The old bastard left his ties and his suit

Mrs Waj and I went the the infamous "Chicago Theatre" last night to see Ben Folds in concert. It was a sold out show - roughly 1300 people fit into this classic downtown Chicago entertainment venue. It was my first time visiting the the place, although I have seen the very famous "Chicago" sign in the heart of the Loop shopping district on State ST, mostly from going to countless shows at the quality House of Blues a few blocks away. We broke our new rule for concerts - "Drove to the city on a weekday after work when we have to work the next day", which was broken faster than a New Years Resolution.

Strangely enough, this is the second "seated" concert I've been to in as many months. While Duvall wasn't assigned seats, it did have rows of immobile chairs, which I don't normally see at the "smaller" shows I attend (HOB, Metro). The design of the place was immacullate - huge paintings above the stage and all around the seating area, framing every doorway and the stage were intricately carved trim, gigantic chandeliers and strange "faces" all around. Some of the faces were angelic, while others were very sinister (if you look at the celiing there is a row of jeering jester-ish faces looking down at you). Kind of creepy in a way, but very cool. I haven't been to any "newer" theaters (do they even make them anymore?) but the crazy amount of detail in this place was amazing.

We arrived almost exactly at 7:30 - after quickly grabbing a bite to eat at Cosi - a sandwich shop a block and a half away. After finding out the opening band was The Fray - whom I'd never heard of, and checked out their website for only a sec, I decided that I didn't really care if we saw their entire set. Turned out there was an opening act before the opening act, and the show was a part of the Yellow Umbrella Tour. Google it if you want, but unless you are a female, I wouldn't recommend it. I'm not going to say much about the opening acts, they really didn't impress me, so if you have nothing good to say - "I was glad when they were both done playing". I really shouldn't be that hard on them, they artists seemed like good musicians - but a little too slow for me. If my 16 year old self were to see that my 26 year old self was at a concert with 3 bands that could be played on Mix 96 (old local soft rock radio) I probably would have kicked my own ass. And I don't like to fight.

As the title of this blog represents my favorite song of the latest album, it coincidentally was the 1st song he played (and 1st song on the disc). Ben Folds sounds really good live - I'm sure you've heard the Ben Folds Live album, if not pick it up (or the new album bundled with a different live album). While we sat down after the first 30 seconds of the song with most of the balcony audience, the group of 8 teenage girls in front of us decided they were going to continue standing through the song. OK I thought, they will just stand for the 1st song, then sit down. The next song came and went, meanwhile the clan in front of us were still standing. I felt like I had Deja Vu - then I remembered an old Saturday Night Live skit with Melanie Hutsell as a teen girl standing through a seated concert. Man I felt old asking them to please sit down - for a few songs. The girl I asked in front of me immediately did, while tugging on the girl next to her to sit as well. It wasn't until the "Leader" of the group sat down that the rest of them did as well. Throughout the show this went on - they would all look at each other at the beginning of a song - waiting to decide whether or not to sit or stand. Until the "leader" either stood up or sat down nothing would happen. It was pretty funny actually, but really took away from the Chicago Theater "intimate" experience. It also shows the wide range of audience that Ben Folds has - from our group of mid-late twentysomethings, the teens in front of us, to the gray haired woman and bald man couple in front of them. Also for the first few songs - the girl behind me clapped her hands so loud to the beat in her head and sang louder than Ben playing through the speakers - I was really annoyed. Good thing she decided to take the first row of seats in our section 10 feet closer - enough so that I couldn't hear the singing - although the clapping was still pounding in my head.

Overally the show was good - not quite worth the $42 paid because of the annoyances around me interrupting the view - we were dead center of the balcony, amazing view when standing (just didn't feel like standing the 2 hours Ben Folds played). He did play for almost 2 hours - I would say the "girls" stood for at least an hour of it, which for a few songs, I decided to stand, simply becuase I am still young enough to be able to and wanted to see. The lighting was really cool - they had some high-powered lights going on the stage that was reminicent of 70's club (or the Austin Powers version anyway). Once in a while the 2 backlights would be directed to the balcony and were blinding, I've never seen such powerful beams, almost laser like, but white/blue instead of red. Also the $6/12 oz bottle of beer price was pretty crazy and considering they didn't take debit/credit cards, I imagine 75% of those sales weren't being accounted for. Another rant for another day.

If I knew when I ordered the tickets what I know now - I would have definitely purchased them again - but maybe tried for the first row instead of 4th row. I don't know if I would see him again for that price and venue, but it was a very cool theater, and cool to "see" him perform. The last 2 times I've seen him it was at Ravinia - nowhere close to the stage to see anything (or just catch his last 2 songs the 1st time). The time before that was the first time - at Horde Festival in '97, the year Whatever & Ever Amen was released, but before "Brick" really caught on. There was only like 30-40 people watching them, but it was really cool to see. Through the next few years of college, I listened to my roommates Ben Folds Five albums, but never really thought about seeing them again. Until recently, after getting a hold of the last few solo albums and actually listening to them, did I really want to see him play. Ravinia was fun, but less a chance to "experience" the music and more of a chance to picnic and hang out to live music.

The drive home was great, I kind of actually know my way around the loop somewhat and was able to get on 290 with no problems. Traffic was very light (it was around midnight) and there were no lane closures on the west bound 290-88 highway, not true for Eastbound - cut down to one lane between Naperville RD and 53 - so glad I was not going in that direction!


Waj