Australia show - Sydney Opera House

Gig was absolutely amazing. Third time seeing Ben, and first as a solo show and I have to say this was probably my favourite. Ben's stage presence was amazing. The Not The Same harmony sonuded absolutely gorgeous.

Yay, was awesome!

Maybe I'll try to recreate the setlist from memory...

Free Coffee
Annie Waits

Jesusland
All U Can Eat

Picture Window
Levi Johnston's Blues
Your Dogs?

Sentimental Guy
Lullabye
Effington
Landed

Bitch Went Nuts (fake)
You Don't Know Me
Such Great Heights


One Down
Rockin the Suburbs
Kate
Dr Yang
Army

Not the Same
Zak and Sara

Awesome set...21 songs... I thought that was huge.. then I check other sets he's played recently and he's played up to 29 songs! Damn. When did he start playing such long shows? I feel ripped now!

Pretty sure I got all the songs.. but the order is a bit iffy.

I am pretty poor.. but I am working a lot this week.. so I am tempted to go again on Sunday.

Shame about the crowd, as there was a mix of a lot of older people in there too... maybe fans from the symphony shows? And the way the ticketing works all the fans that know the parts and what not are spread throughout the concert hall.. not congregated at the front like a standing room only show.

The crowd took a while to warm up to the sing along bits.

All in all, a great show. My favourite format, just Ben and the piano

Was Sentimental Guy with the orchestra?!?!..... wait? was this even a symphony show?

I'm a bit confused re-reading through the thread.

was awesome - did manage to get it recorded, but struggling to get it off my device (iphone). wouldn't be great quality though. f*cking great show.

Great to hear these reports.

I'm going tonight. 2nd row, centre. Very exciting.

I'm looking to get it all on my phone too... but it'll probably suck for various reasons.

1. It's a phone recording
2. I'll be cheering and singing along etc...
3. number 2.

really pumped about this.

Gee... I havent posted in years.

I'll be wearing my fanclub lanyard.

Last night was my first Folds live experience, and boy did it meet my (rediculously high) expectations - brilliant! I took down the set list:

1. Free Coffee
2. Annie Waits (ft. the crowd on handclaps)
3. Effington
4. Sentimental Guy
5. Lullabye
6. Jesusland
7. All U Can Eat
Selections from the upcoming Folds/Hornby record:
8. Picture Window
9. Levi Johnston's Blues
10. Your Dogs
At this point, he was joined by his 'tribe' on various percussion instruments (including bongos and a roadcase)
11. Bitch Went Nutz
12. You Don't Know Me (ft. the female members of the crowd subbing for Regina Spektor)
13. Such Great Heights
14. Landed
15. Dr Yang
16. Kate
17. One Down
18. Rockin' the Suburbs (audience did 'for some Preparation H' and 'f*ck!')
19. Army (ft. the crowd on vocal brass)

ENCORE
20. Not the Same + extended vocal solo by the audience
21. Zak and Sara

Your Dogs?  I hope someone recorded this show.

P.S.  This Ben guy sure does like writing songs about Dogs.  And cream of wheat.

It was a great show apart from two things:

1. The brass section on Army didnt really work as one part of the audience couldn't really hear the other part'; I think the fact that the choir stalls held so few people was the problem there.
2. The woman behind me (Row R) who insisted on trying to harmonise to every frigging song. Firstly, you are too old to be doing "14 year old in your bedroom" shit like that and secondly, you were out of tune every single time.

Otherwise, it was brilliant.

Was Sentimental Guy with the orchestra?!?!..... wait? was this even a symphony show?

I'm a bit confused re-reading through the thread.

No orchestra. Just solo Ben and Piano. Except for three songs where his "tribe" of percussionists accompanied him, including the guy hitting his studio rack box.
Haha... great show.

2. The woman behind me (Row R) who insisted on trying to harmonise to every frigging song. Firstly, you are too old to be doing "14 year old in your bedroom" shit like that and secondly, you were out of tune every single time.

That can be really annoying, but come on, at least she was enjoying the show. Next time, try and sing along.

Where are the updates from tonight's show guys? come on!

Hey guys.

So here's the update from last nights show.

Firstly i'll give you the set-list. As I lucky enough to get the actual set list.

1. Free Coffee
2. Annie Waits
3. Effington
4. Still Fighting It
5. Gracie
6. Lullabye
7. Ascent of Stan
8. Picture Window (Hornby)
9. Lewis Blues (Hornby)
10. Not the Same
11. Last Polka
12. Bitch Went Nutz (with Tribe)
13. You Dont Know Me (Tribe and Aimee Mann)
14. Wise Up (Cover of an Aimee Mann song)
15. Best Imitation of myself
16. Landed
17. Dr. Yang
18. One Down
19. Zak & Sara
20. Rockin the Suburbs
Encore
21. Such Great Heights

-Songs on the set list that he didnt end up playing - Army & Kate.

Bummer about not getting those last two songs. But that's ok. I'm pretty pumped. I was able to get in the backstage waiting area (I had my fan club lanyard on... i was totally lame, but it worked!! it got me in there) hung out waiting for about 50 minutes. He came out. Signed his setlist, signed my shirt for the 5th time and got a few photos.
He was really chilled and relaxed because he hadnt yet stepped outside. Where about 15-20 people were waiting. Once he got out there he was still cool but yea, it was nice having a semi-private moment with him.
I told him that I will try and come to Sunday's show and that if he could play Where's Summer B, it would be great. He told me that Sunday is a 'Requests Only' show. Where the audience make 100% requests. So I immediately rattled off a bunch of songs for him to MUST play. Video, Underground, Where's Summer B. He told me to write it down and he'll rock them out.

So I dont actually have tickets for Sunday night but you can best believe i'll be there with some form of bells strapped to my chest.

I have never sat so close in any show before and to literally watch him 3 metres away playing piano was mesmorising. I am so fulfilled right now!

I also recorded the show on my phone. All 98 minutes of it. I'm going to upload and break it into tracks then work with Andy to get it up on WUWTL.

Peace.


Oh. PS: Aimee Mann, whom I dont really know - she wrote the music for something... anyways, gotta say, even though I dont know her as a performer, that it wasnt her greatest night on stage. But it appeared she didnt really know 'You Dont Know Me'. So yea.
The Hornby songs were just epic. Instant hits in my opinion and that album will dominate!

Quote from: robertanthonyjames on September 01, 2009, 12:04:54 AM

2. The woman behind me (Row R) who insisted on trying to harmonise to every frigging song. Firstly, you are too old to be doing "14 year old in your bedroom" shit like that and secondly, you were out of tune every single time.

That can be really annoying, but come on, at least she was enjoying the show. Next time, try and sing along.

I was singing along but in a 'shouty but in-tune' way.

She was harmonising really, really badly and annoying the shit out of the two women next to me who had never seen Ben live before

wow, so just saw ben twice in two days... pretty fantastic!  it was a shame about the fairly unenthusiastic crowds though...

i was pretty happy with 2 shows, but if sunday is going to be a 100% request show, i'll be there.... can he be trusted to follow through on that???

Firstly i'll give you the set-list. As I lucky enough to get the actual set list.

hey, i think i saw you! just outside the doors on street level. i was all like 'aww, that guy got the setlist'. well done.

yeah, pretty great show. interesting that he reversed the order of the last two songs in the main set. i wonder why? i guess he just felt like one down led more naturally into RTS at the time or something...

i really liked the stage design! with the red draping above the stage and the lights hanging down. that was cool, and made the concert hall feel more intimate... even though i was in a box a million miles from the stage.

i'll be requesting uncle walter on sunday night i think! it's about the only song i've never seen him play live.

Oh. PS: Aimee Mann, whom I dont really know - she wrote the music for something... anyways, gotta say, even though I dont know her as a performer, that it wasnt her greatest night on stage. But it appeared she didnt really know 'You Dont Know Me'. So yea.

i agree! that was a bit distracting actually. it was funny how ben dominated singing her song, but she was a bit iffy on ben's. i was glad to see YDKM get played. actually, the new songs were almost the highlight of the evening for me - if you'd asked me before the show to pick the songs off WTN that i thought were least likely to get played in a solo show, i probably would have said: free coffee, effington, and YDKM. so there you go. well done ben.