Ben Folds will grace the stage of the Overture Center for the Arts at the end of the month and keep his promise to ""rock the suburbs."" With the release of his latest album not far in the past, Folds' show promises to be a fun experience.
After putting out three albums with the Ben Folds Five from 1995 to 1999, he began producing albums on his own. The first to come was Rockin' the Suburbs, which provided insight to Folds' solo lyrical ability and musical talent. This continued through his next six records, ending the line thus far with Lonely Avenue, released in September of 2010. Each of his songs exhibit an emotional or anecdotal story painted with a varied musical pallet. His style ranges from ballads to pop songs to alt rock, even a soft rock cover of Dr Dre's hit ""Bitches Ain't Shit.""
In 2009, Ben Folds became one of the three judges on NBC's ""The Sing-Off,"" in which a cappella groups perform and compete for a recording contract with Sony. The runner-up team from this season, Street Corner Symphony, will be opening for Folds on this leg of the tour. The Street Corner Symphony, who describe themselves as ""face-melting a cappella,"" is centered in Nashville, Tenn., and has a rich background in gospel. Their repertoire is diverse and will be displayed on their first album, which is still in progress.
On this tour, Folds is promoting Lonely Avenue, which is the brainchild of Folds' musical expertise and Nick Hornby's way with words. Hornby is an English writer best known for his novels ""About A Boy,"" ""High Fidelity,"" ""Fever Pitch"" and ""How To Be Good.""
Hornby's works exhibit a slightly melancholy and depressed story, but with a large helping of humor. Music is not completely out of his element; before becoming a novelist he worked as a journalist and pop music critic for The New Yorker.
Each song on Lonely Avenue is a masterful combination of narrative and song, coming together for a fun and relevant collaboration. Ben Folds interpreted the meaning of the songs perfectly to compose and convey the words in a bed of suited music. The styles of the songs fall in line with Folds' repertoire and will not disappoint an old fan. The album is engaging, catchy, witty and emotional.
Folds displays a wild amount of talent at every stop on his tour and engages the audience with every song played. He has a true following of fans that make up an amazing crowd and are always entertained by his performances.
The show is on Thursday, January 27th at the Overture Center for the Arts. Tickets are $37.50 and the show begins at 7:30.
