Review: BEN FOLDS & A PIANO TOUR at Midland Theatre

Not everyone can be Kenny Rogers.

In a kinder, gentler world, Ben Folds’ name would be mentioned in the same breath as piano greats Billy Joel and Elton John. Like the other two, Folds is a brilliant lyricist, a fantastic pianist, and an amazing storyteller.

 The only difference between Folds and the mega millionaires is Folds has never had a number one hit. Only one of Folds’ songs, “Brick,” a creation with his old trio The Ben Folds Five (WHATEVER AND EVER AMEN, 1997), has cracked the top 10.

Folds told a nearly sold-out crowd Nov. 16 at the Midland Theatre (36 North Park Place in downtown Newark) he figured out the reason why he isn’t a consistent chart topper from an unlikely source – Kenny Rogers. The two met during a press junket for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

“Kenny told me, ‘Ben, I’ve had 21 number one hits. They all have something in common,” Folds said on the Newark stopover on his Ben Folds & A PIANO tour. “‘If a song has a social, cultural relevance of the day, then I got a hit from that. Otherwise, it is things women wish their man would say.’

“I started to reflect on my own catalog as one does especially after Kenny Rogers lays it down like that. I thought, how many songs do I have that fit into either of those categories? One in each? That’s possibly why I got left behind.”

Armed with only a Steinway grand piano and a biting sense of humor, Folds launched into a cavalcade of witty, acerbic ballads that thoroughly entertained the audience. Strolling on to the stage to the tune of  Three Dog Night’s “One is the Loneliest Number,” the t-shirt and jeans wearing artist looked like a piano tuner more than a concert headliner.

But once he sat down behind the keyboard, Folds was mesmerizing. He ripped through the complex chord structures of “So There,” the title track single from the 2015 album, and the bittersweet, “Don’t Change Your Plans” from the Ben Folds Five’s THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF REINHOLD MESSNER (1999).

Folds is somewhat of a chameleon. His style changes to who he is playing with. He has been the angry young man when with Ben Folds Five, hitting his most cynical dark pieces. With symphonies across the country, he morphs into a respectable rock star fronting fully orchestrated numbers.

On this version of the Ben Folds & A PIANO tour, Folds has been switching up his selection of pieces. He skipped over some of his crowd pleasers like “Rocking The Suburbs,” “Army,” “Brick,” and “Jesusland.” Instead he sampled deeper cuts from his 10-album song book including songs from the four Ben Folds Five studio albums and his six solo records. He also has been focusing on playing some of the smaller cities like Newark, Marietta, and Rockford, Ill. as well as the larger cities like Los Angeles, New York City and Seattle.

“I don’t think I have ever been to Newark,” Folds said while surveying the ornate Midland Theatre. “I am usually down the street in Columbus. I’ll be playing songs that I made up … scanning all my hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s.”

An interesting time frame choice, considering Folds didn’t start recording with the Ben Folds Five until 1995.

Folds is at his best when he tells the stories behind his ballads. Among the crowd favorites was “The Ascent of Stan,” (ROCKING THE SUBURBS, 2001), which was based on Folds’ first encounter with “a hippie.”

“I mean I saw (hippies) on TV but I had never seen one in person,” he said with a smile. “He took off in the dotcom era and became too important to talk to me. Once he got into that position, I thought wow, what’s it like for him to be doing everything he once stood against.”

Knowing the backstory gives the listener a deeper appreciation for the lyrics. For example: “Stan, once you wanted revolution/Now you're the institution/How's it feel to be the man?/It's no fun to be the man.”

One of the challenges in spelunking the dark corners of Folds’ career is that even the creator forgets his own words. Before dusting off “On Being Frank” (From Ben Folds Five’s THE SOUND OF LIFE OF THE MIND, 2012), he worried about messing up. It turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Midway through the opening stanzas of the obscure track, Folds threw up his hands in frustration, shouted an expletive, and shook his head before restarting the verse.

Most of the time, however, Folds didn’t have to worry about making a mistake; the crowd was right there behind him. He’d often stop midsentence, turn to the crowd expectantly, and the audience would fill in the missing pieces.

After closing his set with a rollicking version of “Annie Waits” (ROCKING THE SUBURBS, 2001) and a poignant delivery of LANDED (SONGS FOR SILVERMAN, 2005), Folds completed his concert with a charged version of “Zak and Sara” (also from ROCKING THE SUBURBS). As he waved goodbye to the crowd, Folds left the stage much the same way he entered it with Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” (1975) blaring over the public address system.

He may have performed solely on stage, but Folds was never alone. He had the Midland audience right there behind him. Folds might not be Billy Joel, Elton John or even Kenny Rogers. He is simply himself and that is more than enough.

Folds had the perfect foil in Lindsay Kraft, for his opening act. The actress and model has spent much of the last four years, honing her skills on the piano and writing songs.

Sharing the same Steinway with Folds proved to be the perfect forum for Kraft and her eight song suite. She shared the same conversational tone with her audience. She joked around with the crowd, singing at one point, “I don’t know who you are” and then repeating it as a serious question, “who are you?”

When a member of the audience announced he was John, Kraft worked his name into a couple of her songs.

 For a novice songwriter, Kraft has put together a strong, emotionally deep group of songs, even weaving some of them into a musical called “love, me.” The highlight of her set was the piece, “Sam I Am,” a song about her complicated relationship with her father.

“What kind of dad sits on his daughter’s bedroom floor captivated as she sings through the entire scores of GYPSY, LES MIS, and A CHORUS LINE … with no intermission between all three shows?” she said with a chuckle. “Sam’s the coolest.”

A cloud seemed to cast over Kraft’s face as she continued her story.

“Sam told me stories about a woman he was in love with and then proceeded to ask me for advice about that woman … while my mom was in the next room. Sam’s inappropriate. One of my earliest memories was being three years old, standing on a stepstool as I poured his bottles of beer and pills down the kitchen sink. Sam’s an addict.”

The good news, Kraft said, is her father recently received his two year coin for sobriety. As the applause died down, she continued, “the time before that, he made it nine months. The time before that, he made it three years. The time before that, he made it 12 years.”

Folds, who provided the counterpunch voice of her father in the song, later praised her performance.

“Lindsay’s been an actress for 20 years, so you may think ‘Oh I’ve seen her before,’” Folds said before launching into “All U Can Eat.” “Her idea was to master the piano so she could perform these songs — no matter how crazy the chords were — and be able to play them for you guys. She did this at the age of 40.

“I tell you that because I have met people for years who say, ‘Oh, man I wish I had started earlier but it’s too late now.’ It’s actually not. She’s written a large body of songs and a musical. I think that’s kind of neat.”

Photo: Jarrod U. D'Oland