Ben Folds Five

8 remarkable things about my first time seeing Ben Folds Five (in no particular order):

1 - The intimacy. I'm used to big concerts. The artist I've seen live more than any other in my life is Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and it was just a few weeks ago that I saw them at MetLife Stadium, along with probably about 65,000 of my closest friends. The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, is almost as far from that as you can get. We were on the floor which was mostly standing room only, but unlike a Springsteen show I didn't have to arrive at 2:30PM for a wristband only to have to come back at 4PM to stand in line to be let into the pit to wait for a few hours before the concert started. The show was scheduled for 8PM, we walked in at 7:15, and we were able to get a great spot right in front of the stage with only one line of people in front of us. You can see from the picture just how close we were; so close I could hear the sound of Robert Sledge's foot on his pedals as he clicked them on and off. Very cool.

2 - The opening act, Kate Miller-Heidke. She's from Australia and also opened for Ben Folds when I saw him solo at UPAC in Kingston, NY, two years to the day before Tuesday night's show. It really says something about the songs when I only heard them once two years ago and I recognized them again. Specifically, her song "Caught In The Crowd" is very powerful, and upon further investigation I was surprised, but not shocked, to learn that it won the top prize in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition. It's that good.

3 - Ben Folds Five, dude! I mean seriously! I waited 10 years for this show! Sure, I've seen Ben Folds solo twice - in 2002 and 2010 - but this is the original.

4 - The setlist. Again, my reference is a Bruce Springsteen concert, where they keep things moving one song to another. On Tuesday night, with the exception of the last 3 or 4 songs of the set, the band had at least a little bit of a pause between every song. Also, most of the show wasn't even attempting to keep the momentum and energy moving forward quickly. Most of the set was structured: upbeat song, downbeat song, upbeat song, downbeat song, etc., until the last few songs that were all upbeat. And I don't mean this as a criticism - it's just different, and it allowed the show to just kinda wash over the crowd as a whole.

5 - My lack of expectations. Of course I expected the show to be good, but what I was not expecting was a certain song. We talked about what songs we might hear before the show, but I didn't go in with a hard list of songs that I was hoping to hear. I've seen Springsteen so many times at this point that I do go in with a mental list - songs I have been waiting to hear live that I haven't yet. But going along with the above point about the setlist, I just soaked this show in instead of waiting for a particular song.

6 - The "oops" moments. I counted at least 4. In the opening song, "Michael Praytor, Five Years Later," Ben seemed to forget a few lyrics at the beginning of the 2nd verse and had to fake it by muffling his words a little (a trick I'm well aware of as a singer). In another song I could've sworn I heard a wrong note on the piano. Ben's playing on the intro of "Draw A Crowd" completely fell apart, but he insisted that everything keep going and the crowd was into it. That was a moment that really drew the crowd in. During the encore, there was a slight timing issue in "Magic" when the full band comes back in toward the end of the song - it was completely noticeable and Darren Jessee got a big smile on his face as if yo say, "Yeah, that just happened." The crowd loved it.

7 - The vocal harmonies. The way that Robert and Darren backed up Ben's lead vocals was truly impressive. Harmonies are not one of my strongest points, but the two of them made playing and singing fantastic backgrounds look effortless.

8 - The Capitol Theatre. It actually is really impressive despite it being in what seems to me to be an out-of-the-way location. Recently renovated, the walls featured pictures of the legendary artists who have graced the stage, especially in the 70s. And the coat-check was key, as it would've gotten too hot standing on the floor.

All in all, a great show from beginning to end.

The Oddness Of Shooting A Music Video

In preparation for the release of my upcoming new album (and trust me it won't be "upcoming" forever), I am currently working on two music videos. The only other music video I've released was for "Endless Sky" back in January 2011, but to be honest that was more of a slideshow. And last Christmas my cover band In The Pocket released a video for "Please Come Home For Christmas" by The Eagles, but I just appeared in the video - I wasn't really the main focus and I didn't have to act. But these two new ones are full-out videos. One has a loose concept, one has an actual story to it. One involves me kinda just being there, the other involves me actually acting. These are somewhat new experiences for me.

When I was younger my sister studied film at Vassar College, and I helped out by starred in some of her student films. I remember one silent project that involved me not being allowed to play with the older kids at a baseball field, and another with music where I got scolded for not cleaning up my room to the tune of "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters. So, I'm not wholly without experience, right? Kinda, I guess. Being in front of the camera this way can take some getting used to.

On Sunday night we were shooting a scene in the Poughkeepsie train station. Obviously there were people around. I mean it is a working train station, and people have to get where they're going, but they were content to sit around watching us while they waited for their trains to board. Honestly, the only people who seemed to have an issue were the cops. We had been there for an hour when they came up and asked how long we were going to be there. Then they asked if we had permission. Permission? It's the freaking train station, dude. I guess somehow three people being in the train station lobby was going to prevent people from making their train, or arriving safely back to their cars after they arrive. I had no idea we had such power. We also shot on the platform, and there was a conductor who couldn't help but comment on how serious I looked. Even as the train was pulling out she was hanging out of the door, practially heckling me! It was at that point that I couldn't keep it together anymore. Thanks, Ms. Conductor!

Hopefully the shooting of both videos will be completed by the end of this month. But when they're be edited and released is still to be determined.

The Road Trip Playlist

Once you're a veteran at taking road trips you come to understand the importance of a good playlist. I've driven to Illinois, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Las Vegas twice, and Western New York countless times, and I've learned music selections can make or break a trip for sure. The first time I drove to Las Vegas we started every day by listening to Boston's debut album. Epic. On that trip I remember that the truck we were driving didn't have an auxiliary input for my iPod, so we had to rely on an iTrip which tuned the music to an unused FM station of our choosing. Not the best option, but it got the job done. The worst part was that it kept killing the battery of my iPod.

Anyway, last week I took a 3-day, 1,400+ mile road trip and we decided to keep track of the music that we listened to over the approximately 26 hours of traveling that we did (though the first 3.5 hours I drove in silence). Here is the list, in no particular order.

Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Ben Folds Five - The Sound of the Life of the Mind
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
The Beatles - The Beatles (I was giving Tony Beatles fun facts as we were listening to this one)
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Bee Gees - Number Ones
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love (I keep coming back to this album time and time again)
Earth, Wind, & Fire - The Essential
Hall & Oates - The Very Best Of
James Taylor - The Best Of 1& 2
Jimmy Cliff - Rebirth
Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane
Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long
Maroon 5 - Hands All Over
Maroon 5 - Overexposed ("The good songs, anyway" according to my traveling partner, Tony)
Matchbox 20 - North (We listened to at least twice as we are both currently obsessed with this album)
Michael Jackson - a general mix of Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, and a little more
Rancid - Indestructible
Rob Thomas - Something To Be
Rob Thomas - Cradlesong
The Script - The Script (I love this album. I always associate it with NYC since I first listened to it  on the train)
Stevie Wonder - Ultimate Collection

When I used to drive to and from Geneseo for school I would listen to essentially the same albums every time, but for these longer trips it's great to shake things up.

11

After seeing my last two Bruce Springsteen shows in arenas (the Izod Center & the Pepsi Arena), it was nice to get back to nose-bleed seats at an outdoor show at the Meadowlands on Friday - show two of a three-night stand at MetLife Stadium. And not only back to the the seats in the clouds, but the great tailgate atmosphere in the parking lot. People BBQing, drinking, playing games, and blasting music. It's such a great atmosphere that really brings the whole experience of a show to another level. Due to time and logistical constraints, we had to settle for deli sandwiches instead of grilled meat and Labatt Blue instead of...well, something else, but the goal was accomplished none-the-less.

The most remarkable thing about my 11th Springsteen show (the 10th with the E Street Band) were the number of songs played that I had never seen live before, and that this was the 2nd show I've seen where Gary U.S. Bonds was a special guest. 9 of the 28 songs were new live experiences for me, 4 of which welcomed Bonds to the stage, and it brought the total number of Springsteen songs I've seen live to 128 (yes, I keep track because I am an addle-minded music geek) There were album classics like "Lost in the Flood" and "Incident on 57th Street," some more pop-oriented songs like "Talk To Me" and "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)," and some tunes that I didn't even know. I thought I was past the point where the band could break out songs that I didn't know, but there you go. And this was my first time seeing Bruce where he didn't play "The Rising." I had a 10-show streak going on, and I'm while I didn't need to hear the song again, the streak was kinda cool. At least in my addled mind. Oh well.

I was also happy to take one friend to his first show and another friend to her second (her first was on Wednesday, but we aren't counting that because she didn't get the full tailgate pre-show experience). It's always great to introduce people to the live Springsteen experience for the first time and show them why people come back time and time again.

Saturday night was the last show of the outdoor venues, but the tour now goes back indoors for arenas throughout the country. We'll see when I end up there, again. My next concert tickets are for Ben Folds Five on October 9th. Let's go.

I Play With Pain

My parents have a wood furnace in their house, and throughout the year my dad collects wood to burn over the winter. Last Thursday I was helping my dad clear a downed tree from my brother's property, which entailed pushing wheelbarrows full of wood up a hill and loading it into a truck. I don't know how many times I've done this with my dad, but on Thursday I pulled a muscle on the bottom of my ribcage, and the pain that I experienced from this pulled muscle was probably the worst of my life. Of course it didn't help that it was right at the bottom of my ribcage so that I would feel it every time I breathed, and the faster and deeper I breathed the more it hurt. And as if that wasn't enough, I also had two shows this past weekend with my cover band.

As we were setting up on Friday night I honestly didn't know if I was going to be able to get through the show. Every breath was painful, and I couldn't really bend, lift, or setup any equipment. We got through soundcheck and I decided to just go with it. The show must go on, right? The first few songs of the first set were the most difficult, and I had to drop a few lyrics because I literally couldn't get enough air moving through my lungs with the pain. But after that - because of the ibuprofen, the warmth in the bar, just loosening up, or all three - things got easier, and it was actually a really good show. That night I slept very poorly because there was no comfortable position for me to be in, and I was up more than 2 hours before I wanted to be.

On Saturday, after taking it easy in the morning and the use of a heating pad, we had an afternoon show from 3-5:30 at East Fishkill Community Day. Literally thousands of people, along with tons of food, vendors, games, and activities. I had never been and was a little shocked at how expansive it was. But my muscle was less than impressed, and it just kept hurting. As a result, I took things a little bit more gingerly than I did the night before, and pretty much stayed right at my keyboard. The wireless mic was there but I didn't even use it. Oh well - still a good show and a good response from the crowd.

I've performed with cold before, but never with a pulled muscle that caused this much pain. And as I write this, it still hurts a bit when I take a really deep breathe, but nothing compared to what I was feeling on Friday and Saturday. So to everyone who came out to enjoy In The Pocket at the Quiet Man Pub in Wappingers Falls or East Fishkill Community Day: You. Are. Welcome.

That's 5 1/2 hours of performance when other singers probably would've put themselves on the disabled list. I play with pain.

Hot Mess

I was back in Massachusetts over the weekend, in the Waltham area for the wedding of a high school friend. It was the first time I've done a 3.5-hour drive plus a full wedding, reception, and afterparty on only 3.5 hours of sleep. How I did it I don't think I will ever quite know, but I think the key was not having any cake when I was at my most exhausted moment, and avoiding the inevitable sugar crash that would've followed. Experience, for the win!

The majority of the reception was under a big tent behind an old house, complete with amazing food (we all needed our fat pants), a stellar open bar ("No, I can't pour you that in a shot glass, but I can pour you that in a much bigger glass"), and a great party band called Hot Mess. And as someone who does what they do, I'll tell you what impressed me the most about the group. A few hours into the reception a storm came through (like most of the northeast, apparently), and it dumped what seemed like a ton of rain. So much rain that it was running into the tent on the ground and blowing onto the dance floor. So much rain that my jacket hanging on my chair would've been in a puddle had I not moved it, and I was seated toward the middle. So much rain that the band had to scramble to get as much of their equipment away from the sides and covered in plastic as they could. So much rain that it shorted out all the electricity on the band's end of the tent. Yeah, that much rain. So there we were on the biggest day of my friend's life with at least 1.5 hours to go at her wedding reception...and the band had no power. We were about two 16th notes away from a potential nightmare.

Now, I personally know a lot of musicians, and some of them, if they found themselves in this situation, would simply say, "Sorry, the show's over," take their money and go. Truthfully, you'll find people like that in any business. But not with this band. They may be called Hot Mess, but rest assured that unlike my friend's girlfriend (yes, I know I'm crashing at your place this weekend but you were a riot and you admitted it yourself), this band had their shit together. They took a few moments to get everything situated the way that it needed to be, got their power back, and picked right back up where things left off. And the party thoroughly continued. My friend Sam Adams and I had a long, extended conversation that night, and we both agreed that it was professionalism at its best. My friend Dewars concurred, though my pal Mionetto thought there maybe could've been a little more keyboard in the mix - but what does he know?

Anyway, a big shout-out to my friends Matt & Tessa for putting together such a wonderful wedding. I'm so happy I stayed awake for all of it!

Hal David

A little over 6 weeks ago I was playing a show and spending the night on the Jersey shore. Thankfully, we were north of any MTV-type shenanigans, but on the Jersey shore we were none the less. And my friends and I started having a conversation about a song we could possibly start to play, "Always Something There To Remind Me," by Naked Eyes. Released in 1983, it's a really great song that I'm sure you know and have heard on the radio. We pulled it up, checked it out, and our bass player really pushed hard for it.

Then someone mentioned that the song was originally written and released in the 1960s. Seriously? I was somewhat skeptical of this claim, and being slightly OCD about information I immediately started to find out if this is true. And it is. The song was first released in 1964 by an artist named Lou Johnson. But the real revelation to me was who wrote the song: Burt Bacharach and Hal David. I was at once very surprised...and not surprised one bit. These, guys, after all, seemed to write everything, from "What the World Needs Now Is Love," to "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," to "I Say A Little Prayer."

Grammy and Oscar-winning songwriter Hal David passed away on Saturday at the age of 91, a giant of the music industry. In 2011, I was at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Gala along with Mr. David, but I sadly never got the chance to meet him. I could go on and on about the impact that he and his lyrics had on American music, about all the songs that have found a place in the very fabric of our popular culture, and about moments and times in my life that I have come to associate with a Hal David song. But I wont. Instead, I want to give you a quote from an interview Mr. David gave for Paul Zollo's book, Songwriters On Songwriting. On where song ideas come from:

"Songs come from a million different places. Somebody says something. And suddenly it rings a bell. You're watching a movie or a show or a television program and you hear a line. You're in the audience and you hear a phrase, and suddenly there's an idea for a song.

I think most times they just come. I guess it comes to you because that's what you do. As opposed to doing something else. That's a specific talent you have, and the more you do it, the more it comes.

Early in my career, there were periods of times when ideas wouldn't come. And it used to worry me. I'm sure it worries any writer. Is it all over? [Laughs] Is this it? What do I do? Start learning how to make shoes, or cut salami? But I got beyond that at a certain point. And at this point in my life, when I work, I work. And the ideas come."

Hal David, 1921-2012.