By DAN AQUILANTE
Posted: 2:57 am
October 2, 2008
BEN Folds? Yes he does, in two.
At the first of a pair of Terminal 5 gigs, Folds played a divided concert that initially laid an egg with material off his just-released solo record "Way to Normal" - and then soared on the wings of his older material.
The show had an awkward quality. Folds was obviously jazzed about getting to do his new songs live, while the audience was bummed that he was force-feeding them those songs.
While everyone at the sold-out concert clapped warmly for each tune, the proof was in the pudding - the crowd just didn't pay attention to the actual performance.
Folds is a piano geek with almost no stage presence; that's his charm. But what has worked in the past wasn't doing the trick at this show. The amount and volume of crowd chatter indicated a problem with the tunes, with the show and with Folds. Die-hard fans will no doubt rate this show and "Way to Normal" as brilliant, but that's not the way the songs played out on the floor of the club.
One of the songs that should have been a winner was "You Don't Know Me" - a duet with Regina Spektor on the record that was reprised at Tuesday's performance with opening act Missy Higgins. Instead, Folds and Higgins lived up to that song's sentiments by displaying zero chemistry and being overpowered by the backup band.
"The Bitch Went Nuts" was another loser for Folds. In this song, he reveals his mistrust of women with a tale of how a young Republican lawyer gets his hopes for partnership crushed at an office party by his free-spirited Democratic girl.
Yet Folds never makes the case that he's troubled by the politics of love or his love of politics with creepy lyrics such as " . . . and now when I close my eyes I'll be f - - - ing Jimmy Carter."
And then there were the deathly dull balladzzzzzzzz.
As if to make up for this test of fan loyalty (disguised as a concert), Folds played a terrific hits segment at the end of the show. But that didn't make up for a concert that showed his warts as a limited singer, a mediocre entertainer and a composer whose songwriting is struggling for relevance.
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