Disc #20: Ben Folds (Ben Folds Live)

Artist: Ben Folds
Album: Ben Folds Live
Released by Epic in 2002

This disc marks another first for the experiment: the first live album. This one is unique because it was recorded on Folds' "Ben Folds and a Piano" tour, which was just as it's title describes it. So, he has three albums worth of material with his band, plus another album of solo stuff (on which he played almost all the instruments), and he decides to do a whole tour with just a piano. Brilliant.

Ben Folds fans are the type that know all the words and love to sing along, so this tour was very successful, and has produced an amazing live album. One of my favourite things about his live performances is his tendency to get the audience involved musically. He teaches them some parts to "Not the Same", and it sounds beautiful. I saw him in the spring of 2009 and it was amazing to be a part of that with him and so many other fans.

He also splits the crowd into two groups and gets them to do the sax and trumpet parts on "Army". The track on the album also includes Ben teaching the audience how to do sing the parts, as a trial run before he gets them to do it during his actual performance of the song. Again, loads of fun.

Because I only have one of his three studio albums (and one out-takes album, "Naked Baby Photos") with Ben Folds Five, some of these songs were unfamiliar to me, but I've grown to love them from this live album. However, it's quite amazing how he transforms the band tunes into solo acts. If you had never heard the recordings before, you would have no idea they weren't written for just one piano and a vocal.

One of my favourite songs from "Rockin' the Suburbs", "Fred Jones Part 2", is performed on this album. Not only that, but Ben is joined by the same guy who lent his backing vocals on the studio album version of the track: John McCrae of Cake. He has a warm, yet eerie tone to his voice which I find so fitting for the song, and I'm glad he appears on this live version.

Everything about this album makes it a wonderful sing-along, except for the cursing. Once again, it's my only negative comment. I can get over it, but I would enjoy it just that much more if it was absent. So, as is my tradition, I will award Ben Folds yet another score of:

8

Join me next time as the experiment continues with another BF album on Disc #21: Ben Folds (Songs for Silverman).