Being as self-deprecating as they come, Ben Folds would be the last one to pride himself as a “jet setter.” After performing two days earlier in Tucson, AZ, Folds hopped a plane back to Nashville to re-record a studio track that he acknowledged as “messed up.” So as the rest of his band trucked the two hours up I-10 to Tempe for Monday night’s show, Folds flew back and forth to Arizona in a little more than a day’s time. Along with the plan of downing a bunch of gin and tonics that didn’t do the trick of crashing out on the plane, Folds arrived as his show in Tempe feeling as he put in his own words – “strange.” That evening’s chaotic dust storm didn’t help return things to normalcy either.
Folds (44), dressed in a red polo and black jeans with thick black framed glasses below somewhat short messy hair, looks more like a “behind the scenes guy” (Mike Mogis) or Silicon Valley techie than “leading man.” With rambunctious piano chops on his Baldwin grand that would make Chopin cringe and a whiney voice that is “ok” at best, Folds has earned critical praise by making an “un-rock” instrument (grand piano) quirky, and has earned legions of fans with lyrics that never once check into being undecipherable.
Playing to a half filled room at the atrociously uncomfortable venue The Marquee Theater (the security tried to take this writer’s pen away upon entering), Folds and his four piece band filled up the joy-kill facility by launching into two songs from his recent Lonely Avenue collaboration with author Nick Hornby – “Levi Johnston’s Blues” and “Doc Pumus.” After witnessing a dust-storm roll through the valley pre show, Folds went into one of his many random rants– “ I was happy about the rain, but it was not rain, it was evil. How do you live with that shit?"
Instead Folds lowered his voice into his best Bruce Springsteen and startled the tinkling the ivories to the melody his “Jungleland,” followed by scats about dust flying up his ass. "I suck, I’m so sorry, that was terrible, I love Bruce Springsteen," Folds confessed, explaining how he’s been on a Springsteen bender and plans on using his 1975-1985 live recordings as inspiration for a Ben Folds retrospective. "The best live discs we have heard were Bruce Springsteen’s. We want to make it a quarter as good and here I am mocking him, and now I ruined my voice in five minutes."
Following a spirited version of “Belinda” from Lonely Avenue, Folds dipped into another odd cover – Ke$ha’s “Sleazy,” which he called his favorite song to do in the set. “When I got my degree from entertainer school, they told us to never admit that it was our favorite moment early in the set because it’s all downhill from there,” explained Folds.” And it’s all downhill from here, now we’re just going through the motions."
Before going into “You Don’t Know Me,” Folds explained that it was too expensive to bring the track’s guest vocalist (Regina Spektor) on tour with him and asked the audience to sing her “you don’t know me” lines.
While Folds has a knack for pop sensibilities that rival Elton John, he can get the crowd to sway and sing along to the slow ones (“Fred Jones, Part 2.” “You To Thank,” “Brick”) while mixed along with more upbeat piano rockers “Annie Waits,” “Philosophy,” and “Zak and Sara” – the pre-mentioned song featured Folds standing up to play his Nord keyboard.
Following a discombobulated story about a college roommate who talked like a Fonzi, Folds launching into “Bitch Went Nuts” – his comical song about stabbing a basketball. Following a drawn out version of “The Luckiest,” Folds played into his strange mood once again by paying homage to the dust and jumping into Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind.” Clearly having no clue to the lyrics, he switched to "Carry on my Wayward Son, “ but changed the words to "Even though I was an asshole I still sang and fucked the song up."
And for a finale Folds played his role of Glee conductor and divided the audience into three part harmonies to sing “Not the Same,” his retrospective to an acquaintance’s acid trip turned born again. 28 songs in two hours is nothing to complain about, especially for a guy on less than six hours sleep, with plenty of dust storm related improv. It might be too early in the game too coin Folds as an "American Original," but there’s no argument that his hows certainly fall into the unique category.
