Last Day of Classes: The only good thing at dook

Yesterday, I celebrated the last day of classes. Oh, not UNC's, dook's. You may be thinking, "Corey, as a die-hard Tar Heel, what would possess you to travel to that hell hole teeming with Blue Devils?" Two words: Ben Folds.


Sorry for the poor picture quality. I didn't plan ahead and had to take pictures with my phone.

There are a few perks that go along with attending a too-expensive private snotty university. One of those is having the money to throw a huge free concert in your quad with artists like Gym Class Heroes, Girl Talk and Ben Folds. Another is that you can have said concerts be a university-sponsored BYOB event.

So I drove my big Tar Heel butt over to Durham and carried my 12-pack of sudsy beverages across campus. I really had no idea where I was going, but I just followed the music. It totally worked. I knew I was getting close when I started to see tons of trash just littering the ground. I thought this was Earth Day.... Oh well.

Now here's the best part. I made a point not to wear any UNC stuff over to the concert, not because I was scared but I just didn't want to seem like I was trying to brag. Sometime during the break between Gym Class Heroes and Ben Folds, I heard a chant going through the crowd. When I finally figured out what it was, I had to laugh. "Tar!" "Heels!" It wouldn't be the last time that I heard the chant. It happened about seven times throughout the night. I think the ratio was literally 50/50 between UNC and dook students. But that's what happens when you bring an alumnus to play at your concert. The chant was funny the first few times, but downright obnoxious after that. I was kind of embarrassed to be one of the UNC people there. I hate when UNC fans are obnoxious: they make us all look bad.

Anyway, back to the important part. Ben Folds came on and the first song made me cringe. It was a song I've never heard before and the sound was thin. You could barely hear the piano. He kept playing the new songs that were OK, but no one really knew them and they were too slow. The crowd wasn't into it, the sound was bad and people were talking over him. I looked over to my friend Andy and said, "This is the worst Ben Folds show I've ever seen."

I spoke too soon.

He launched into "Zak and Sara," "Landed," and "Army." Now things started rocking. The crowd was into it and dancing around and they finally fixed the sound problems. Then Folds did something I never thought I would see him do: played "Brick" live. I was under the impression that he didn't play the song live anymore. Apparently I was wrong. It was a beautiful version (which I tried to record on my Blackberry, but failed miserably). Then, just a few songs later, he broke into "Kate," one of my all-time favorite Ben Folds Five tunes. Even without an encore, I left happy.

Getting back to the car wasn't as easy without music to guide me. We passed by K-ville (I'm not even going to try to spell it) and I thought about all the time people have spent camping out there the last four years just to watch dook lose. It made me laugh a little. I walked by Cameron Indoor and laughed a little more.

I finally got back to my car. I was happy to see that even with the dozens of UNC stickers it wasn't keyed and it didn't have its tires slashed. I turned left onto U.S. Hwy 15-501 and drove back to Chapel Hill, relieved to be safely away from Durham.

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Oh, and this guy on the corner of Franklin Street and Columbia Street has an important message for the world, just in case you didn't know.



Seriously guys, he's not screwing around!!

Ben Folds on "Brick"

While studying for my Intro to Rock exam (for the very few hours that I did) I came across this cool video of Ben Folds explaining the meaning of his hit song "Brick." On the Ben Folds Live album he explains that it's about him and his girlfriend having an abortion, but I was never really sure that it was the truth. Apparently it is.

He also gives some great insight into how his music was changing from early Ben Folds Five to Whatever and Ever Amen and eventually Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. "Brick" was definitely a different direction for the piano-pop-rock trio, but it's an undeniably beautiful and touching song. And I just love that Darren Jessee was the one that wrote the chorus. Folds seems to be a bit arrogant and the fact that the chorus to their most popular song is not written by him is just great.

There is also a section where he talks about how touring with Neil Young influenced him to make a "stadium feel like a living room." He's done that both times that I have seen him live, making a large venue like UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall feel like a few friends hanging around a piano.

OK, enough blabbing from me. Check out the video for yourself.

Ben Folds Five Video Posted

If you weren't one of the lucky few who saw the Ben Folds Five reunion show last month, here's your chance! MySpace has finally posted the video of the first part of the concert on their Front to Back page. This is only the Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner part, so there's no awesome encore.

I haven't gotten a chance to watch the whole thing yet so I'm not sure if I get any face time. Let me know if you see me. (I'm on the left side -- from the stage perspective -- and about 15 rows back.)

Enjoy!

Ben Folds Five - MySpace Front To Back concert

"Way to Normal" released today!

Ben Folds latest release, Way To Normal, hits stores today! Unfortunately I have to be at work until 2pm, but as soon as I leave the office I'm heading over to CD Alley and picking up a copy. From everything I've heard, it should be a good buy. Check these reviews by Triangle Music and Paste Magazine.

To hold you (and me) over until you get your hands on the album, here is "Hiroshima (BBB Benny Hit His Head," a song that he played when I saw him in Cary and I can't believe is actually a cut of the album. Enjoy.

Ben Folds Five: Simply Magical

At the end of "Song for the Dumped," Ben Folds stood up from the piano with piano stool in hand, shrugged at the crowd and chucked the stool at the keyboard. Robert Sledge took off his bass, waved to the crowd and walked off the stage. Darren Jessee stepped off the drum riser and left the stage. The hall lights came back on and recorded music started coming out of the speakers, the universal symbol that the concert is over.

Then something happened that I have never seen before: no one left. Everyone in there was on their feet, clapping, cheering and even chanting "Ben Folds Five!" They didn't care about the lights or the music, they wanted the band to come back out. This went on for almost 10 minutes until the stage work lights came on and workers started taking down the equipment.

The spell was instantly broken and people started filing out of the auditorium. But everyone left smiling.

For a good hour-and-a-half, the Ben Folds Five mesmerized everybody in UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall during their one-off reunion show for MySpace's Front to Back series. The first part of the show featured the trio playing their final album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Myspace was filming the show for their website, which kept Folds from interacting more with the audience, but there still seemed to be a great connection between the group and the crowd. Crowd-favorite "Army," which Folds later said was the "beginning of the end of the commercial success" of the band, had everyone dancing around and singing at the top of their lungs. This time, though, he didn't need the audience to help with the horn part during the bridge, he had his own horn quartet to back him up. But that didn't stop the crowd from joining in.

But nothing compared to when Dean Folds, Ben Folds dad, walked out on stage to recite "Your Most Valuable Possession," a track on the album that features an answering machine message from Dean put to lounge-style music. As soon as Dean said the first like -- "Good morning, Mr. Ben" -- the crowd went nuts. I was wondering how they would approach this track or if they would even play it at all. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.

After the album's final track, "Lullaby," Ben Folds Five walked off the stage to thunderous cheers. But everyone knew they would come back.

And comeback they did. They launched into "Jackson Cannery," a song off their self-titled debut and proceeded to play a mix of songs from that album and their most popular album, Whatever and Ever Amen. They even played their first ever single, "Eddie Walker," and talked about recording that track: "I think we all had to take off work to drive out to Hillsborough one night."

After almost 10 years, the band looked really tight. Other than a few synth slipups from Sledge and Folds forgetting about his grandma in "Regrets," the performance was flawless. But a few mistakes are to be expected: Unauthorized Biography is by far the most complex album the trio released. Folds even admitted that if he'd "known about this show 10 years ago, I would have sequenced the album differently."

All in all, it was a magical experience that I feel honored to have been a part of. I couldn't have imagined anything better.

And I even got a free T-shirt.

Setlist:

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Narcolepsy
Don't Change Your Plans
Mess
Magic
Hospital Song
Army
Your Redneck Past
Your Most Valuable Possession (w/ Dean Folds)
Regrets
Jane
Lullabye

Encore
Jackson Cannery
Eddie Walker
Selfless, Cold and Composed
Battle of Who Could Care Less
Where's Summer B.?
Julianne
Song For the Dumped

New Ben Folds!

A little over a week before his landmark reunion concert, Mr. Folds has released a video for "You Don't Know Me," a song off his upcoming album Way To Normal. Songstress Regina Spektor helps out on the vocals of this song, but she doesn't make an appearance in the video. But check out who does at the end. I wouldn't have expected that one.

You Dont Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor)


In other Ben Folds news, apparently they will be checking UNC One Cards for student tickets at the door on Thursday. Sucks for the people who bought way overpriced student tickets off Cragslist...

Final note, I got to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers for the first time in a while at the Cradle the other day and they were amazing as always. And there was a decent crowd there, a lot more than there were the first time I saw them three years ago. The Gabe Dixon Band opened for them and weren't to bad either. Full post about the show to come...

Happy Friday.

P.S. How about them Heels??

Local Celebrity? Oh, and Ben Folds Five

Updating an earlier post, it seems as if the Inscoe story is spreading beyond the pages of the Cary News. WRAL anchor Bill Leslie mentioned and linked to us in his travel blog on WRAL.com. It generated some interest in the blog, netting us a grand total of 1,011 views on September 4 alone. This is more views than I got on any point during our actual trip. It's pretty exciting that the blog is getting this much attention, even this long after the trip is over.

I hope to work on editing and pulling together the blog into a story form. (I know I've said this multiple times, but I promise it will happen.) If nothing else it will be good practice for the future. When I look at the job ahead, I have a lot more respect for Jack Kerouac.


In other news, I got lower level tickets to the Ben Folds Five reunion show!! All it took was going out there last night at midnight, trying to sleep on a brick sidewalk with a small blanket and waiting in line for an hour after the tickets went on sale at 10 to get to the box office. Even after getting out there that early, I was still behind about 140 people.

It was worth it, though, since the general admission tickets sold out in three minutes online.

This will be my second time seeing them in Memorial. The first time was amazing and I can't see this one being any different.

Ben Folds Five is back!!

For serious. This is the most exciting news I've heard in a while. The original band, including bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee, will be performing one show at UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall on September 18.

I'm an obsessive Ben Folds fan -- I camped outside for his show two years ago in Chapel Hill with nothing but a sleeping bag and a backpack as a pillow -- and started listening to him long after the Five had broken up, so I am unbelievably pumped for this rare opportunity. The group hasn't played together in 10 years.

According to the website, the band will be playing their album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety, which means they'll be playing "Army" and "Narcolepsy," two of my favorite Ben Folds Five songs. And to add icing to the cake, Jessee's new band, Hotel Lights, will be opening the show. Can it get much better?

I hope students get a first shot at these tickets, otherwise I will be all over etix.com next week.