Ben Folds @ DAR Constitution Hall
Written and photographed by Martin Locraft
Having never seen Ben Folds before, I didn't quite know what to expect heading into last night's show at Constitution Hall. I was told that "he always brings it live" and that I should "be ready to laugh," but neither of those things were necessarily going to turn a good show into a great one. Many acts "bring it live" on a regular basis, and sometimes inserting laughter into a musical performance is akin to introducing politics – most people are there to hear the music, not what you think. As Matt Nathanson (a funny musician in his own right) eloquently said, "the rock and rollers don't need to be smart… they just gotta put a big cucumber in their pants and just kinda dance around."
All vegetables aside, Ben Folds put on a brilliant show at the stately downtown venue, introducing fans to a plethora of songs from his upcoming release, "Way To Normal", and to an encore full of mostly classic material. I don't know his catalog beyond the few radio hits he's had over the years, but the new music that I heard – actually, that everyone heard, as last night's crowd was "the first to hear all [their] new shit" – was very impressive. Ben Folds and his bandmates provided a great mix of classically-driven piano tracks, "melodramatic pop songs" and, to maintain the status quo, songs titled "Bitch Went Nuts" and "The Frown Song."
A continuation of "Bitch Went Nuts," which Folds creatively called "Part II," got by far the biggest laughs of the night. The lyrics – about a girl that the singer took to a holiday party and who turned out to spew so much politico that he felt that when he closed his eyes, it was like "f—king Jimmy Carter" – were cheesy, but in a way that only the handsomely-geeky man in the dark-rimmed glasses could get away with.