Reviewed on Saturday August 20
Ben Folds has come a long way since his days as a 20-year-old walking around North Carolina with a tape of recordings in his pocket and a head full of dreams. He’s toured world stages, written an album with novelist/screenwriter Nick Hornby, and even collaborated with musicians as diverse as Regina Spektor and Weird Al Yankovic. But all those accolades aside, it was his performance with New York six-piece ensemble yMusic at the Sydney Opera House that truly proved testament to his evolution as a composer.
yMusic opened the show with an intro that set expectations high for the rest of the night. Made up of a string trio, a clarinettist, flautist and trumpeter, the ensemble was incredibly tight, technically brilliant, and showcased both creativity and flair.
Ben Folds soon joined them and played the title track from his new album, ‘So There’. Jaws dropped around the room in sheer appreciation of all yMusic were doing. By complementing Folds’ piano with lush orchestral sounds, yMusic successfully adapted their classical sound to the rock format, and the mashed up styles proved instantly exciting.
If part of Folds’ charm as a songwriter is in his relatable storytelling, as a live performer his skill lies in how easily he can form a rapport with the audience. Offering snippets of information about some of the songs, he easily drew laughs, tears, and pensive pauses from the crowd. This was most obvious during his intros to ‘Not A Fan’, a song about a partner’s habits losing their charm further into the relationship, and ‘I’m Not The Man’, a brutally honest tune about getting older.
Folds and friends cheerfully indulged the crowd with a playful rendition of ‘Rock This Bitch’ – a tradition where Folds improvises a song onstage. Later, it was an absolute delight to hear the band rework Ben Folds Five classics like ‘Steven’s Last Night In Town’, with the clarinetist stealing the show with a mind-blowing solo.
Finally, Folds shocked everyone by delivering a rare rendition of one of his most well-known tracks, ‘Brick’. He explained the choice through an anecdote about an old Radiohead show he saw, where Thom Yorke said, ‘It doesn’t bother me’ in reference to playing one of their hits. Evidently, playing an old favorite didn’t bother Folds either. The night closed with Folds conducting a choir made up of the audience for ‘Not The Same’, giving the adoring crowd just a taste of what it’s like to perform with some of the world’s finest musicians. What more could any Folds fan possibly ask for?
Photo by Ashley Mar.
