On Sunday June 29th, 2008 I went and saw Ben Folds play live at Paradiso, a lovely little club in central Amsterdam. The gig is really small and intimate, and I ended up sitting about 10 feet above Ben on a balcony. This was one of the most fun shows I’ve ever been to, aside from being a fan.

For those interested, here’s a recap and what I remember of the set-list that evening. He started with a few new songs, and don’t ask me what they were, I wasn’t trying to remember them at that point.

A song about a metal plate?

He took a minute to describe the gist of an unreleased song called “Hiroshima”, which will be released on a new album later this year. It was about his adventures in Hiroshima, Japan, and how he fell off the stage before he even started playing. It was typical of Ben Folds, taking personal moments from his life and putting them to music. He did start using his hand on the piano strings during the song. For those unfamiliar with Ben’s aggressive piano style, he does quite a few things that would give the chills to a classical pianist. One of which is not using the pedals, but using one hand to reach inside the piano and manually dampen strings with his hand. It’s quite effective and much more obvious an effect than using the pedals, since it can be targeted, as well as it’s more immediate.

Ben’s band was 2.5 other people. A drummer (background vocals except for during Bitches Ain’t Shit, where he took the lead for part), a bassist, and ever-so-randomly a guy would come on stage and play the tambourine for a song, or maybe just part of it. So I noticed at this point the guy playing the bass guitar would also play regular guitar riffs from time to time, but on his bass. You wouldn’t even notice he was playing a bass at times.

Next played was “Annie Waits”, such an old song it’s a classic crowd favorite.

It was followed by “Still Fighting It”, which would have moved anyone in the place.

Then came what I think is a song on his soon to be released album, and I’m guessing the some was called “Kylie from Connecticut”.

Some song with “bye bye” in it a lot.

The highlight was easily Narcolepsy. It started as a regular rendition, but about 2/3 of the way through, Ben went on to what I could only describe as a jazz solo, flapping his hands straight on the piano strings inside the case as a dampener. He used his XYZ bright red synthesizer as background accompaniment, and jammed for a good 10 minutes.

Just the 3 of us? Goodnight? Cool jazz bit in the middle. Brought me nearly to tears, it was just a great show.

Ben Folds then told the crowd that the Steinway pianos always sound better in Europe. As he explained, they stay in tune longer and the hammers don't break...

Next was “Rocking the suburbs”, including a little rap in the middle. I always thought it was such a cheesy song, but you know all the lyrics and it rings true of his audience.

“Army” was up next, complete with the entire place singing along in 2 parts.  Go download a live version of it to hear what I’m talking about.

I was a bit surprised by them playing “Bitches Ain't Shit”, given that he’s stated he retired the song a while ago. He said he’d play it for such a small setting. He drew out the song having everyone at Paradiso singing  “bitches can't hang with the streets”, which was quite funny to hear hundreds of people chanting Dr. Dre.

To change things up, he played an unreleased song called the “Flamenco Piano”, which was all of 20 seconds long, and was aptly named.

A song about “We can be happy?”

“Zak and Sara” got the entire place singing along, and Ben picked up his synthesizer halfway through the song and played it in his hand, old school 80’s style.

It took me a minute to figure out what they played as the penultimate song for the night, since it wasn’t a Ben Folds song. If I remember clearly, it was a quick cover of Louis XIV’s “All The Little Pieces”.

They came out one last time and played “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces”. After they were done, they left the stage. The place went nuts. A sight I’ve never seen before, the audience wouldn’t leave, and wouldn’t stop cheering. Almost everyone stuck around, with the hopes of a second encore. Five minutes later, the place is still cheering loudly. No Ben Folds, and the roadies are disassembling the stage. Not deterred, the place stayed full and cheered probably at least 10 minutes. With the stage half disassembled, the audience finally gave in and stopped. I’ve never seen a crowd that excited and determined for more...