Shock! Horror! Buscrash! It's all downhill from here baybee.

I don't think I've posted for a couple of days. Not that I feel bad about this or anything. It's more a clinical observation than an impassioned cry for help.
Ok, that's it for clinical observations. Now it's time for opinionated ramblings:

Last you knew, I was going to Ben Folds tomorrow. Well tomorrow was yesterday, and I did indeed go to see Ben Folds tomorrow (yesterday). Let's talk a little about that shall we.

Turned up to the Tivoli theatre (apparently Brisbane's most exciting and unique venue. I would never have guessed) with Tony, Lyds, Jess and Melissa. Openers Fear of Flying were talented, but boring as all fuck, and I was extremely happy to see them leave the stage. The incredible Luke "I-have-awesome-taste-in-music" Blanch had previously mentioned that Clem Snide was awesome. Surprisingly enough he was utterly correct. Eef Barzelay (apparently he had to leave the rest of his band behind in the states) took the stage decked out in a black suit, guitar, Buddy Holly glasses and slightly scruffy black hair, yelled "Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from New York City, Clem Snide", and hooked into his first song. Holding his guitar like a skinny god of rock, he squeezed out an unaccompanied half-song/half-poem "Long lost twin".

(goes a little like this)
The dark red shadows deep beneath your skin
Tonight I feel like Elvis longing for his long lost twin
Like a pigeon choking on a diamond ring
Tonight I feel like Elvis longing for his long lost twin

I turned to Tony and said "This guy's a legend", and he was. He hooked into his second song "Now the moment's gone" and I knew that I'd be spending some time with Audiogalaxy when I got home. I've got a whole load of their album stuff, but it doesn't really capture the simplicity and humour of a single guy with a Les Paul and a distortion pedal. He brought the pedal along purely for comedic effect, keying it in to completely lose the guitar sound in a snarl of treble for the latter half of "Like a bird" (Nelly Futado), and for a final flourish on various other songs mumbling "Hahaha, that was fucked... it's ok, only having a little fun here folks".
I want to see him again.

We stood around for way too long waiting for Ben to finally appear, all the time fighting off various cocksmacks and other lowlives who would have robbed us of our rightful places near the stage.
Ben came on, unencumbered by any other band members, no, Beck wasn't helping him out on this tour, which reminds me:

Timeoff has fucked me over too many times now, and I'm not going to believe anything they say, ever again. First there was the phantom Taxi gig fiasco, now this heinous Beck's playing with Ben Folds reference in an article, which of course never fucking happened, and now, hot on the heels of that cosmic abortion, some damn limpet disguised as a music critic (Julian Porter, you are an utter cocksmack) wrote this drivel accusing Squipplepippy of ripping off Rival Flight's sound, or not having good enough lyrics, or something similarly uninformed.

So, with Timeoff magazine destined for a well-intentioned firebombing, we return to the show:
Ben Folds was all you would expect from his songs, urban legends and looking at his angsty little frame whinge out songs on TV. I'll get the Snopes stuff out of the way first: Yes he did break the piano. He threw his (padded, drum-)stool at the keyboard of the Steinway grand piano at the end of One Angry Dwarf and 200 Sollem Faces. It bounced off to raucous cheers from the crowd. Then while kicking the pedal-column in time with "Song for the Dumped" (in minor key) during the encore, he managed to knock the whole thing off. So yes, he is hard on pianos. But it was totally worth it. I would personally sacrifice someone else's piano to see him play any time. He started with a mix off his newer stuff and mixed it up later in the show, including some unreleased songs that he "crapped out" to fulfill his contract's 3.6 song per period quota. He rocked out, he was melancholy, he told great stories, got the crowd to sing in 2 and 3 part harmony, thumped the piano and was generally an all round great guy.
4 1/2 stars.