Ben Folds: gig of the year

Posted by Roo - 20/10/06 at 01:10:54 pm

Apologies to anyone I meet today. If I’m tired and grumpy it’s only because I’m still recovering from a very late night. I went to the Ben Folds gig in Second Life and, since it was scheduled for early evening in the US, I did not get to sleep until 3am. I see Ian has already written up the event at Eightbar and it looks like Eric Rice (aka Spin Martin) is working on something too. TheSuburbs.org.uk has a roundup of Ben’s busy day yesterday. Here are my thoughts.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Ben Folds perform live twice now. The first time was back when he was still being Ben Folds Five, and more recently on his solo tour. Both were stunning, mind-blowing gigs but last night topped them both.

The reason was not the stage set, the lighting or even the sound quality (all good) but just the raw craziness in the room. Ben was a surprisingly adept Second Life user considering most of us assumed it was his first time. It’s possible he was getting a little help from the sheep. I know that Jerry Paffendorf (aka SNOOPYbrown Zamboni) was there with him in person, and was managing to both do a good job and, by the sound of it, have a whale of a time. (Incidently, I don’t think Cory Edo, who built Ben’s avatar for him, was there in person, which is a shame since she did a great job and is a huge fan.)

Ben Folds avatar (small)

So.. it was a good gig. How can anyone fail to be impressed by a singer/songwriter whose first appearence in Second Life includes:

  • an audio stream (live chat from the studio and tasters from the new album).
  • Typed chat, complete with paying attention to what the crowd were doing and saying. It was very clearly him too. No corporate sleezeball pupeteer is going to make a Ben Folds avatar say “stand back bitches” at the top of the show.
  • The use of the Duff beer can attachement, complete with falling down drunk animation.
  • Shirtless Ben, encouraging others to join him in taking off their shirts.
  • Lightsaber fighting. Choice quotes: “does anyone want to fight?”, “if you’ll put down the nunchucks i will fight you”, “it’s not fair if you have nunchucks”

In short, it was wild. It was the sort of experience which, in real life, you might get once in a lifetime with an artist who just wants to party with the fans.

Update: Giff Constable has written up a very even-handed report of the evening.

7 Comments »

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  1. Very cool. I’ve been to his live shows, and apart from the lightsaber, this is pretty much Ben ;-)

    Very envious.

    Comment by andyp — October 20, 2006 #

  2. you were very pleasant today, not grumpy at all when I saw you :o)

    Comment by Kaman Chan — October 20, 2006 #

  3. Whatchu mean? Ben always carries a lightsabre around.
    RENT A COP 4 EVAR!

    Comment by Benfolio — October 21, 2006 #

  4. [...] There has been a wide range of reactions to the Ben Folds event we threw with aloft and Sony BMG on Thursday night and I wanted to take a step back and review how things went. My overall reaction was that it was really fun and unusual for the people who were actually there, but there were definitely things we will do better next time.  I would actually argue that is was as fun as a real concert, but just in a completely different, more intimate way.  In a real concert, the artist is up on stage and you’re in the audience. During this event, Ben got down and really played with his fans.  This WAS an amazing time, but you really had to be there (see eightbar and Roo Reynolds, and I hope Eric Rice chimes in too with his opinion of all this). [...]

    Pingback by Out to Pasture » Blog Archive » Ben Folds event: An honest assessment — October 21, 2006 #

  5. [...] Ben Folds in Second Life: Wrap Up Ben Folds was in Second Life last night (October 19) chatting with fans & previewing new clips from supersunnyspeedgraphic, the lp. Visit one of the links below to check out what people are saying about the event! Plus there are lots of additional screen grabs on these sites too. eightbar: Ben Folds in Second Life the Event rooreynolds.com: Ben Folds: gig of the year theSuburbs.org.uk: Second Life Chat [...]

    Pingback by Ben Folds in Second Life: Wrap Up - Alternative — June 9, 2007 #

  6. [...] lots of additional screen grabs on these sites too. eightbar: Ben Folds in Second Life the Event rooreynolds.com: Ben Folds: gig of the year theSuburbs.org.uk: Second Life Chat  Did you enjoy this article? If yes, then [...]

    Pingback by Ben Folds in Second Life: Wrap Up - biginfo.org — May 19, 2008 #

  7. [...] lots of supplemental shield grabs on these sites too. eightbar: Ben Folds in Second Life the Event rooreynolds.com: Ben Folds: gig of the year theSuburbs.org.uk: Second Life [...]

    Pingback by Ben Folds in Second Life: Wrap Up « Music News for All — July 13, 2008 #

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