Ben Folds took a huge risk by playing nothing but new songs in the first set, then coming back for the encore to play old stuff. Still, his UConn fans seemed to buy it there in Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts.
The first half of the show was kind of a shock to everyone because it was all new, and what made it even more confusing was the fact that Ben Folds made two albums, a real one and a fake one, with songs of the same name. It was hard to tell which songs were real and fake, since he usually adds humor into his music. Some of the "fake" songs, about breaking up and wanting to kill yourself or bringing a crazy liberal "Jane fucking Fonda, Jr." to a Republican law firm Christmas party, were better than the "real" versions.
The crowd seemed pretty relieved when Folds came back for an encore and played old, familiar songs. It really kept them interested, and I realized that my favorite shows were ones where the band switched between new and old songs at appropriate times, bringing the crowd back in for each one.
I've always felt that you really need to go to a concert before you can actually get into a band. Seeing them live brings the music appreciation to a whole new level - it's when you can truly decide how good they are. Folds had to be pretty confident in himself to play an entire set of new songs to a lot of fans who were still in a state of limbo in deciding whether or not to be a big fan.
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