Tapping into the insomniac tennis fan market

Apparently, when people think of Ben Folds, they think of me. It's kinda nice, actually. I mean, it's certainly better than them not thinking of me at all. But twice now, people have gotten in touch with me late at night in order to inform me of a Ben Folds television appearance.

A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from my dad at 11:30. First of all, my dad never calls me. Ever. We have a rather odd relationship, and 'talking' isn't really something we 'do'. So when he called me at 11:30, I figure the house in on fire, somebody died, or they're renting out my room.

But no...he just wanted to tell me that Ben Folds was going to be on Letterman. Oh. Well, cool.

A similar thing happened tonight when I got an IM from Brett at like 12:20. Judging by our previous conversations, I figure he has a question/wants a perspective on politics, religion, or has something to say about my blog -- heh...nope, Ben Folds is gonna be on the US Open highlight show after Letterman. Huh. I was not aware of that.

I must be a bad fan, 'cause I don't follow his media appearances. I had no idea he was going to be on TV either time, and just stumbled across his performance on Leno last weekend with Weird Al. But since Brett (who has a surprising amount of information about himself on Google) was cool enough to give me the heads up and ask for a review of the performance, I thought I'd oblige. So, per his request, here are my thoughts on Ben Folds' performance earlier tonight.

First of all, he did Landed, which is to be expected because that's the single he's pushing right now. But because of this, I've heard this song performed live about half a dozen times, and I'm kinda getting tired of it. It's kinda disappointing because he's got a lot of great songs that never get any airplay because the music industry runs the way it does.

There was no intro in this version, which kinda bummed me out because I think the intro rocks. For a split second I thought he was doing 'Late', but thought it would be a little weird doing a song on network television about a guy who stabbed himself. Incidentally though, 'Late' is one of my favorite songs off of Songs for Silverman.

He was rocking some pretty mean mutton chops, though. I've actually considered growing some mutton chops just because of my utter disdain for shaving. It's either mutton chops, or the Chassidic beard. Any suggestions? But I digress.

The sound in the studio sucked, so I could barely hear the bass and the drums sounded like they were under water. I could tell Ben wasn't feeling the crowd, as there was no crowd in the empty studio. So in turn he wasn't really feeling the piano solo, and it left a little something to be desired. But he's probably more tired of the song than I am. And since when do they have musical guests on tennis highlight shows anyway? Exactly what demographic are they trying to reach? Insomniac tennis lovers? Just seems like a strange market.

But it's nice to see someone of which I am such a big fan getting some air time on TV. But I don't want him to get too famous, because it seems like that inevitably changes people, and makes their music crappier. Plus there's something sort of endearing about a musician with a small cult following. I don't like it when musicians I like go mainstream. I'm just selfish like that.

On a related note, I heard that Ben Lee song 'Catch My Disease' that I was talking about after the Ben Folds show being used in a movie promo. Don't know what the movie was, but maybe Ben Lee will start getting some airplay, too. Might be good for him.

Anyway, on that note, I'm going to try to pretend that this muscle in my back isn't hurting like hell, and get some sleep.