Thursday 16/06/05 Ben Folds @ The Corn Exchange, Cambridge

June 17, 2005 by John Bradshaw

Ben Folds, Richard Clayderman on speed (with better hair), or Bobby Crush on coke, depending on your chemist. This boy got the lot. And tonight, conducting the crowd at the end of 'One Angry Dwarf' from atop his Joanna, he knows it. Folds dictates the pace of proceedings like a younger Roy Keane. Thumping piano playing one moment, the next all swooning vocals and delicate melodies.

Beautifully fragile on dad / son nostalgia song 'Still Fighting It' and 'Brick'. A one-man beatboxing machine on 'Rockin’ The Suburbs', and **** riddled hilarious on his cover of Dr Dre’s 'Bitches Ain’t Shit', tonight’s highlight. A superb piss take, it all feels familiar. That’s the secret – piss takes that sound good too so you gotta listen. Even the drummer and the bassist join in, with some mockney rap and excessive swearing that all good piano playing gangsta rap artists should have.

In fact, if you want a decent cover, phone Folds. 'In Between Days' sounds fresh and more meaningful than Fat Bob and his lot ever made it sound. ****, they even made 'Freebird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd sound good. There’s just something communal about the piano playing tonight, everyone singing during early classic 'Underground' (All together now: "Everyone’s happy underground...") We can even forgive BF for dragging a fan up on stage and making her play the piano (she wasn’t bad). We may as well have been gathered round with a pint of mild and some whelks. It felt that comfortable. Honest.

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