Ben Folds and Sara Barielles--the recap

...about a million years late, I know. I've been busy!

Anyways, I went to see Ben Folds back during first semester, Sara Barielles in February, and then...wait for it....Sara Barielles AND Ben Folds at MIT's spring concert a few weeks ago.


First - I want to give Ben Folds a lot of credit for trying something new in the first concert (the first concert of his tour, actually) -- he played all of his new stuff for an hour and went on to play an hour of old stuff. It didn't work. At all. I was pretty entertained by the fact that he and his bands recorded a fake album to leak...with all the same song titles. Love it. BUT --the audience didn't know what was going on with the music, and got kinda bored, which is really lame. Especially for a concert.

So--I was very glad to see him mix it up for the MIT concert. He also sang a song with the lyrics "I'm at MIT where they know technical intelligent shit" which yes, made my night. The concert was also in a gym prompting him to say "and then there's this echo thing. And it makes me feel like there is always someone there who is reminding me how stupid I am." (promise it was funnier live).

There was also someone (I'm pretty sure I know her) who shouted "Go french horn!" after a there was a French horn counter-melody that was played by a real-live hornist on stage. He stopped noodling on his keyboard, looked into the audience, and said, "You know this is a sophisticated place when people get excited about a French horn. Because man....most colleges don't give a fuck."

And Sara was great - I love her style and silly stories ("So--I was reading a random review someone sent me of one of my shows, and it said that I wrote this next song about my dad, because, you know, he left when I was younger. [pause] Too bad that's not true"). She also brought out her ukelele for the last few songs, which was fantastic:

Sara playing Rhianna's "Umbrella" on ukelele = epic. (and don't miss the Eagles in there, too!)




Ben Folds also did a pretty epic version of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit," (note--profanity-filled)




(also, I'd really like to know how these people smuggled in video cameras, because there were four metal detectors and full strip search at the entrance..so yes. I'm confused).

And one of my favorites:

Ben Fold's Effington (notice the shout out to Normal, Illinois!)




However - I'm hoping to branch out next year. Hopefully Beiruit comes into town. Please?