I had taken the day off from work today, but this wasn't exactly what I had in mind ...
... For a little bit there, I was scared enough and I was in enough pain that I thought I was going to have to pay the doctor a visit ...
... Thankfully, by the afternoon I was able to start putting pressure on it and walk it off ...
... and by 5 p.m., I was tying up my shoes and Kates and I were heading to Summerfest! for Ben Folds and John Mayer, baby!
... Talk about a double-bill. Any reference to John Mayer these days goes to his "guitar-god" status (see Rolling Stone). And Ben Folds is a piano-god in his own right ...
* * *
We arrived at the grounds within the hour and began scouting the offerings for another Summerfest supper. This time I went with a turkey wrap from McGillycuddy's while Kates went to the Chipotle stand. Crowds steamed past and into Marcus Amphitheater for the show while we settled at a picnic table to eat. Then we started making our way into the theater a little before 7 p.m. ...
Now, last night was my ninth team seeing Ben Folds. My second time seeing John Mayer. But it was my first time seeing a show inside the Marcus ... great facility. We sat in section 4, just to the right of the stage and underneath the roof. If my counting was right we were about 45 rows back from the stage, offering us a great view, though at times it seemed further than it actually was -- kinda weird ...
The show wasn't supposed to start until 7:30, but already the first act, Brett Dennen, was taking the stage as we were sitting down at 7 p.m.; the place was barely a third full ... As for his performance, his lyrics were muddled and hard to understand, but I liked his positive vibe and sunny guitar pop songs; they seemed perfect for the summer concert atmosphere … Dennen played for a half hour. Among his songs were “The One You Love The Most” and “When You Feel It,” his upbeat final number that won over the fans, judging by the loud cheers he received.
* * *
... And then came the time Kates and I had been waiting for -- Ben Folds. If there was any downfall to the performance, it was that we've seen the guy so may times, we almost know exactly what to expect; we sort of take it all for granted. Still, I get a smile on my face every time -- there's something special about seeing him perform and I try to absorb every performance as though it might be my last ...
He went on at about 7:45 p.m. and didn’t disappoint, providing the die-hard fans like me with an array of songs that spanned his career and the five full-length studio albums he’s made both with Ben Folds Five and as a solo artist.
Folds was front and center on his grand piano and he was joined on stage, as usual, by a bassist and drummer. He wasted no time plowing into the pounding “Gone,” and then! he pulled out “Theme from ‘Dr Pyser’ ” -- a song that had been an exciting staple of Folds' early shows with the Five (video here!) -- that was a treat to hear it again live!Folds played for an hour, and afterward Kates and I agreed, it was as if he was determined to get through as many tunes as he could, hastily bopping through several numbers. Almost all the songs were played noticeably faster than the recordings we were used to hearing. But the rapid-fire pace only enhanced the performance, and Folds' catchy, smart-alecky songs. On a few tunes, Folds even pulled out a pair of bright green maracas, playing his piano with one hand and shaking the maracas with the other.
We also noticed it was easy for us to pick out the die-hard fans sprinkled throughout the amphitheater -- (One guy had on a T-shirt that read “I (heart)’d Ben Folds before he sucked!” Nice! I can relate to that one! ) -- because they were the ones paying attention and hanging on to Folds' every word. Then there were those who didn’t even realize Folds was playing -- like the girl nursing a Miller Lite a few rows in front of us who spent more time with her back to the stage, looking at everyone in the lawn seats. Or the girl who spent almost the entire Ben Folds show clicking through pictures of what appeared to be last weekend’s house party on her digital camera. Or the young couple in front of us who spent more time making out. Why do these people even bother spending the money when they could be doing the same thing at some corner bar?
Given the seemingly lack of people paying attention to Folds, it was a little surprising that when he did “Army,” Folds didn’t bother teaching the song's backing horn melodies to the crowd, but the crowd picked them up and sang them out just fine.
He followed it with one of my favorites "All U Can Eat" (which he introduced as a song he wrote when he was thinking about pieces of things and he was talking with his dad at Denny’s), than a fast-paced "Kate," "Bastard," (with a nice piano jam and some tight harmonies), a sped up "Underground" (another oldie but a goodie I didn't expect to hear from his Ben Folds Five days ... he introduced it with a bit of classical piano playing and then a few bars of “Stairway to Heaven” ... )
Next up was "Landed," and then, probably the most anticipated song of the night -- Ben Folds' cover of the Postal Service's “Such Great Heights,” a number he just recently added to his repertoire (Watch him perform the song on YouTube!). The song sounds like a tough one to play, but Folds makes it look so easy, and then he topped it with a crowd-raising synthesizer solo ...
Again, he wasted no time in between songs and went right into "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces." Then he prepared the audience for "The Ascent of Stan," dividing us into three sections and teaching the song’s three-part backing harmony. But the crowd was weak singing the parts and it almost seemed as though Folds had to stop playing his piano sooner than he wanted to pick up and direct the crowd's singing ...
... His last song was "Narcolepsy," a thunderous epic that I've only been fond of when Folds performs it live.
... One of the funniest moments of the show, came just before "Narcolepsy" as Folds was showing off the synthesizer that had been sitting next to his piano all night. The guy was like an excited little kid describing the mind-numbingly low bass -- "This'll make you S*@# your pants," he said ... I'm laughing about it now, just hearing him say it again in my head…
Folds was done at 8:45 ... And it was at that point I realized I was right to follow my gut when Kates and I bought our tickets for the show. Despite the price, I reasoned we would be better off getting seats under the roof because we would be miserable if it rained -- which it's been known to do at Summerfest ... Turns out, there were severe storms Tuesday night. We were treated to quite the lightning show behind the Marcus and over the lake between bands. And then it started pouring just before John Mayer came on. Those pour souls up in the lawn seats could do nothing but huddle in their ponchos, while we stayed dry as a birds under a tree ...
* * *
... Call this cheesy, but it seemed fitting with all the lightning flashing around us, given the electrifying! performance John Mayer put on ...
Mayer took the stage at about 9:15 to piercing cheers and dove into “Belief,” an offering from his latest disc. He shouted a quick “Thank you, good evening!” to the crowd and then churned out the first of a half dozen big hits with his breakthrough “No Such Thing.” Loved it!
All night long, young girls swooned and the older fans bobbed their heads ... With a pair of rugs laid out on the stage and a set of lamps hanging overhead, Mayer played as though he was killing time in his living room and invited thousands of people to watch ... Mayer clearly is a more mature and seasoned performer now than the up-and-coming pop star Kates and I had seen perform at Carthage two or three years ago ...
He performed extended jams on “Good Love Is On The Way” and then “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You),” which also included a nice trumpet solo ...
Then in between songs, Mayer mentioned he and his band don’t normally spend a lot of time in the places they visit “but last night we stayed at Sheboygan State Park!” As the crowd cheered, Kates and I looked each other with wide eyes and gave each other a high five -- I grew up going to that park with my family, and Kates and I will be heading there in a few weeks for a long weekend!
Next up were "Neon" (appropriately, neon lights flashed from the stage area; plus a drum solo by J.J. Johnson), "Dreaming With A Broken Heart" ( ... included beautiful piano intro) and "Waiting For the World to Change" -- which is easily my favorite John Mayer song to date, and it sounded even cooler and more fresh hearing it live last night!
By the time Mayer finished it, he had been playing for about 45 minutes. He paced around the stage for a few moments and leaned into the mic, saying something about the ratio of pop songs and then muttered “must jam more. Must jam more” …
And with that, he delved into a eight-minute jam session of "I Don't Need No Doctor" that changed tempos multiple times and featured Mayer taking solos along with his trumpet and sax players.
On the next song, “Why Georgia,” Mayer might have had the crowd at its loudest. As Mayer, who plays an array of colorful guitars throughout his shows, strapped on an acoustic, he was more than content letting the audience carry the song, singing “so what so I've got a smile on” at the top of their lungs.
Next up, "Vultures" featured another great sax solo, and that was followed with "Bigger Than My Body" ... and for a second during that song, I couldn’t help but zone in on Mayer, survey the singing crowd and think “This is where it's at!”"Gravity," which was his last song before the encore, was arguably Mayer's best song of the night … Mayer gave it a sweet bluesy spin (as if the album version wasn't good enough already ...), and he had the crowd singing loudly again: “Gravity / Is working against me / and gravity / wants to bring me down.” It was packed with emotion packed and it too lasted about eight minutes ...
When Mayer came back to the stage for the encore, three stools were positioned at the front of the stage, which Mayer and his two guitarists took for an acoustic set …
They started it off with "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room." Then, Mayer took the mic and said, “I tend not to want to brag, but this next song night be the best song ever written.” Leaving no doubt as to what song it was (after all, it was about the only song he had yet to play ... ) Mayer went into an acoustic of "Your Body Is a Wonderland." … The crowd clapped with the beat, and I don't need to tell you how loud they sand on that one.
Finally, the band returned for one more song -- "I’m Gonna Find Another You" -- traded guitar solos and turning in one last long jam before calling it a night.
... The rain was still falling as we made our way out of the amphitheater. Earlier we had talked about trying to catch Lewis Black or Weird Al Yankovic (turns out Ben Folds went over to play with Weird Al ... and John Mayer had played with Buddy Guy!), who were playing at other stages on the grounds, but at 11:30 and under rain we decided it wasn't worth it ...
We were satisfied with what we got ...
Read Dave Tianen's review on jsonline.
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