THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #281 - May 3, 1997
Magical Armchair Digest Saturday, May 3 1997 Volume 01 : Number 281
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
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Topics in this issue:
Re: Philly show
irving plaza
Cleveland show
RI Show
WARNING: no BFF content; They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies
BFF Review on the WWW
Toronto Show
yada, yada, yada.....
Satan Is My Master
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 10:22:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: RnRinDC@aol.com
Subject: Re: Philly show
First, regarding the setlist - here is a revision or two to what someone else
posted. Below are my thoughts on the show.
>Off of Whatever and Ever Amen
>
>One Angry Dwarf
>Brick
>Song for the Dumped
>Selfless, Cold, and Composed
>Kate
>Cigarette
>Stevens Last Night in Town
>Battle of who could care Less
>Missing the War
>
>---Dont know if he did fair, smoke or evaporated.
They played Fair - a pretty cool version where all of the instumentation
dropped out for the first verse, and all you heard was Ben singing, "He
shouted out his last word and stumbled thru the yard......." very cool.
They did not play Smoke or Evaporated.
>From 1st CD
>
>Philosphy
>Julianne
>Underground
>Jackson Cannery
>Last Polka
>Alice Childress
>
>- ----Don't know if he did Summer B--think maybe, sports and wine, video, &
>Boxing. I know he didn't do Uncle Walter -- people kept screaming for it
>but they never got to it.
No Sports & Wine, and no Uncle Walter was kind of disappointing, but the show
overall was amazing. I've been listening to these guys since last June and
this was the first opportunity I had to see them live. I had pretty high
expectations going into the show and I still walked out absolutely amazed.
Well worth the weeknight trip from DC to Philly.
Some personal highlights for me: The "Big" Song that was already mentioned
was too funny. The band is really comfortable interacting with the audience
- - they are having a great time up there. The crowd was great! About 1,000
people there (sold out). When Ben played quieter stuff like the middle of
Alice Childress ("thank god its you, your timing is impecible.....") the
crowd was dead silent and just let Ben do his thing. Don't get me wrong - it
was not a mellow crowd. When they finally did play Song for the Dumped (Ben:
and this, this is not the "big" song), Ben sang the first word or two and
then the band let the crown sing the first 3-4 lines (up to "f**k you too!")
without any accompanyment. The thing that is most amazing to me is that I
have never met anyone else who has heard of BF5 with me having told them
about the band, and now I'm standing amongst 1,000 people who are singing.
Overall the show was great. A few loose jams which I wasn't expecting from
the band were pleasant. More humor - after the encore (a cheesy lounge
version of "She Don't Use Jelly" which was pretty funny, and Julienne), when
the house music came up it was the friggin theme to "The Rockford Files" -
laughed my ass off.....I don't think too many other people got it.
After the show, my wife and I stuck around and talked to the guys. They were
all really nice and personable. I think Darren is a little overwhelmed with
the number of people sticking around and wanting to talk. Ben was funny hell
- - the man was born to be on a stage.
Taping - I got there in the middle of Philosophy - the place was packed and
it was hot as hell in there. Because of all that, I had really hard time
setting up the mics. I also couldn't get to a good spot on the floor and had
to stay about 250 feet from the PA which is far from optimal. There were a
set of shotgun mics setup by the soundboard, and I did see a pair of DAT's
rolling. I talked to the guy who came down from the sbd. He said he worked
for the TLA and he thought that the taping equipment belonged to the band.
He wasn't real helpful. Anyway, the bottom line is that I don't know if
there is a tape out there circulating or if all of the taping going on
belongs to the band. If I can find a good copy of it (1st gen or digital
copy), I'll administer a tree for it - it is well worth it.
Anyway, I'll stop rambling now......for all of you going to see Ben this
weekend in Atlanta, make sure you stick around for Sunday night's performance
by the Royal Crown Revue - they are a band out of LA that play modern big
band music with an edge. Phenomenal. If you want more info about them, email
me privately (RnRinDC@aol.com)
Rich
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 11:16:24 -0400
From: Tushie Galore <eh204@is6.nyu.edu>
Subject: irving plaza
my review of irving plaza:
1. price of tickets--originally 12.50, being scalped for 50 when doors
opened, i ended up getting mine for 20 (patience is a wonderful thing)
2. crowd--young, teenybopperish (mostly) with a few devout fans--definitely
some of the MTV/K-ROCK crowd
3. komeda--not bad, a little lengthy, can really run a good line into the
ground by doing it 8 times in a row--however, nice choreography....
4. bff--goooooooooood (of course), a bit less energetic & spontaneous than
i've seen them before. ben is now officially taking the title "sexy
motherfucker", i think--someone yelled something to him and he said "that's
'sexy motherfucker' to you!" robert broke his bass strap during 1AD (i think
that's what it was)from bouncing around so much, so ben & darren launched
into something that eventually turned into "free bird" (skynyrd!) so, being
the cheesy people we are (i am) some of us promptly took out our lighters &
waved them about. other highlights: "philosophy" at 5 times the normal
speed, "ultimate sacrifice" ("this is our new single, only released in
texas, new jersey, and parts of ?western europe? {i think that's what he
said}), stephen's last night, and of course, the last polka. they did that
pretty early on and i thought i would fall over from bouncing around so
much. well, wanting to but not being able to on account of all the people i
was _really_ getting to know b/c it was so packed. definitely a good show
overall, but i didn't like the crowd too much (some people started moshing)
and i didn't see anyone w/ any armchair i.d. & i really wanted to see ben
dance on his piano....oh well, there will be other times.
adios all, i now totter off to unsubscribe....
- -------------------------------------------
Liz Harler
Professional Goddess
a.k.a. Tushie Galore < eh204@is6.nyu.edu
"insert amusing/meaningful quote here"
- -------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 11:29:10 -0400
From: Todd Vallie <tnv@servtech.com>
Subject: Cleveland show
I've been off the list for a while. I think it happened when we
switched to the new format, so I never got a chance to post a Cleveland
show review. Here goes:
It was awesome. They suprised me by started with Missing the War.
Brick was great. My favorite of the night. Song for the Dumped went
over really, really well. Fair was great, too. Rob S. looked good in a
bra, but not good enough to make me swear off women. Sorry.
The odeon is a great place to see a show, but I must say there were
plenty of assholes in the crowd. During "Brick" some idiot was right
behind me yelling "I got lots of drinks coming. Lots of drinks. Here
they come. Lots of drinks." What a fool. Everyone told him to shut
up. He finally did, after being obnoxious a few minutes longer. Goon.
All in all, it was even better than I thought it would be. All of the
instruments sounded great. Very clear, especially for such a small
place.
- -Todd Vallie
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 May 97 13:06:00 DST
From: "Faix, Andrew J" <ajf@rfpo1.rfc.comm.harris.com>
Subject: RI Show
I'm living in Rochester, NY and am planning to trek out to see BFF in Rhode
Island on May 28th.
Anybody else gonna be there. I'm psyched to see them. Does anyone know if
they ever plan on
playing in the Syracuse / Rochester / Buffalo area anytime at all?
ajf@rfc.comm.harris.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 15:46:05 -0500
From: woletz <woletz@prodigy.net>
Subject: WARNING: no BFF content; They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies
Hi everyone.
I was just wondering who on this list is also a They Might Be Giants or
Barenaked Ladies fan... So, email me if you are one. Sorry if I have
already emailed you asking if you were a fan of either of them...
There's already a lot of TMBG fans that I've found and about 2 BNL fans,
so I just wanted to get a complete count of everyone. Oh yeah, could
you include where you are from too? Thanks a bunch!
~Jessie
P.S. I'd have to agree with Joel to say that Barenaked Ladies and Ben
Folds Five would be a great concert pair!!!!!!
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 15:06:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Susan M Moll <sac60612@saclink.csus.edu>
Subject: BFF Review on the WWW
Hi!
I just launched a review of "Whatever and Ever, Amen" on my WWW Column.
You can check it out at:
http://gaia.csus.edu/~medlinc/casper/
- -Susan (Casper)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 19:03:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Detsky <hdetsky@inforamp.net>
Subject: Toronto Show
BFF have finally decided to come to Toronto after a month of teasing. I've
already bought my ticket and I hope to see any of you from the Toronto area
there, June 6 at Lee's Palace.
Jay
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 16:13:32 -0700
From: Kim <kim@foothill.net>
Subject: yada, yada, yada.....
Hellooooooo all you wonderful Armchairites(?)......
I've kinda been lurking around, trying to getting around to reading ALL these letters,
and I just finally had enough time to post something. I swear I'm the only person at my
school who has even heard of BFF!!!! People are always bumming rides off of me, and
complain about my "jazzy", or "Newsboys" music tapes, (BFF), and I just look at them in
disbelief, not understanding how and why they don't share my love for BFF.....*sigh*
Anyhow, I just wanted to say that I don't think I've ever loved a band sooooooo much in
my life, and even on their CD they just sound like nice guys, you know? I'm a virgin
concert goer, yep, I've never been to a concert, and I was hoping to go while they were
in Cali, but no such luck :( So if anyone hears when they'll be back here, let me
know!!!! Oh boy, I'm so excited to see my post appear here!!!!! *laughing*
Oodles of toodles,
Kim
"If fashion is your trade, then when you're naked, I guess you must be unemployed....."
Pulp
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 May 1997 19:14:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: Qualitease@aol.com
Subject: Satan Is My Master
Well today the student council reps in my school handed out ballots for the
prom song. I was given four choices, but I had no clue who wrote or sang
these songs. So...I pulled out my trusty pen, and proudly created my own
write-in blank space, and filled it in with "Satan Is My Master", just
thought it was appropiate for this situation. I have probably scared those
student council fools. Well that's too bad! Goes to show you that BF5
always prevails! (almost)
~Alan (waiting 4 BF5 in Conn.)
------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #281
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