ValuePack
07-19-2007, 11:21 AM
So the wife bought us tickets to last night's show as a good excuse to get out of the house for a few hours. I showed up with little expectation. On par with my expectations, the place was full of 14yo girls and baby boomers, most of whom looked like they'd tell stories of the "Eagles in concert, in '82."
We missed the first two songs from Ben Folds' set, and he plunkered on thru a few songs. Some excellent harmony, some dreary drumming, nothing great, but nothing bad. Then he broke out his synthesizer. "Cool," I thought. He proceeded to give us 14Hz(impossibly low bass notes), explaining how it was "the Brown Noise." I laughed. A lot. He then sang a song I couldn't really make out(lots of disappointing mic feedback), about how he made us **** our pants. I laughed more. They only performed one song I knew, but used the synth quite a bit, with some tones and styling you'd recognize from Rush. One song was nearly all-electronic, and I loved every second. They played their last tune, trashed their equipment(Ben broke his metal stool in half over the piano; I dug it) and left. There was a smattering of applause from the all-seated audience, but I loved it. Weak start, but waaaaay better than I expected. Hell, the guy even referanced "Coming to America" when the mic feedback was particularly bad... "thank you, we're Sexual Chocolate." No one got it but me.
During the intermission, the baby boomers complained about "Ben makes a lot of noise. I came here to see them, but that electric stuff was crap," and the teenagers all made out and text messaged each other.
John Mayer took the stage and the crowd got to their feet and went nuts. I did not. If you want to experience a John Mayer concert, just play the CD and have 4,000 teenage girls and 48yo women sing along, each of whom know every word; his live performance is identical to how it sounds on the record. His band was entirely uninspiring, his drummer sounded like a hired studio musician, and his horn section wasn't really mic'd. Picture a Huey Lewis and The News show. I was unimpressed, but the audience lost their minds. John himself is an excellent musician, but the teeniebopper thing was too much. Amy was falling asleep, and I'd had enough, so we left just before the set was over.
Yet again, the headliner was better than the main act.
We missed the first two songs from Ben Folds' set, and he plunkered on thru a few songs. Some excellent harmony, some dreary drumming, nothing great, but nothing bad. Then he broke out his synthesizer. "Cool," I thought. He proceeded to give us 14Hz(impossibly low bass notes), explaining how it was "the Brown Noise." I laughed. A lot. He then sang a song I couldn't really make out(lots of disappointing mic feedback), about how he made us **** our pants. I laughed more. They only performed one song I knew, but used the synth quite a bit, with some tones and styling you'd recognize from Rush. One song was nearly all-electronic, and I loved every second. They played their last tune, trashed their equipment(Ben broke his metal stool in half over the piano; I dug it) and left. There was a smattering of applause from the all-seated audience, but I loved it. Weak start, but waaaaay better than I expected. Hell, the guy even referanced "Coming to America" when the mic feedback was particularly bad... "thank you, we're Sexual Chocolate." No one got it but me.
During the intermission, the baby boomers complained about "Ben makes a lot of noise. I came here to see them, but that electric stuff was crap," and the teenagers all made out and text messaged each other.
John Mayer took the stage and the crowd got to their feet and went nuts. I did not. If you want to experience a John Mayer concert, just play the CD and have 4,000 teenage girls and 48yo women sing along, each of whom know every word; his live performance is identical to how it sounds on the record. His band was entirely uninspiring, his drummer sounded like a hired studio musician, and his horn section wasn't really mic'd. Picture a Huey Lewis and The News show. I was unimpressed, but the audience lost their minds. John himself is an excellent musician, but the teeniebopper thing was too much. Amy was falling asleep, and I'd had enough, so we left just before the set was over.
Yet again, the headliner was better than the main act.