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.)

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.

While the Guildhall is not always the best venue in the world (the high ceiling and exposed wood/brick walls can make for some unpleasant accoustics), the sound engineers somehow got it just right. Intimate. At times it was difficult not to think they were playing just for you, in your living room. The support act were excellent too. Amiina have been the support for the whole of the world tour. They play some wonderfully random instruments including bells, wine glasses filled with different amounts of water and even a large saw.

Until recently, Sigur Rós were Iceland’s best-kept secret. These days, even if you think you’ve never heard of themthe chances are good that you’ll recognise Hoppípolla as being the theme music to David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series. Despite this recent surge in popularity, their fans still seem to be a breed apart. I saw a lot of friendly, thoughtful people, of a wide range of ages. There is one sone (’vidrar’) which famously has a dramatic pause for silence near its end. There were a few brief seconds of cheering and clapping (seemingly by well-meaning people who didn’t know what was happening) but silence soon arrived, partly helped by some good natured quiet shushhing. I won’t forget the sound of 1700 people waiting.

I’ve been fond of Sigur Rós since their challenging album, ( ). It was the first gig I’ve been to tough, and I have already decided that I will be seeing them again as soon as possible.