Concerts never start on time. Sometimes there are two opening bands, other times there’s one, but even when there’s no opening band, you’re guaranteed forty minutes before the main act starts. During my 1st Ben Folds concert, for example, I arrived at DAR Constitution Hall at 8:15, fifteen minutes after the time listed on the ticket, sixty minutes before Folds actually came on stage.
It made perfect sense then to arrive at my 2nd Ben Folds concert at 7:40, forty minutes after the time listed on the ticket. When I entered at the Kennedy Center, however, I found that Folds had been on stage for forty minutes! He then walked off the stage at 8:20, without an encore, performing for less than ninety minutes total! I paid an $18 parking fee for that?!
Irritating as all of this was, the worst part was recognizing how good the show would have been if I’d been there the whole time. Every song he played, he was accompanied by a full philharmonic orchestra! This lent serious songs like “The Luckiest” and “Hope is a Fool” gravitas and made playful songs like “Narcolepsy” and “Jesusland” hilarious. (To get why playful songs were funnier with the philharmonic, picture a well-known Jay-Z song, which Folds frequently covers, and add an oboe, flute, and French horn…)
The final bitter note of the concert sounded the next morning when I looked up the setlist online. Apparently he had played “Fred Jones Part 2” and “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” two of my all-time favorite songs! Oh well, next time he comes to DC, at least I know to arrive forty minutes early…
Grade: C-
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