Scarlett Pimp
21 Mar 2003, 08:18
Anyone been to see these guys yet? I'm going Monday night, and I've been hearing great things.
Downloaded a track they have recorded together, and they sound pretty damn good together.
I wanted to go but a mate of mine had already bought two tickets to Silverchair which is on the same night :\
Played two nights ago up the road at the Enmore Theatre. Walked past and what I heard sounded pretty good.
Stealth bomber
21 Mar 2003, 19:57
I'm going on Monday night. Not sure what to expect. I've seen Ben Folds before and he was fantastic. Even got to meet him afterwards.
What kind of setup is it? Do all three of them play together all the time, jamming on each other's material, or is it more of a taking turns kind of thing?
SolMan23
22 Mar 2003, 12:43
Are tickets still on sale? I only heard about it last Thursday and I'd love to go
Scarlett Pimp
24 Mar 2003, 10:09
ll three play at once, apparently. They have recorded 4 songs together for the tour. 'Just Pretend' being the pick of them. Try www.thesuburbs.co.uk for a listen.
Stealth bomber
25 Mar 2003, 10:54
This is a big spoiler for anybody who is going to a future show, so be forewarned.
The show was setup as follows:
There were two drum kits setup (one left-handed and one right-handed), a grand piano, a mouth organ, a moog synth, and some guitars. The three Bens played everything themselves.
Ben Folds played drums on most of the songs where all three members were present, and was strikingly competent. In fact, he's probably as good, if not better than a lot of guys who make it their primary instrument. He played piano (duh) the rest of the time, although he played acoustic guitar on one or two numbers.
Kweller played guitar, piano, bass, mouth organ, and even did some drumming himself.
Ben Lee stuck to just guitar and bass, and had some sort of hand held drum machine device he used during his solo set on a song or two.
There were four originals. Each member primarily sang lead on one track with the three sharing verses on the fourth. They opened with one, closed the show with one, and played the others in between. All four appeared on a special tour-only EP which they were selling for $10. I picked up a copy.
The set went like this:
All three played two or three songs on stage, then left Kweller alone.
Ben Kweller played five or six songs by himself.
Kweller played one of his songs with Folds, then one with just Lee.
All three then played two or three more songs on stage, then left Lee alone.
Lee played five or six songs by himself.
Lee played a song with Kweller, then a song with Folds.
All three play another tune, then left Folds alone.
Folds played seven or eight songs by himself, then left the stage.
Encore: All three came back out and played about four or five songs, each jamming on each other's material. The show finished with an original called "Just Pretend".
Show highlights:
Repeated use of the phrase "Melbourne is your bitch".
Folds' mocking cover of Wham's "Careless Whisper".
An original called "X-Fire", which was a great p-sstake of 80s new wave and a homage to German techno pop pioneers Kraftwerk (complete with Folds, dressed entirely in black playing a Moog synthesizer and speaking German).
Folds getting the crowd to sing the horn lines from "Army" and the backing vocals for "Not the Same".
Kweller asking questions about Cold Chisel. Folds played about five seconds of "Khe San" which drew a huge roar, then stopped and said he didn't know any more of it. Then they went on a tangent involving Folds playing drums licks and seeing if Kweller could recognize them. Folds played the opening fill to "Down Under", which he didn't know. Then Folds played the opening drum beat to U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday", which Kweller didn't know either. So then Kweller and Folds played the beginning to "Cigarettes Will Kill You" and Lee of course jumped in and performed the song with them.
Folds bringing his young son Louis on stage after much coaxing - he was visible offstage dancing and cheering most of the night. (For anyone who went to the show, the words "Bring Your Kid Out" were yelled by none other than yours truly.)
I think Kweller's stuff was a bit better than I expected, and Lee's stuff was probably a little disappointing. My wife is more familiar with his material than I am and says that it suffered a bit in an acoustic setting.
Folds was spot on as usual, although I must admit that I am first and foremost a Ben Folds fan, so hopefully my natural bias can be forgiven here.
The concert, by the way, was recorded for Triple J's "Live at the Wireless", and there was a film crew there too. Keep an eye out for sound and pictures of this show.