Ben Folds & Tori Amos concert review

I saw Ben Folds and Tori Amos last night at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Pretty good concert overall, better than the two previous times I had seen Tori. (So if I didn’t like those, why’d I decide to go see her again?!) The audience was approximately half lesbian and half gay men… go figure. (Well, plus a coworker of mine. Sam was probably the only straight guy there who wasn’t dragged along by a girlfriend!)

The Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor amphitheater, and I got underneath the amphitheater 5 seconds before it started pouring. It was some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen, or at least the heaviest rain I’ve been outdoors in. I was dry because I got there just in time… but when I found my seat, I learned that my seat was not under the main roof of the amphitheater, but was rather way way off to the side, underneath a tarp! When the rain got real heavy, the tarp started leaking a few rows in front of me, and then it started sagging due to the pressure of the water on top of it. It made me very concerned that the thing was gonna collapse! There was a lot of lightning too right nearby, not very fun. Fortunately everything was OK and when Ben Folds came out, he opened with “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”. Not really my favorite song, but it was impressive that he was able to spontaneously perform it, and do so flawlessly.

Tori was good, not really a ton I feel like saying about that concert. She played most of the new album plus a decent amount of songs from the older ones. She also did a new song about last week’s blackout, and Aerosmith and Kiss having to cancel their Detroit concert because of it, and all the lucky fans that didn’t have to see Gene Simmons’ tongue!! In fact, I think she might have said that she and Kiss were staying in the same hotel that night, but it was kinda difficult to follow, as she sorta mumbles the lyrics in her songs. It was really bizarre, but quite funny.