Rockin' The Suburbs

My sweet husband and I made the six hour drive to Dallas last Wednesday to see Ben Folds (my favorite!) perform with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Most of you know my love for the Ben Folds' music. If you missed it, you can read about it here. Nick likes Ben Folds a lot too, but I think sometimes I tend to burn him out on Ben. I have all of his music from the very beginning. I have it in CD form, now it is in ipod/itunes form and often I have Pandora on in the house...on the Ben Folds station. Which as a side note, if you do not listen to Pandora...you should. It is truly life changing. OK, long story short, we saw Ben in 2005 and he put on an incredible show. He is such a talented musician. I just could not pass up the chance to see him again and play with a symphony as well, now that is talent!
Nick took off work Wednesday, September 30 and Thursday, October 1. We left early Wednesday morning for Fort Worth. We dropped Allison and Margo off with my sweet parents and headed to Dallas. Nick and I took full advantage of our night in the city, we went to Monica's Aca y Alla for dinner. Previous to last Wednesday, I had only been to Monica's one time, for my bachelorette party in 2004! I loved it then and knew I wanted to go back someday and share it with Nick. We went so early in the evening that it was a lot more subdued than I remember it, but the food was delicious and the atmosphere was great!
After dinner, we headed to the Meyerson Symphony Center. It is a gorgeous building! I did not know what type of patrons to expect that night. Ben Folds listeners do not tend to be your typical symphony set; I will admit, I did see a lot of skinny jeans and tattoos at the symphony that night, probably not typical of a Prokofiev performance. But, variety is the spice of life!
We had third row seats...AWESOME! Here are some pictures before the concert began...







Ben came out and played "Zak and Sara" for his first song. It really was incredible. We were very close to the stage and to hear his songs we know and love so well arranged and played with a symphony was truly breathtaking. Here are a few pictures of him performing...




Ben plays a couple of songs ("Not The Same" and "Army") in which he conducts the audience to sing. Both times we saw him do this it was pretty amazing how well the audience sang along. Here are some pictures of "Not the Same" in which he conducted the audience to sing.







Fortunately he came out and performed two encores. He played two of his new songs from an upcoming album he wrote with author, Nick Hornby. Typically when an artist sings new material at a concert, the crowd is not that enthusiastic, not with Ben. He told the stories behind each of the songs and they were awesome! He is a true musician. He is the one who arranges all of his music for the symphonies. He explained that when he was first approached to play with symphony orchestras, he was frightened that it would be like, "wet t-shirt night and karaoke at the symphony." Well, Ben, it was not. It was incredible.

Here is a video of "Not The Same" when Ben performed with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra. You can see how he conducts the crowd....AMAZING!!!!


Here is one of my favorite Ben Folds' songs, "Lullaby." This is once again performed with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra. He played this song for us. It is an OLD Ben Folds Five song...I love it!


I have so many favorite Ben songs. It is hard to choose! One more that I have to share with you is, "Gracie." I could not find a good video of this song, but I will post the lyrics. Ben explained to us that he has twins, a girl and a boy. The little boy has a song called, "Still Fighting It." His daughter, Gracie, has the song, "Gracie." Nick and I have always loved this song. It reminds me of Allison; particularly the line about Gracie "walking on your toes." Whenever Allison cruises or walks with our help, it is on her toes.

OK, I will stop my incessant rambling about my love for Ben Folds' music. It was an amazing concert and you should all check out his music if you are not a fan already, I know you will love it!

"Gracie"

by Ben Folds

You can't fool me, I saw you when you came out
You got your momma's taste but you got my mouth
And you will always have a part of me
Nobody else is ever going to see
Gracie girl

With your cards to your chest walking on your toes
What you got in the box only Gracie knows
And I would never try to make you be
Anything you didn't really want to be
Gracie girl

Life flies by in seconds
You're not a baby Gracie, you're my friend
You'll be a lady soon but until then
You gotta do what I say

You nodded off in my arms watching TV
I won't move you an inch even thought my arm's asleep

One day you're gonna want to go
I hope we taught you everything you need to know
Gracie girl

And there will always be a part of me
Nobody else is ever gonna see but you and me
My little girl
My Gracie girl