UK/European Dates - There's More! - 9/April/2008

UK/European Tour 2008 - 9/April/2008

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More New Tracks - Hiroshima and Kylie - 5/March/2008

I've Run Out Of Fingers - 27/February/2008

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Currently on BenFolds.com

Bigger than Elvis: Ben Folds
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 - 12:04 AM If you were to judge the popularity of a musical artist by the number of fan sites now in existence, Ben Folds is apparently more popular than Elvis. The North Carolina-born, piano-playing Folds sees his fans congregating on more than a dozen unofficial sites, trading live recordings, parsing lyrics and completing piano transcriptions. In a time when most fan-driven online content begins with beef-headed YouTube comments and ends with ghastly MySpace page wallpaper, Folds is to be commended for nurturing a true online community of fans. Ben Folds plays The National on Friday, along with Eef Barzelay. The doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35.-- Ryan Muldoon

Ben Folds Rocks Swinney
Ben Folds is a world-renowned singer, songwriter, pianist and rock star, but he seemed more like a friend giving a concert Saturday night - a very talented friend with a lot of money. Click here to read more!

Ben Folds Live
Web Exclusive By Evan Bowles What does Ben Folds have in common with you? Everything. Since his major label debut in 1995 with the Ben Folds Five, he's lived three lifetimes of cathartic, tragic and hilarious moments, and has worked with fervor to share them through song. Since the band's unexpected breakup in 2000, his solo career has proved fruitful in charging forth with his original formula: live life, don't take it seriously. In short, he's a normal dude. Well, a normal dude with an incredible aptitude for musical and lyrical composition. Oh yeah, and he's a total smartass. Folds brought the noise with his Baldwin baby grand to the stage of The National Friday night to a near sell-out crowd. He was joined on stage by Jared Reynolds on bass, and Sam Smith on the kit (that's right, no guitar -- a lineup that's Folds has used since, well, the beginning). Although much of the stage light is shined upon Folds' charismatic prowess, Reynolds and Smith contribute equal parts to the harmony and theatrics. The set consisted of a garden variety of selections from both Ben Folds Five and solo recordings, as well as a few new songs from an album to be released in September. The show's tone was set during the second song, when one of the band's crew members came out onstage, sat in a chair with his back to the audience and played a tambourine. Later, he began a dance routine that looked like it may have choreographed by Napoleon Dynamite. The newbies in the crowd knew they were in for a treat. Another highlight included "Philosophy," from the first Ben Folds Five album, which moved into an extended "Miserlou" beating on the piano, much like his rendition on 2002's "Ben Folds Live" album. The refreshing thing about his jamming is that it does not come off as self-absorbed. All the while, it stays entertaining and throws in a hint of comedic gold. During "Not the Same," a hilarious narrative about a friend who took LSD at a party and stayed in a tree all night, Folds cut the crowd into three harmonious octaves, conducting them like a high school mascot. This same crowd participation continued during "Army," when the crowd cut into two dueling horn sections without prior instruction. Noticeably absent from the set was "Rock This Bitch," a song that Folds always inexplicably makes up on the spot after typical hounding from a handful of fans in the crowd. Although the song was requested on multiple occasions, he chose to move on with the set. However, the true highlight of the night came with a loungey version of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit." This piece was a prime example of Folds' tongue-in-cheek perception of musical performance and a reflection of the fans' openness to a carefree blurring between talent and creative license. Folds has a way of culling everyone into his mission for the evening: to simply love music. After a performance that concluded in just over two hours, the crowd was smiling ear to ear. This was my maiden voyage to The National. Its aesthetics, sound, layout, and many bars, restrooms and optional seating make it a top-notch facility. The renovation efforts truly paid off and were worth the wait. My only suggestion is that the City of Richmond subsidize the cost of drinks with my recently paid personal property tax dollars. Five-dollar PBRs are only going to encourage an increase in drinking bottled water at the shows, and no one wants that.

From 'Rockin' the Suburbs' to bringing down Blackman
Jeanine Budd Issue date: 3/17/08 Section: The Inside If people say that Ben Folds "brought down the house" last night, they're not lying. During the alternative rock artist's 18-song set, an audience member close to the front could see small pieces of the ceiling falling to the stage, something seemingly unnoticed by Folds. "I think we were just dusting off the rafters," said Shawn Wolfgang, the alumni chair for Kappa Sigma, who put on last night's show. "Not too many exciting things have happened in Blackman lately." The show stayed true to the words of the ad released by Kappa Sigma and began promptly at 8 p.m. with a performance from Eef Barzelay in front of a half-filled Blackman Auditorium. Barzelay, a comedic solo act from Nashville who describes himself as "soul" on his website, replaced Your Prom Date, an indie rock group from Chicago who was originally scheduled as the opening act. Barzelay's sporadic body movements, alongside lyrics like: "You look so pretty when you have been drinking / you laugh at all my jokes," and "that was my ass you saw bouncing next to Ludacris," drew laughter from the audience, even if at times the response seemed to be confusion. Just as promised, Folds was on stage by 9 p.m. He began the night with the song "Effington," and followed with "Gone," during which the sitting (and now full) crowd was prompted to stand, and everyone rose to their feet, clapping and singing along. "My favorite song that he played was 'Army,' because it's the song that started me off on him, but the whole show was a lot of good music," said Mike Brown, a sophomore civil engineering major. "I had a lot of fun." Folds didn't have to make much effort to inspire crowd participation during last night's set. In between songs, crowd members would shout out songs to sing and echo back the lyrics if he chose to take a breather for a couple of lines occasionally. At the end of the night, Folds turned to the audience and directed them in a chorus of "ba da ba ba" during the song "Army," before ending with "Rockin' the Suburbs." At many shows, Folds has to teach the audience parts before the song, but this college crowd didn't need such introductions. "I really love it when he had everyone sing along in unison," said Nathan Pierce, a sophomore political science major at Emmanuel College. "By now though, all of his fans know exactly what to do." Of course, it was clear at the close of the concert that the show wasn't over. With the crowd much louder than when Folds took the stage, many of them standing, screaming and pounding on seats, he re-entered for an encore, which included the Ben Folds Five song, "Underground." "I've seen him before at a bigger venue," said Bianca Pier, a sophomore biology major from Siena College who attended last night's show. "I really liked the small venue. And it was also really funny that you could see dust falling from the ceiling. We'll just say that's from the talent." After last night, Folds will be back in the studio for three weeks, wrapping up the recording of a new album, Wolfgang said. Mike McDuffe, a freshman industrial design major at Wentworth Institute of Technology, had a message for anyone who didn't attend the concert. "For these people who missed last night's show, I'm just going to tell them: regret," he said.

Ben Folds College Tour!
Ben signs up for another year of college! Click here to read more about his upcoming college tour.