On the Road Again
Live Review

Ben Folds Five
Lee's Palace, Toronto
June 6, 1997

Rock is not dead. Guitars, maybe, but certainly not rock. For proof, one need only watch Ben Folds in action - with a single piano note, the North Carolinian tunesmith erases everything that has happened in rock history since Jerry Lee Lewis. Sure, Folds eased the boomers in the audience into his Lee's Palace show with the lovely ballad "Missing The War," but once the opening notes of the soul-shakin'’ "Kate" rumbled out of his baby grand, it was clear that we were not in a Holiday Inn lounge.

The Lee's stage could barely contain Folds and his insanely talented mates (bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jesse), a fact that did not go unnoticed by a band that had just returned from touring in arenas overseas. If the way-sold-out venue was too small, the Ben Folds Five did everything they could to tear down the walls and blow off the roof.

Anthems from the trio's sophomore Whatever And Ever Amen ("Battle Of Who Could Care Less," "One Angry And Dwarf and Two Hundred Solemn Faces") were cranked out alongside classics from the self-titled debut ("My Philosophy," "Jackson Cannery"). Sledge's hi-hat cymbals were in danger of toppling over from over-smashing on more than one occasion. When not bashing away with Folds, Jesse and Sledge supplied tunes like "Fair" with the most perfect harmonies this side of Pet Sounds.

If, however, the Ben Folds Five tire of performing their patented hook-filled piano-core, they could make a killing as a comedy act. As if the band hadn't already won the crowd over by mid-set, they playfully stooped to the lowest form of audience-baiting by doing an on-the-spot rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" with all geographical references changed to Toronto. To commemorate their arena rock experience in Japan, the band broke out into "The Ultimate Sacrifice," a shrieking schlock-goth-metal parody that even Ronnie James Dio wouldn't be able to take seriously. The jokey vibe continued right through the set's closer, the signature "Underground," in which the song's "Bohemian Rhapsody"-like intro was interrupted for Sledge's impromptu reading of Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie." Smiles spread across Lee's Palace like ebola.

-Stuart Berman