07/24/2000 - Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC
Dan Cohen
Two days later, and I'm still speechless.
That, in a nutshell, was just how good it was; it's so easy to throw
around "amazing" and "terrific" in these reviews that it takes away
from what makes a Ben Folds Five show good; the banter, the
crowd reactions, the improvisations. This show had all of those and
more; this show was special in and of itself. My words cannot do it
justice. But I shall try.
Ben Folds Five
Cat's Cradle
Carrboro, NC
July 24, 2000
Setlist as written:
Dwarf
Army
Battle
Plans
Missing
Magic
Best
Mess
Brick
Redneck
Philosophy
Pyser
Narcolepsy
Regrets
Kate
Fair
Video
Radiostar
Underground
e: Lullabye/Julianne
Setlist as performed:
Army
Dwarf
Battle
Plans
Missing
Magic
Best
Redneck
Steven's
Philosophy
Pyser
Narcolepsy
Regrets
Kate
Fair
Emaline
Evaporated (!)
Video
Underground intro - Discodiva - Freebird - Discodiva - Thriller -
Discodiva
e: Underground
--
Notes: Well, where to start? I have to admit that the preshow
shenanigans were at a rarified level even eclipsing those before the
legendary 6-20-99 show in Washington, DC, with me drinking
untold amounts of Newcastle and Heineken and showing up for the
show smashed out of my mind, nearly passing out in Samson's
car. There's actually much, much more to this story, and this
weekend, than even that, including a mind-numbing thirteen-hour
stint in the lobby of the RDU airport, the kleptomaniacal urges of a
certain someone manifesting themselves in a Wendy's, air hockey, and
plenty of grits, but for the sake of relevance and
anonymity, I just won't go there.
At any rate. So I'm drunk, staggering, and trying to remember my
name to give to the girl at the ticket window. I remember it, flash
my ID, and mumble, "Don't worry, I'm underage and I ain't drinkin'!"
We make it up near the stage and wait for Tom Maxwell. Robert,
as rumored, does double duty, playing upright and electric bass for
the Minor Drag. They play a solid 45 minute set, featuring several
SNZ songs (I had a setlist at one point, I swear!). Near the end, a
gospel quartet joins them, adding a really cool feel to their already
exciting sound; for awhile it seems like the Cat's Cradle, this tiny
club in a strip mall in suburban Carrboro, is a church in the swell of
a humid rural August, the crowd clapping and dancing as one.
After about 45 minutes (a longer-than-average break, but good
since Robert got a chance to rest and I got a chance to sober up),
Ben Folds Five takes the stage. As many shows as I've gone to,
I've never seen a crowd erupt the way they did when Army started,
or a louder singalong. The first three songs attack the crowd like
mortar shells. The crowd is so unbelievably attentive and rabid that
I can't imagine doing it another way. With the energy level that
high, I almost think going into DCYP was somewhat risky, since it
tends to kill the buzz fairly easily (my yelling out "Heavy Metal!"
during a break probably didn't help matters much). However, it
serves as a capable lead-in to Missing and Magic. While Missing
is always awesome to hear, Magic is only sometimes successful.
Maybe it was the Cat's Cradle. Maybe it was the crowd. Whatever
the reason, for the first time without the old light rig, it worked.
Exceedingly well.
If you look at the two setlists, you'll notice a distinct deviation
here;
Robert breaks a string in the second verse of Best (always superb
live, and done tonight, as all the old songs were, to an
overwhelming crowd reaction), and afterwards, it becomes clear
that they'll need to play a song without bass so that the string can
be replaced. A quick conference is held and it's decided that
Redneck is the logical choice; Joe changes the string, Robert
works the Moog, and it's Techno Dance Party 2000 time. Ben
introduces the song saying that it's about living in Chapel Hill; the
band seemed to make every reference to their hometown possible
tonight, playing several songs with obvious North Carolinian
references (Mitchell Lane excluded), and working many references
into their crowd banter. Afterwards, to replace Mess and Brick,
SLNIT is trotted out, much to my approval.
You may agree or disagree with me in that Mess and Brick are
hard to swallow live, but the events surrounding SLNIT tonight are
almost sure never to be duplicated. A group of us bought cans of
Silly String and were shooting them at people in the crowd before
the show. Little, innocent, mild-mannered Kathryn Yu, hardly the
antagonizer, is front row center and has one of these cans. During
the song, as Ben takes the microphone, she sprays him, and in a
display of marksmanship not seen since the days of D'Artagnan
and company, puts a line of pink goo directly into Mr. Folds' eye.
I can say with some certainty that it was the funniest thing I've ever
seen at a BFF show; Ben wiping the crud from his face, random
people clapping and cheering for Kathryn, a few of us wondering if
she would be kicked out, and finally, in a show of reconciliation,
Kathryn handing Ben a can of Silly String, Ben shaking it up, and
as the grand finale, spraying the adoring throng, all of whom stood
with arms wide open, gleeful and exultant as the foam rained down.
Hearing Philosophy brought chills down my spine. When BFF was
playing clubs like this five and six years ago in North Carolina,
playing this very song, could anyone in the crowd have known what
the future would hold? Knowing that "Go ahead, you can laugh all
you want" has become a rallying cry for so many of us is so
incredibly satisfying. I've heard this song ad infinitum, but it never
gets tiring or boring; it's like an old friend with whom you reunite
again and again as Ben sings those magical words of self-
affirmation.
Next we get Pyser. Sometimes when this song is performed live, people
who haven't heard it wonder what the hell it is. Tonight, like in so
many other little incidences, it seemed that everyone immediately knew,
playing air piano and bass and even doing the "ba ba ba"s in three-part
harmony. Narcolepsy was a slightly toned-down version of its recent
self, with no flip off the piano and no big metal ending. Regrets was
*really* cool to hear live again, with the crowd chanting along and the
grandiose Pink Floyd-esque ending serving as a great segue into Kate.
Kate, one of my favorite of all live songs, was received exceedingly
well, with a huge "hey, they said the name of the town we live in!"
scream for the "Rosemary and Cameron" line. And then came Fair, which
gave us all a chance to show off our Fair-dancing skillz to the world,
with Robert even flashing the horned hand at the insane, bobbing mass of
humanity before him.
Emaline is such a strong song that it fits well into any set, and I like
the idea of putting it in this late. What came next, though, surprised
everyone. Ben walks over to Darren and Robert and asks, "Do you guys
want to do the big E?" They nod, and Ben takes the mic, telling us all
that while they haven't done this next song live in a while, a friend of
theirs asked them to do it.
Evaporated. Probably my personal favorite of all BFF's ballads, and
utterly stunning to witness live for the first time. The crowd grew
absolutely silent, fixated on the brilliant performance onstage. And it
was memorable as hell. At the end the audience wasn't even singing
along, just watching the emotion on Ben's face as he whispered the
words. It may have been the loudest ovation of the night.
Video, up next, was again its usual awesome self, with plenty of crowd
sing-alongs. And then, the real fun started.
Intro to Underground. Everyone knew what was going to happen, Darren
looked like he was dreading it, but he took the mic, Heineken in hand,
and got the obligatory "who the fuck are you?" out of the audience.
Robert followed that up with a "I live in Chapel Hill and I'm as white
as I can be!". The rest of the intro followed, except that when it was
Robert's turn again, out came...
The return of Discodiva.
Back in the day (1996 and 1997, if I remember correctly), Robert used to
jazz up the intro to Underground a bit by turning "Show me the mosh pit"
into a long, free-form disco improv. This hadn't been done in ages, but
out it came again tonight, Robert shaking his ass and repeating those
words over and over again in a bad Gloria Gaynor imitation. Suddenly,
they segued into Freebird, that most classic of all covers, and then it
was back into Discodiva again. Finally, Ben and Robert switched
instruments, Robert sang a version of "Thriller" which went "It's close
to midnight, uh, blah blah blah blah na na na na na!", Ben ripped off
some Les Claypool-like riffs on the bass, Robert passed out on the
piano, they did Discodiva AGAIN, including the infamous "1, 2, fuck you!
3, 4, you're a whore! 5, 6, suck my dick! 7, 8, masturbate! 9, 10, do it
again!" chant, and finally, after a good 10-15 minutes of hilarity, it
ended.
The crowd at this point is absolutely electric. The applause lasts for
the entirety of the break, something I've never seen before at a BFF
show, and when they finally come on and do Underground, in its entirety,
nothing else needs to be said or done. The atmosphere is perfect. The
crowd is appreciative. I'm no longer drunk.
So I don't know. If last year in DC wasn't the best show I've ever seen
Ben Folds Five put on, then this certainly was; I've certainly never
seen a better crowd, and the acoustics weren't as bad as I feared. What
made this special was being there with people I've known for years but
never met, and some who I've grown to know quite well. It was an almost
indescribable experience, and the webcast can't even compare to the
atmosphere and feeling that was around that night. Monday night they
broke into the bag of tricks and pulled out songs they rarely play, and
bantered like they haven't bantered in literally years. I've never seen
them be this entertaining or seem to enjoy themselves so much.
I can't even begin to thank everyone that I saw, met, or hung out with;
this was like Baltimore on crack. You all made for a very interesting
weekend and I definitely, definitely want to do it again.
-Dan
Kathryn Yu
> Emaline
> Evaporated (!)
i would have liked lullabye/julianne instead of
emaline/evaporated but i'm not complaining. : )
> We make it up near the stage and wait for Tom Maxwell. Robert,
> as rumored, does double duty, playing upright and electric bass
for
> the Minor Drag. They play a solid 45 minute set, featuring
several
> SNZ songs (I had a setlist at one point, I swear!). Near the
end, a
here's the setlist i got from the stage:
hell (big crowd sing-a-long) / soon / next big thing / caveat
emptor / uptown stomp / 6's and 7's / lid / not christmas ("our
greatest hit") / always get what's comin / hush / god's gonna cut
'em down (moby sampled this, didn't he?) / can't sleep / roll
them bones
the a capella quartet kicked my ass. i chatted with tom maxwell
after the show. great guy.
> the show. Little, innocent, mild-mannered Kathryn Yu, hardly
the
screw you, dayan. (sidenote: was the silly string visible on the
webcast?)
hi to everybody that was there! sorry if i was obnoxious. i was
the one with the blue star wand who gave rob a present before the
show and candy to all the people who were waiting in line.
> I can't even begin to thank everyone that I saw, met, or hung
out with;
> this was like Baltimore on crack. You all made for a very
interesting
> weekend and I definitely, definitely want to do it again.
just wait until you see the pictures. i have several rolls. haha.
love,
kathryn
p.s. all you people who couldn't get tickets: massive amounts of
people were trying to unload their tickets in line at the last
minute. guess that tactic of just showing up and trying to get
tickets actually worked this time around.
--
ben folds five: the strangest things
*not your ordinary fan web site*
http://benfoldsfive.nodata.org/
Dan Cohen
Kathryn Yu wrote:
>
> > e: Lullabye/Julianne
>
> > Emaline
> > Evaporated (!)
>
> i would have liked lullabye/julianne instead of
> emaline/evaporated but i'm not complaining. : )
>
> > We make it up near the stage and wait for Tom Maxwell. Robert,
> > as rumored, does double duty, playing upright and electric bass
> for
> > the Minor Drag. They play a solid 45 minute set, featuring
> several
> > SNZ songs (I had a setlist at one point, I swear!). Near the
> end, a
>
> here's the setlist i got from the stage:
> hell (big crowd sing-a-long) / soon / next big thing / caveat
> emptor / uptown stomp / 6's and 7's / lid / not christmas ("our
> greatest hit") / always get what's comin / hush / god's gonna cut
> 'em down (moby sampled this, didn't he?) / can't sleep / roll
> them bones
>
> the a capella quartet kicked my ass. i chatted with tom maxwell
> after the show. great guy.
>
> > the show. Little, innocent, mild-mannered Kathryn Yu, hardly
> the
>
> screw you, dayan. (sidenote: was the silly string visible on the
> webcast?)
>
It was certainly visible on the pictures Joanna and Liza took. I think
Joanna still has my roll from the actual show, so we'll see what came
out of mine.
> hi to everybody that was there! sorry if i was obnoxious. i was
> the one with the blue star wand who gave rob a present before the
> show and candy to all the people who were waiting in line.
>
> > I can't even begin to thank everyone that I saw, met, or hung
> out with;
> > this was like Baltimore on crack. You all made for a very
> interesting
> > weekend and I definitely, definitely want to do it again.
>
> just wait until you see the pictures. i have several rolls. haha.
>
Yeah, well. As alluded to earlier, my pre-show rolls came back today,
and I have enough pictures of us all in compromising positions to
blackmail everyone for years to come. Muhahaha.
> love,
> kathryn
>
> p.s. all you people who couldn't get tickets: massive amounts of
> people were trying to unload their tickets in line at the last
> minute. guess that tactic of just showing up and trying to get
> tickets actually worked this time around.
I'll elaborate: Everyone who was on guest list, myself included, was at
least +1 for some reason, and the list was quite long. So untold numbers
of people who had tickets suddenly didn't need them, and if anyone had
shown up, I guarantee you'd have been able to score a ticket for face
value or less. For the record, the ticket stubs are wicky cool, too.
Dizzamn.
-Dan
Alc013
was done fantastic by the digital network people, and by 'bullshit by ben
folds.com'
hahha
thanks for that look at how u saw the nite, from the crowd view, i recorded the
show via the net, came out really good actually, did u see anyone there taping
or whatnot??? the underground was nothing like i had ever seen before live..
EVEr..
thanks. Aaron
