It poured rain almost all the way up to Summerfest and continued once we were there, but after experiencing the monsoons during Fountains of Wayne last year, we came more than prepared this time with ponchos and umbrellas. …As we strolled through the Summerfest grounds, almost all of the ground stage seats were empty -- until we got to the Miller Lite stage where Ben Folds was scheduled for 10 p.m. Forget the rain, forget the fact it was only 3 in the afternoon, the seats, as expected, were already filling quickly. So we parked ourselves about center stage, 12 rows back and sat, and waited …
Nonetheless the bands that preceded Folds were pretty awesome and kept the crowd energized
amid the conditions. The first group “The Heroes” played loads of hits from then (ABBA, Cyndi Lauper, Prince) and now (Gwen Stafani, Outkast, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson … in fact they were responsible for some of the many versions I heard throughout the weekend of “Hey Ya,” “Rich Girl” “Hollaback Girl” and “Livin on a Prayer). Fronted by a guy and a girl who matched every cover note dead-on, they were probably my favorite cover band of the weekend …..The Heroes were followed by a similar cover band, called the Sweet Tarts, but other than the female singer’s long blond dreads and smacking tambourine, they weren’t any fresher…..one more band at 9 -- a group of long-haired Nickelback like guys [I don’t remember their name because 1) I don’t like Nickelback … and 2) By this point, the only person I was interested in seeing was Ben Folds].
... and then it was time to haul out Ben’s piano.
Count it: my seventh time seeing him and it never, ever gets old. Every show is full of the same old, often humourous Ben Folds antics, yet he throws a few new spins in every time too. For this one, it would mark the first time in three years he’s played with a band (a drummer and bassist -- like Ben Folds Five reincarnated), rather than going solo on his piano. Added to that, he has a larger repertoire with his new album, "Songs For Silverman" released in April …
The crowd already on its feet, Ben and the band appeared, the cheers erupted and the pounding piano began as he opened with “In Between Days” …That followed with a few more songs off the new album (“Jesusland,” “Thank You,” “Bastard” …) and some of Ben’s usual comic relief -- this year he teased about why he had been moved from the Piggly Wiggly stage he’d played previous years to the Miller Lite stage. He took that and announced his next song, a tribute on his new album to his daughter “Gracie.” The song, of course, starts with a delicate piano medley, then continues into the sweet lyrics of the song. After the opening piano intro, however, the band completely blind-sided the crowd with a 180-turn and stormed into a speedy, punked-up version of the song! It was GREAT! And once finished, Ben quipped “That was the Miller Lite version of ‘Gracie.” …We sang our lungs out to “Landed” and then the band left Ben alone again, as he went into some of the old Ben Folds Five tunes, playing “Brick,” the sentimental “Evaporated” and of course directing the crowd to back him up as the trumpets and saxophones on “Army” … When the band returned again, more BF5 songs -- “Where’s Summer B” -- which were soooooo good to hear with a live band once again, and some of the songs from his last album, including “Zak and Sara” and a crowd-raising version of “Rockin’ the Suburbs” during which we sang our lungs out again and Ben stole the bass guitar for a portion of the song …..More songs included the always popular “Philosophy” and on and on …The encore: “One Angry Dwarf” with an extended jam and, as always, Ben ending the show by throwing his piano stool and bouncing it off the keys for a dramatic final punch…
We were on our way home in no time, setting into bed a little before 2 a.m. Three nights down, one more to go ...
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