Girl in Germany

The Dok and I made it out to Ben Folds at the Alter Feuerwache on Thursday night. We don't get that many decent touring bands in the Heidelberg/Mannheim area - although it is getting better - so when a familiar face comes by, it's generally worth checking out. Support live music! Woo! And what a night it was. All I can say is in less than a week Mr. Folds has totally won me over. There was loads of audience participation, which was entertaining. He got the crowd to do this mad three-tiered harmony thing and hell, it sounded beautiful. Yeah that's right, I now frequent gigs of beauty. And wonder. And less pogoing, more swaying. But no fucking lighters in the air. That's where I draw the line. As I've said before he's ridiculously talented and it's a nice change watching a "real" musician as opposed to kids with guitars playing rockstars (which is good too sometimes. But yeah). The impromptu "Mannheim Well-Meaning Heckler song" was funny too. Don't mess with Ben Folds y'all.

His support act Corn Mo was aces too. When he took to the stage, stood there with his accordian and waiting for the venue to turn off the background music so he could start, I was a little scared that we were gonna be subjected to some folky shit - thankfully the man can actually rock that little accordian to hell. Although I suspect he'd be even better if he had a fully kitted out metal support band. Complete with flames, skulls and dwarfs in bondage gear. You get the idea. The man has quite a powerful voice on him. My friend Lorna said that he sings exactly like Meatloaf. Which is true, but at the same time I thought he speaks like Earl of My Name is Earl fame, which is a positive thing as far as I'm concerned. His Myspace is *here*. Anyways, I'm on the prowl on Ebay for Ben Folds' back catalogue. If anyone can help me out with links to mp3s in the meanwhile, I'd appreciate it:p



Photos from Mannheim show: The Doktor.