Review: Ben Folds wins over crowd during concert with Columbus Symphony
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Any preconceived notions about whether this would be a traditional evening with the Columbus Symphony were gone before Saturday night’s third song.
In front of a sold-out crowd at Columbus Commons, Ben Folds had just finished “Fragile,” one of two songs he would feature from his newly released album, “What Matters Most,” when he launched into a story detailing the creation of the next song on the setlist. As he connected the dots between a story in the Wall Street Journal and a songwriting exercise he underwent with his Patreon subscribers during the COVID-19 pandemic, a northbound helicopter flying high overhead neatly bisected the crowd and stopped Folds mid-story.
He pulled out his phone, snapped a photo, noted how cool the moment was, then finished explaining how “Kristine From The Seventh Grade” came to be. The biting track off his new album addresses misinformation, conspiracy theories and growing isolation, and it was clear much of the crowd was unfamiliar with the song or its subject matter.
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And as would be a recurring theme throughout Folds’ 14-song set, that mattered little. Backed by the symphony, which Folds repeatedly praised, his 90-minute concert neatly blended the theatrics of the 64-piece orchestra, led by Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, with his heartfelt, earnest and occasionally incisive musical catalog. Those who knew album track “Free Coffee” from 2008’s “Way To Normal” could appreciate the symphony completely replacing the compressed, overproduced sound that lives on the record. Longtime fans could also appreciate the extra vocal flourishes Folds offered in “Zak and Sara," a song from his 2001 debut solo album, “Rockin’ the Suburbs."
But those who might have been unfamiliar with the bespectacled man who came on after a 30-minute symphony set were quickly won over by his charm. After playing “Gracie,” a lovely waltz written for his daughter of the same name, Folds followed by singing the opening line to “Effington” sans any musical accompaniment.
“If there’s a God / He is laughing at us / And our football team,” the song goes, and when the line landed, it elicited plenty of laughter. The same went for some of the more pointed lyrics in “Kristine,” or the entire premise of “Free Coffee,” a song about the juxtaposition of being given free things now when he can afford them as opposed to when he was young and poor.
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The most obvious sign that the audience wasn't primarily a Folds crowd came midway through the set during “You Don’t Know Me,” a single that featured Regina Spektor on guest vocals. Before starting, Folds urged anyone in the crowd to sing Regina’s part because, as he put it, “She ain’t here.” When the chorus arrived, though, what should’ve been an audience singalong for the opening words was instead an instrumental portion of a duet being sung by one person.
As Folds introduced the next song and noted that the it would feature the cello section, he quipped that it was “bigger than the number of people who knew my last song.” Of the 14 songs Folds played during his set, five came from “Rockin’ the Suburbs," which he released after launching his career as the primary singer and songwriter in Ben Folds Five. Folds fit a Psychedelic Furs cover of “The Ghost In You” into the set but otherwise stuck entirely to his solo catalog.
Throughout, the symphony added warm layers to Folds’ repertoire. He opened with “Capable of Anything,” a song from his 2015 album, "So There," with yMusic, a classical sextet ensemble that neatly lent itself to a full symphony. When Folds sang the chorus to “Still Fighting It,” a song written about his son, Louis, the string section added a cadence of staccato notes that provided an extra dose of urgency. “Landed,” the most instantly recognizable song to the uninitiated members of the crowd, was gorgeous with the benefit of so many musicians.
Folds was effusive in his praise not only for the symphony but for the city. He told the crowd about his go-to restaurants and record shops after more than two decades of visiting Columbus (even lauding the nearby neon Dispatch sign before playing "Fred Jones Part 2," a song about a retiring newspaper editor) and encouraged the crowd to continue to support the symphony.
“My music is fine … they play music that is unbelievably great,” he said.
Folds ended by conducting a three-part harmony singalong to “Not The Same” before exiting the stage and returning for an encore of “The Luckiest.” Then Folds, in a light gray suit with an unbuttoned collared shirt, bowed one final time, waved and exited stage right.
He undoubtedly took a swath of new fans with him.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Concert review: Ben Folds plays with Columbus Symphony at the Commons
