Ben Folds, Kate Miller Heidke@ The State Theatre, Sydney(13/5/11)

Mon 16th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

When Ben Folds started the Ben Folds Five in 1995, he wasn’t cool and he still isn’t. However, in his solo albums since his early work with the Five, he’s alienated early fans into two camps: those who love him and appreciate his recent work as laid-back albums with an element of comedy, and those who look at him in a critical eye and find what he’s become a little too clichéd. Before seeing him live for the first time, I was drifting towards the latter; however, I don’t think I’ll ever drift anywhere near there again. Ben Folds is a gifted entertainer and to say the least, even his more recent, less well-received music is given an extra dimension in his shows.

Kate Miller-Heidke has been supporting Folds throughout his tours in America and Europe and it’s easy to see why he’s more than satisfied with having her as a support. Heidke and Folds are musical soul mates; both exceptionally talented as musicians, yet at the same time, unafraid to dampen their art by incorporating comedy. In tracks such as Southern Cross Tattoo and Are You Fucking Kidding Me, Heidke pokes humorous jabs at growing aspects of popular culture: the festival bogan and Facebook. The subtleties in Heidke’s performance such as this comedy add to her performance, but they certainly don’t make it. The main aspect of her performance that continually left the crowd astounded was the vocal range of Heidke. Seamlessly moving from twee indie-pop style vocals to full blown opera in seconds, Heidke showed that, although her music is still in early stages, it knocks many of her contemporaries out of the way.

Folds’ moved through a large amount of material from his latest album Lonely Avenue throughout the set, his collaboration with British author Nick Hornby, which Folds’ claimed early in the show to “run more like short stories than songs”. He opened the two and a half-hour show with Levi Johnston’s Blues, a humorous take on right-wing America, specifically Sarah Palin. Over the next few songs the tone of the venue changed as he gave a heartfelt tale of a one-hit wonder wrought with nostalgia in Belinda before jumping right into a cover of Sleazy by Ke$ha. During this cover, Folds left his piano in a rare occasion for the night in which he launched into a rap.

Folds’ is a seasoned tourer and not shy of stories, which punctuated the concert throughout the night. He spoke to the audience about the band making a pact to cover whatever song was in the top spot on the iTunes chart for an entire year, not realizing at the time that the chart changes frequently leading the band to end up playing a cover of the less-popular Ke$ha track of the year. He spoke to the audience about the birth of his twins before playing a track dedicated and written about one of them, Gracie. Heidke joined folds on stage continuing to wow the audience with her astounding vocal range in You Don’t Know Me, From Above and Songs of Love.

It wasn’t all new material in the set with Folds’ playing crowd favourites including Rock This Bitch, Army, Annie Waits, Rockin’ the Suburbs and Kate. Folds frequently directed to audience to sing along. Before playing Not the Same, he sung three different vocal parts (baritone, tenor, soprano) before directing the audience to sing them in unison throughout. Ben Folds left the stage with a standing ovation and was greeted by one as he returned for an encore of fan favourite, Underground. With a two and a half hour set drawing from almost fifteen years of material, Folds’ left a crowd of old devoted fans to younger punters satisfied as he walked off stage after his encore greeted by a second, and more immediate, standing ovation.