fortune depends on the tone of your voice
what a wonderful weekend.
sunday night was a charity concert for "civility, respect & understanding" at the fox theatre in tucson. i just knew ben folds (!!!) was playing with calexico, so i got tickets a month ago. the show was sold out. i took my good friend gordon since he is quite civil, lives in tucson, and i figured he'd have a nice time. plus, it's been forever since i got to spend the weekend with gordon, so that was a definite plus :)
on the way there i tried to pick up our tickets, but the box office wasn't open yet and no one was there. we went to mi nidito's. i broke dietary restriction laws and ate a yummy carne seca chimichanga. we arrived at the venue around 6 i think. gordon parked the car while i walked to the box office again. this time the place was packed; lots of press. ron barber, a victim of the january 8th shooting last year, had created the charity.
a photographer took my picture walking up. i also noticed a video crew filming one of those "low shots of people walking to the show" shots by the box office. they got kind of excited when i walked by because i was wearing buns with a flower, a vintage blue leather and white rabbit fur coat, a white crocheted skirt with jagged edges, and red & orange foam platform sandals. my aunt and uncle, whom i was staying with, happened to watch the news that night. they asked me the next morning if i was wearing a fur coat and showed me the dvr clip lol.
anyway, the theatre was adorable. the fox had been remolded. it had sort of an art deco slash southwestern thing going on. there was all sorts of stuff for sale. i saw a pile of posters and ran over. they not only had show posters but SOME OF THEM WERE SIGNED BY BEN AND OTHERS. stupidly, i forgot cash though and had to walk outside to the atm. as gordon put it, this was a "grownup" event. you know, where you can leave the premises, come back, and nothing horrible happens.
on the way in they gave us programs & glowsticks. apparently we would be told when to use these glowsticks. our seats were decent, and really there wasn't a bad spot in the house. we were on the floor, row 6, seats 111 & 113. i picked the left side a little closer up, rather than center, because i assumed that since ben sat to the left of the piano at the marquee show that he would also sit on the left at this show. as we found our seats, i apologized to the couple on the end that we had to scoot past, but the dude said "don't say you're sorry, say 'i'm here!" the ceiling was painted with a gorgeous chandelier. there was a frame around the stage (i forget what this is called, proscenium?).
as everyone was sitting down, odaiko sonora banged rhythms on a drum. i'm sure this has a very specific term. and that i've somehow offended the drum putting it this way, but man was he steady.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
they dimmed the lights, cantrell maryott came to sing along with the drum. she also had one of those loop pedal things. once the show started, she spoke, the mc spoke, there was a lot of thanking. this was a charity show though, so i understand once you thank one person who volunteered, you have to thank them all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
next was mitzi cowell shine featuring sabra faulk. she was a rocking granny. i mean, she might not want to be called a granny, but that's what i thought of. they were local, pretty much everyone but ben was local. and when i say local, i also mean a bit country. not what i would normally listen to, but they were good. she wrote a song about shinning from the valley for the little girl who died in the tragedy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the silver thread trio played after. there were actually five people on stage. maybe this is fitting, ben folds five had three members. they were a pleasant discovery. reminded me of "o' brother, where out thou?". and it wasn't cheesy. i mean, they had on country dresses, but maybe something you'd see at anthropology. the girl on the left played the washboard and seemed to have the lowest voice. she had character. in the middle was an adorable banjo playing betty in a sweet brown dress. on the right was a little yellow dress hidden by a giant guitar. and in the back was a man on stand-up bass and another man on the drums. i think the girls also sing acapella or something, so maybe that's why they're a trio. they sang three songs and each girl got a chance in the spotlight.
there was a whole lot of talking between all of this too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i forget at what moment we opened the glowsticks, but it was pretty rad. apparently this was something being done across the world for unity. ron barber and his family were all on stage. i had a red one, there were mainly white & blue ones in the crowd; america, FUCK YEAH!
gordon:
the crowd finally got what they wanted when calexico took the stage. people went nuts. they were pretty good, but when salvador duran and fucking mariachi luz de luna took the stage i was sold. salvador duran was a great singer; he sounded so natural. the strings came out on stage first, but then the mother fucking trumpets came out from the back of the theatre down the aisles to the stage. full get-up. so cool.
the trumpets took the stage and eventually the singers joined in too. there was one of those harp things. i was blown away. and they were so loud. i hate to invoke my bloody valentine loudness, but they were loud.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
after calexico was intermission, preceded by more talking of course. gordon asked if he could leave his jacket on the chair, and i said "this is the concert for civility, let's hope so, who's gonna steal here?"
i immediately went to buy a cd of the silver thread trio. thankfully these chicks took cards. i also got a calexico calendar with a senorita on it and a "practice civility, respect, and understanding" sticker. this is a charity i can get behind. i kept kinda laughing to myself at the thought of pants here.
after that, i decided to brave the crowd to use the bathroom so i wouldn't be distracted during mr. folds. thankfully it was a civil crowd and i was able to make it to the line ok, and the line wasn't too long. an older, hippie looking lady with long grey hair joined me in line and said "thank you! i followed you the whole way here; the crowd simply parted for you". we chatted for a bit about the show.
when i left the restroom, it was a madhouse to get back to my seat. ron barber was standing outside the men's room. people kept talking to him, and frankly the whole crowd was taking up a lot of space. but since it was ron, we all stood there and politely waited for the conversation to end. it was kinda funny watching annoyed people walk up and start to push their way through, but then realize it was ron and just stand there lol.
gordon got us some water & snacks. when we sat back down, a nice older gentleman name larry sitting behind us offered to put our coats on the empty seat next to him. we chatted for a few minutes about how he had some friends sitting elsewhere and they were all there for calexico.
i noticed there was only a piano on the stage. oh, and BY THE WAY, i was RIGHT in my left-side choice. take that.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the lights came down. more people talked, this time about music therapy. then,
BEN CAME OUT!
he had a little sweater over a collared shirt. there was no band; just ben. he smiled and waved to everyone. he talked about how he agreed with the cause, not just the "c-word" as he put it, but music therapy as well. he started off with the best imitation of myself, which i have not heard. gordon kept laughing at how excited i was. even though we were row S, i felt so close! and it was nice to be sitting this time.
there isn't a posted setlist yet, so i'm just going to review what i remember, in that order.
he talked before the beginning of every song and said "this is going to be one of those 'this is a song about'" nights. and it was :)
he introduced the next song saying "this is a song of things my dad said to me at a diner, prolly 1986". and he played all u can eat, which i happened to listen to the day before. at first i found it an odd choice, given the crowd. but then i realized it actually was a good choice. the audience was laughing. i'm sure it wasn't ben's normal crowd and he must have realized he needed to adjust. also, his song choices made sense given there was no band.
he completely lost it and laughed when he got to the part "squatting bare-assed in the dirt, eating rice from a bowl, with a towel on their head and maybe a bone in their nose". he said "i just realized this may have not been the best song choice", but again, the crowd laughed. this may be arizona, but this is the left side of tucson for sure, who wants mariachi players to stay.
i think fred jones, pt. 2 was next. he said a reporter drove him to the show, so he dedicated the song to him. he played this at the last show too, but i guess i appreciated more this time when i could sit down.
we waved glowsticks while we clapped. ben said he was jealous he was not issued a glowstick. he sat at the piano, but someone threw a red glowstick on stage. ben grabbed it. he held it vertically and played the piano with it. the lights when out, and he jammed the fuck out and all you could see was this red glowstick bouncing off the keys. he tapped his other hand into the mic and made all sorts of precise percussive noises. this went on for a couple of minutes.
when he finished, he said it would be a shame for someone to lose an eye at the civility show and threw the glowstick gently into the crowd. to be a finger upon that glowstick...
next he played still fighting it. he said this song came into his head after his son was born. i had worn my "good morning sun, i am a bird" shirt the day prior :)
after that, he said that his son's twin sister was not born until hours later, which was the next day. he was too tired to write a song. and since she was older and lucid, he had to write a song that made more sense. of course, it was gracie.
i'm really guessing here, but i think picture window was next. he did not do much to introduce this besides say that it was written by nick hornsby. i kind of guess this is what he would play since he loves the lyrics so much. i don't normally listen to this on album, but a third of the way through i caught my breath and suddenly started crying. it was so weird.
this may be when he played brainwascht. i didn't know the story behind this, but ben said he heard someone wrote a mean song about him. he said he was excited, but then heard it and was disappointed that it was bad. this was his response. the crowd really enjoyed this. ben really knew what songs to pick for this show!
he said the next song was something he just played spontaneously at a show once and never thought he'd play with an orchestra, but he did. he also talked about how the idea came from "noodling" around like suspenseful movie trailers. he of course sang an example. effington was good, but not like it was at the marquee with the guy and his tambereen (sp?).
i felt so lucky he was there with just the piano though. he really went all out. and i could see him banging the keys and pedals <3 he knew how to get every possible sound out of that stage, even if it meant intricate handwork on the mic or grabbing the strings of the piano keys.
i'm pretty sure at this point i heard him say something about "a real disease" and i KNEW it was narcolepsy. i also grabbed gordon's arm lol. ben did not play this at the marquee. this is my FAVOURITE song by my FAVOURITE artist. listen up, people. gordon laughed because he's borderline narcoleptic. he said "oh, it's a song about me".
ben was brilliant. he started quiet and worked his way to all the energy in the world. i could feel my seat shake when he got to the drowning part. that made me forget about all the bullshit of the past few months and just enjoy myself :)
speaking of, zak and sara with just the piano was stunning. just spectacular. it may have been before this song before he apologized to the piano for beating it up and mentioned it would need to be tuned after. if it wasn't, it sure could have been after this one. i think this is where he held the piano key strings for most of the verses.
he had the crowd sing along to not the same. again, another good choice for the crowd; it gets everyone involved singing and he did this on sing off. i think the last song was army, but i think i may be out of order at this point. he also played this in phoenix, but it was a cool choice for the venue and just the piano. he really went all out in the middle. again, i am so happy i chose the left side and could watch his fingers on the piano. such a treat.
after he was done, he bowed and thanked everyone. he was so cute. there was no encore, but there didn't need to be.
after the show i asked larry what he thought. he was blown away. he said he only came to see calexico. he said that while he prolly wouldn't be listening to ben folds a lot in the future, he said watching him "was like seeing the beatles for the first time". i'm not even joking.
and i know i'm a suprefan about ben, but it really was fantastic to see him all alone on the piano. such a tiny man producing such sound. and what a perfect fit for the concert about civility. seriously one of the best shows ever. happy camper.
it was raining when we left. gordon was nice enough to put my poster under his waterproof jacket. we went back to his place and he took pictures of my snazzy outfit with his fancy-pants camera.
the best imitation of myself
all u can eat
fred jones, pt. 2
glowstick song
still fighting it
gracie
picture window (normally i don't listen to this song, but i unexpectedly cried :x)
brainwascht
effington
narcolepsy
zak and sara
not the same
army