Ben Folds played a show in Edmonton last week. In Edmonton! It was his only Canadian tour date and it was in my hometown. I cannot even begin to explain the injustice of it all to you. A whole bunch of my friends from back home got to go and my facebook newsfeed was filled with updates and photos from the show all, ”BEST SHOW EVER!” One girl even got a picture taken with him. My friend Patrick went and got to sit in the front freaking row. Oh the humanity!!
I first discovered Ben Folds in Grade 11. A boy I had a mega crush on lent me his Whatever and Ever, Amen CD and said I had to check out this bad ass piano player. It was the first time I ever really thought about the piano as a rock instrument or something to write songs on. Up until then all I had ever really played was classical RCM stuff and the occasional Disney song. Oh, and Let It Be, obviously. Ben Folds opened a whole new musical world to me. A world in which I could play piano with other people in a band and write my own music.
So thanks Ben Folds (and dude-I-had-a-crush-on-who-grew-up-to-be-a-rockstar). I owe you guys! Ben, one day I will see you in concert. That’s a promise.
“It’s really not that you can’t see, the forest for the trees/You’ve never been out in the woods alone..”
Ok, one more.
That’s what you get for moving away :p
P.S. It was a fantastic show 😉
As I am sure you know (or maybe not) I am probably the world’s BIGGEST Ben Folds fan. It is my dream to see him in concert. I have missed him so many times that I have lost count of the concert “injustices” I have suffered. I am not sure if this is a common or even normal response to music, but I often am in such complete and total awe of his piano playing/song writing that I put a song on repeat for hours on end… and sometimes playback a specific bridge over and over and over again. (Run-on sentence: I apologize.)
Ben has been at every major event in my life – two graduations and my wedding – by way of his music. When I listen to his music, my memories from 15 and on play in my head.
I am a creepy super-fan of his, and I cannot actually express to you how much of a fan I am because words are failing me.
There. Now I am officially weird.