Possibly the best thing Ben Folds has ever done since Chatroulette requests…

Here is the setlist from this madness…

(Thanks to baristagirl for the setlist)

Paper airplanes are the best way to put together a setlist.

No seriously. I just got home from seeing Ben Folds play The National in Richmond, VA…. I’ve seen him a couple of times before, but this show was the best one. Mr. Folds had everybody write their song requests on paper planes (mine was “Army”) and float them onto stage when he walked out. From the array of tiny aircrafts on the floor he selected songs one at a time… he played the intro of repeat requests and sometimes part of a verse in a minor key, which was very funny. It seems that the most common requests were “Landed” and “The Luckiest”… (can we consider this a representative sample?)

The setlist:

The Luckiest
Missing the War
Landed
Landed intro
Luckiest intro (minor key)
Landed intro
Brick
There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You
Learn To Live With What You Are
Luckiest intro
Army
1 Angry Dwarf
Such Great Heights
Do You Know The Way To San Jose? (he bullshitted his way through this one and it was awesome.)
You Don’t Know Me
Effington
Still Fighting It
Luckiest intro
Faith (George Michael’s song - he made up for lack of lyrics with booty-shaking)
Losing Lisa
Effington intro (minor key)
Zak and Sara
Where’s Summer B.? 
Self-requests:  Hope Is A Bastard and Stephen’s Last Night In Town (complete with super drum solo and brief reprise of Faith)

The encore was a medley of songs on the remaining airplanes, so as not to waste everyone’s lovely ideas. This went as follows:

Adelaide/Bitch Went Nuts/Magic/Song For The Dumped/Sleazy (Ke$ha cover)/ Careless Whisper/Rockin’ The Suburbs/Annie Waits/Bad, Bad Leroy Brown/Not The Same/Emaline/Rock This Bitch/Jesusland/Sweet Caroline/Kate/Mess/Free Bird/Like A Virgin/Tiny Dancer/Bitches Ain’t Shit/Levi Johnston’s Blues/Bruised/Hiroshima (B-B-B-Benny Hit His Head)/Battle Of Who Could Care Less/Wandering/Fired/Don’t Change Your Plans/All U Can Eat/Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head/(Something that might have been Errant Dog?)/Uncle Walter/Creep

And finally he played Narcolepsy all the way through and I didn’t know I could feel piano through my feet but it’s totally possible.

And then I met him and he signed my ticket. :D

The opening act tonights was Kenton Chen, who very bravely chose to open with a cover of Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel”. He followed this with Brittany Spears’s “Toxic,” and then three of his own songs, “Fierce Tears,” “Take Me Home,” and “Anthem.” He has a huge voice for such a compact person! You should look him up.

Back to Ben for a sec: he said that there’s a “comprehensive album” in the works that has required going back through boxes of old demos from the time he was 12 until now. One of them apparently included an early version of LTLWWYA, recorded three years before its official release. Also, the inspiration for “Zak and Sara” came from seeing this girl watching her boyfriend practice guitar in a guitar store (which was apparently common at the time) and noticing that her eyes were glazed over. Mr. Folds imagined her imagining the music of the future while waiting for the song to be over so she could clap. He was also inspired by J.D. Salinger’s short story, Franny and Zooey, and said he liked Franny’s character.

So just in case you were wondering, now you know.

!!!