Ben Folds Five - Vicar Street, November 26th

WetDaddy

I would certainly suspect it's still on - for all the awful, inhumane behaviour Ticketmaster exhibits, they are pretty good at informing you if things have changed for an event

I have two standing tickets for tonight, but my wife is 32 weeks pregnant. We / she can stand for a short while, but does anyone happen to know what the typical policy would be in a venue for this kind of situation? Is it likely they might say "We've some seats unsold upstairs, you can use those if you like" or am I off my head thinking that'd be offered up?

I'm trying to get through to Vicar St. myself, but no answer as of yet. Just wondering if anyone has any similar experience.

delbertgrady

Unless they've changed the way they do things, ground floor seats are unreserved in Vicar Street when the ground floor is a standing area, so you should be able to just sit where you want once you get there.

EyesClosed

delbertgrady wrote: »

Unless they've changed the way they do things, ground floor seats are unreserved in Vicar Street when the ground floor is a standing area, so you should be able to just sit where you want once you get there.

Yea usually you can just sit downstairs if you have a general standing ticket, there shouldn't be a problem

quaalude

delbertgrady wrote: »

Unless they've changed the way they do things, ground floor seats are unreserved in Vicar Street when the ground floor is a standing area, so you should be able to just sit where you want once you get there.

That is correct, for any gig I've been at there - anyone can sit in any of those seats around the edge of the ground floor. There's always lots of them free.

WetDaddy

Thanks for the info, guys. Good to know! I'll still check in with Vicar St. to be sure.

So they remove all the mini "cocktail bar" tables in the centre area and that becomes standing only, correct? It's the seating areas around the sides & back of the room that you're talking about?

Cheers!

quaalude

WetDaddy wrote: »

Thanks for the info, guys. Good to know! I'll still check in with Vicar St. to be sure.

So they remove all the mini "cocktail bar" tables in the centre area and that becomes standing only, correct? It's the seating areas around the sides & back of the room that you're talking about?

Cheers!

Yes, exactly that.

WetDaddy

Sweet - thanks again for the help!

NIBBS

delbertgrady wrote: »

The Dublin show isn't even listed on the BFF website now. Only the UK dates, the first one being Manchester on the 29th, and the US ones in the new year. I'm sure it's just an oversight. The gig is still on, right...? :rolleyes:

yeah they only show the next upcoming date, so once it gets to the day of a show it becomes a past event........

as for support Bitter Ruin who are supporting them on the UK Dates have Dublin down as a Tour Date for them and I hope they are supporting, I like what I've heard......

I've asked Aiken on FB what the Stage Times are but no response yet

nomoreindie

NIBBS wrote: »

yeah they only show the next upcoming date, so once it gets to the day of a show it becomes a past event........

as for support Bitter Ruin who are supporting them on the UK Dates have Dublin down as a Tour Date for them and I hope they are supporting, I like what I've heard......

I've asked Aiken on FB what the Stage Times are but no response yet

support is due on at 8:30pm
Ben Folds due at 9:25 according to Aiken tweet

johnny_ultimate

Thoroughly enjoyable gig, even if took a while for them to warm up to the stellar second half. A live environment, alas, has not been particularly kind to the new material, which seems very second-rate indeed, even some of the songs I quite liked on the album (Sky High, for all its balladry, came across best tonight). Odd that the Rock This Bitch felt more like Ben Folds Five than any of the newer songs.

Of course, we were there for the classics and they didn't disappoint - definitely a gig for the fans. Several of the big hits were absent - Army? One Angry Dwarf? - but we got tonnes of wonderful songs to replace them. Jackson Cannery, Philosophy, a bitchin' extended version of Narcolepsy, Battle of Who Could Care Less, Song For the Dumped, Underground and Alice Childress... all fantastic live. Nice to see Landed get a look in, but glad it was the only solo song to creep through.

Also: Robert Sledge. That man can work a ****ing bass. Having seen Ben Folds with his solo band several times, I was wondering how much of a difference Sledge and Jesse could make. Joyfully, a lot.

Adiaga 2

Yeah they were great. All three were on top form. Would have liked a few more of the classics but maybe I'm being a bit selfish there. Anyone know where would I find the setlist for last night?

delbertgrady

Michael Praytor, Five Years Later
Missing the War
Hold That Thought
Jackson Cannery
Selfless, Cold and Composed
Erase Me
Alice Childress
Sky High
Draw A Crowd
Landed
Battle of Who Could Care Less
Uncle Walter
Rock This Bitch (Song for Scott, who’s not a roadie – this isn’t 1970)
Thank You for Breaking My Heart
Brick
Do It Anyway
Narcolepsy
Magic
Philosophy
Encore:
Song for the Dumped
Underground

Adiaga 2

Thanks for that!

Hope it's not another 15 years before they play here again together. Nice crowd last night too I thought.

delbertgrady

So, fifteen years on...

Testament to how good the back catalogue is that - based on songs that have been making regular appearances in the set - we didn't get Army, Kate, Tom and Mary, Emaline, One Angry Dwarf or Best Imitation of Myself, and it was still great.
I thought the new material was enthusiastically/respectfully received. Certainly, everyone up the front where I was knew every word as much as they did the old material, and Michael Praytor proved to be a cracking opener. Personally, my favourite song on the new album is On Being Frank, which they're not doing, but I suppose it's more of a "Ben solo" type song than a band one, though I'm also surprised they're not doing any of the initial reunion songs from the retrospective. Even so...

Robert and Darren clearly bring out the best in Ben. Uncle Walter, which I'd never regard as a particular favourite, was phenomenal, and Darren's playing on Narcolepsy was superb. I'd no problem with Landed making an appearance - I like the idea of the three of them doing it - but I do agree with the earlier comment that he/they are wise to avoid Ben's solo material. I couldn't believe when someone shouted for Annie Waits at one point. Save your request for something else. Crosstown Traffic, maybe? Proper old school BFF. Not that we'd have got it.

As for the set list, you can't please all the people all the time, but it's inevitable that people could have left last night, thinking, "It was really good, but why didn't they play Army?". There are certain oldies that are always played, but, for instance, they don't always play One Angry Dwarf. However, Nottingham (the previous gig) got two more songs than we did, including Tom and Mary, Kate, Emaline and Army. They DIDN'T get Magic or Thank You for Breaking My Heart, two that I suspect a lot of people in Vicar Street would have happily sacrificed for ANY two of the four Nottingham got.

Finally, I thought Bitter Ruin were awful, and they were a bizarre choice for the support slot. While I acknowledge that Georgia was trying her very best to engage the audience, wailing like PJ Harvey * at her most esoteric and throwing shapes like a 1970s Kate Bush * wannabe was never going to endear her. The woman clearly has a great voice (the most conventional song they did, the one she introduced with the reference to Matt Lucas, was definitely their best), but the idiosyncratic and downright peculiar approach to performance was tiresome, and I couldn't wait for them to end.

* I love PJ Harvey and Kate Bush, just in case those comments are misunderstood

floorpie

I've never heard such a tight, perfect, professional band. It was like listening to their CD's, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's certainly massively impressive.

I love Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five, and it was great to finally see them after a decade of listening to them, but i felt like they didn't engage with the audience very much. I felt like there was an undercurrent of the crowd wanting to get involved, but not really being given an opportunity, not until towards the end at least (i hope he really did improv that Thor song, very funny). If Army or something similar had been played before the halfway point, and gotten the crowd into things a bit, there might've been a bit more...of a connection.

Robert and Darren were absolutely phenomenal, truly amazing.

I also think that their new album is probably one of their strongest, so it was great to hear a good few songs from that.

Lastly, i really have to disagree about Bitter Ruin. I was prepared to hate them for no particular reason, but they absolutely stole my attention. The guitarist was great, she was great, their songs were excellent, they gave a great dramatic performance, excellent.

gmisk

Im not a huge ben folds five fan but really enjoyed the show. The second half had stronger songs than the first imo and crowd were mad into it.

I thought Bitter Ruin were pretty attrocious...the songs had no structur....the guy could play guitar....but the girls voice was incredibly off putting at times....speaking like a baby...screeching like a banshee...plus bonus dodgy arm movements....I definitely wont be going to the workmans club....

quaalude

I thought the show was immense.
The level of musicianship was unbelievable, and the three felt so connected, it was truly mesmerizing.
I'm glad the whole gig wasn't a giant crowd singalong - I've seen youtube videos of Ben Folds gigs where the crowd is singing the entire time. I was worried it would be like that, but that only happened with a couple of songs, and it was really fun.
In short - a brilliant gig, I've been thinking about it all day!

NIBBS

personally I actaully liked Bitter Ruin, but they are definitely not for everyone...I like the bizzare qualities of it, I just think there's something interesting about them that might just develop into something great - we'll see.....

as for Ben Folds Five - I thought they were awesome, I was a little worried with the opener, thought they may now be that interested - but it just kicked on and got better as it went on - for me just to get to see them was the main thing, but I found it hard to look away from Robert a lot of the time, maybe it's that the Bass has more of a focus in the music than it does with a lot of guitar driven bands, but he was just terrific.
Getting to hear Brick live was just brilliant, I really love that song, was always going to be a mixed set, but I thought it was quite well balanced, they are a very well integrated unit and once they kick into gear it's just beautiful to watch - would be great if they keep going and make a return trip, they all seemed to have a great time playing and Ben was very appreciative of the reaction they got, so that's all good :-)