Oodleday

Ben Folds Day has come and gone; the wall hangings are stored for next year and the ashes of the sacrifices have been spread over the doorframes of our cousins. All good things must come to an end, but not before they are recapped.

Friday was a big day. It was. I got to work at ten and reminded everyone in the general vicinity that it was BFD, and they wished me fun at the radio thing.
Getting to the radio station wasn’t hard, but navigating the communication buildings was a bit more difficult. It was all thiswaythatwayupstairsdownstairs and my yoga breathing wasn’t helping me calm down- I was too excited and nervous; I had no clue what was going to happen at all. For all I knew it could be me, Ben and John Aielli stuffed in a room the size of a portapotti. Not that that would be bad but John Aielli and I haven’t really been introduced, you know?
So I get off the elevator and luckily my KUT contact was readily available and he pointed me in the right direction.

There were about… 8-12 people in the control room and the adjoining hallway. Ben was in the actual studio with John. The show was made up of our requests (Careless Whisper was requested by me as part of an offhand comment- elated as I was that he actually played part of it, I never EVER thought he would because as far as I know he’s only played it in full that one time at Wolf Trap in 2004, with Rufus Wainwright). It was really cool because it was obvious that we all had very different relationships with Ben’s music, you know? I don’t mean to be corny, but there’s not really another way to say it. There were a couple of us who seemed to be Ben-as-solo-artist fans and a few who were Ben-folds-five-forever fans and a few of my fellow sing-the-phone-book-and-I’ll-buy-it-on-vinyl fans. It was a good group of songs, but sadly it was almost as if John had never heard of Ben before that morning. Sigh. He’s a good interview though, affable and off-the-cuff.

After the 30-40 minute concert was done they whisked him away and there was no meeting and/or greeting. Sad, but by the time I made it back to my office they had someone else in there doing a live set so I guess them’s the breaks.

I went through the rest of my workday in a haze.

Left work at the appropriate time, drove around looking for a good parking spot and an ATM until sixish. Got into an already long line for quite some time until I hear that while the doors were opening at 7 the opener would be going on at 9 and Ben would take the stage at 10:15.

The hell you say!?

I promptly get out of line, having secured my wristband, and go a little ways down the street to Stubbs-the-restaurant (as opposed to Stubbs-the-venue) and have some dinner. Mmm, meat.
After dinner I see that Halie’s called me and that she and her merry band have arrived. Yippee! I go out to meet them and her bf & co. leave to go have drinks until someone takes the stage. Ah well. More Halie for me. We hang out during the Corn Mo set (that guy’s a genius) and then Craig comes back and we all go to the back of Stubb’s so we can see.

The thing about Stubb’s outdoor venue is that it is gigantinormous and holds many many many people. At least a billion. So were standing in the back and Halie bets me dinner that I can’t politely push my way through the crowd to say, 20 feet from the stage.

On that note:

REASONS IT’S GREAT TO BE BUILT LIKE A LINEBACKER

1. Nobody really impedes your forward motion.

Halie lost her bet and I was live from the second row, having “excuse me, I’m SO sorry, excuse me”’d my way through hundreds of people. This behavior has been chastised on this site before. One guy called me out on it and yeah, I felt like a douchebag. I gave him some story about meeting my friend up there and even sent a few distressed “where r u“ text messages to “Ishmael”. The entry “Ishmael” on my phone is actually the number for Sober Ride. I’m a jerk.

Any guilt I felt over muscling my way towards Ben was swiftly forgotten when this drunk couple makes their way directly behind me and then STARTS SMOKING. The guy has one hand near my butt at all times and is literally bending to and fro with the breeze, holding a flaming object about an inch away from my head, my product-laden hair, my favorite jacket and my face. Rage.

And then he hocks a giant loogey on the ground in front of him. We’re packed tight as sardines and the 8 of us that heard it all turn our heads in horror. “Dude”, this guy says. “That’s not cool.” Were more damning words ever spoken? I turn around and try not to think about Smokey and his Bandette anymore. Then Ben took the stage and all was made well. Well, “well” with intermittent angst. I’m not that into people.

Highlights from the show:

1. Ben brought this little red keyboard and used it to cover Such Great Heights to raucous cheers. It was a little hipster dream within a dream.
2. Ascent of Stan/Kate/Eddie Walker/Cigarette and many other surprises
3. Ben improving some sort of German techno song with his little red keyboard.
4. A bomb diggity new shirt!

I left the show at 11:50 knowing it had to end by midnight. My feet hurt like the dickens (yes, THE dickens) and I wanted to beat the rush out. I’m crotchety. You knew this. On the whole, an excellent Ben Folds Day indeed. Until next year!

November 4th, 2006 | Category: Daily, Stories | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL