to announce the first part of the show, which was to feature four different a cappella groups performing songs from Ben’s career. Here is a clip of the UCLA troupe singing “Fair” from Ben Folds Five:


Awaken A Cappella “Fair”




After the last of the groups went, Sara said she was having trouble deciding which group won, which was based on audience clapping/yelling, which is always quite scientific. So she said she needed to grab her friend Josh to help with this…and then came out with opera singer Josh Groban. Of course slow guy here didn’t put 5 and 8 together and Caryl had to clue him (oh nice, I switched to the third person) in…and that wasn’t the last time I (or he) was corrected on something. So after that, the show began in earnest…well 20 or so minutes later but whatever.

As for Ben’s set, I got a tad nervous when the majority of the first batch of songs were from the new album as I’m not a massive fan of the disc and I usually prefer to see artists give really varied sets as it keeps it interesting. I had nothing to fear as in the middle of the show, the rest of the band went off stage and Ben played a good number of songs, with many of them being more obscure songs from his catalog. Needless to say I did not think I was ever going to hear a live version of “The Secret Life of Morgan Davis” which is a total “mailing it in” song he wrote just to fulfill a contractual obligation years ago. Although I did enjoy the little bit below which is a jingle he wrote for a Japanese radio station.



After the middle portion, the band came back to finish up and go through the encore. The songs became a lot more varied from across the catalog and the two aforementioned special guests performed songs with Ben and here they are.

You Don’t Know Me (featuring Sara Bareilles)



Still Fighting It (featuring Josh Groban)



Both performances were definite highlights although the closer was fantastic and unexpected to me. Ben introduced the song as one of the few true collaborations he’s been a part of and went into a cover of a Dr. Dre song. Now, silly guy here thought, “Wow, I didn’t know Ben and Dr. Dre did a song together” and it was comedy gold when I brought up my surprise on the walk back to the red Line station as I was corrected by Caryl that, wellllll, it was really just a cover. Wow, I’ll believe anything…oh and this performance is also on youtube but since this is a blog family members read, I thought I shouldn’t do anything to have people question my taste in music to have me stumble back with something about “being ironic” but I’ll just say this…youtube Ben Folds Palladium and the magic will happen.

Anyway, it was good times and I’m glad we were able to get out and see Ben. It had been far too long for me, as I hadn’t seen the guy since grad school, and I hope it’s not that long again until the next show. Now, I have a few weeks until the Camera Obscura gig…