So, I’m a sorry entertainer and waited a few days to post about my Ben Folds show. Also, I completely failed to mention that I saw Shiny Toy Guns again a few weeks back, but that’s neither here nor there. The important thing is I’ve now seen Ben Folds, who, I’m delighted to say, “just finished up the new album. We just have to put our friend Regina Spektor on there and it’s set.” Is this exciting? Yes this is.

So, Ben Folds is good at what he do. He does it on his own terms, too, which I like. If he’s tired of playing a song, he won’t do it anymore. Didn’t play “Brick.” Didn’t play “Rock this Bitch.” Didn’t play “Philosophy.” And you know what? I’m okay with that. The audience was still involved. We still sang the horn section on “Army.” We were still the choir on “Not the Same.” There were still songs made up on the spot (about how Ben never gets to play in Salt Lake, which is true). There were maracas and synthesizers and a mysterious tambourine man. There was a beautiful vibe and there was singing along. So Ben was great, but you should have known that already. So what do you need to know?

Well, as usual, it’s about the opening acts. To be brief, you don’t need to know about the opening acts. Except for Australian popster Ben Lee. After sitting through three (thankfully short) opening acts already, I was a little bummed when yet another took the stage. However, when I heard him say, “Hi, my name is Ben Lee,” I perked right up. See, Ben Lee is one third of The Bens (the other two being Folds and Kweller), so I was excited to here what pop mastery made him worthy of the group. Well, Ben Lee is an excellent performer, which I think is something that was lacking in the other openers. Sure, his songs were catchier, but that’s not all that matters. Ben made us all a part of his show by having us sing along bits, and he made the best of technical guitar difficulties by (first) jumping to a song with the music on an iPod while they fixed things, then (when that still didn’t work) unplugging his guitar and lowering his microphone to so it would pick up the guitar. So open-mic of him, but it made the set seem much more intimate. There were improvised bits on a few songs, notably on a song I’ve included for you here, “Catch My Disease.” I also really enjoyed the song American Television, so I’ve got that for you, too. Ben Lee sang songs that I could sing the chorus of after one or two times through, but more importantly, I wanted to sing along.

So that was my Ben Folds show. The complete setlist is up on my personal blog. Enjoy some, eh?

 Ben Folds Five - Underground [4:11m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Ben Lee - Catch My Disease [4:15m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Ben Lee - American Television [3:41m]: Play in Popup | Download