I am the luckiest

Last night I went to the Merriweather Post Pavilion to see Ben Folds perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. I've never actually heard any of his music other than the requisite hit, Brick, from 1997. But he wears cool glasses, plays the piano and it was going to be with a symphony...could I really go wrong?

The answer this time, mercifully, was no! Everything about the night went as perfectly as perfectly could request. The past few days have been inundated with record amounts of rainfall, flooding and even deaths; yet last night dawned clear, cool, and breezy. Having purchased lawn seats, we were prepared for potential moisture (there, I said it!) with a convenient 'tarplet' upon which to recline. Closer to showtime, the thunder rumbled ominously, and seeing as the bulk of the back end of the pavilion was still empty, they let us in (mass exodus!) to actually sit on covered chairs. Sweet.

The symphony tuned up, the conductor emerged, Ben came out... the concert was pretty much the realization of all my musical fantasies... I'd always dreamed of playing the piano with a symphony, but being me, I've sometimes wished that the experience (and classical music in general) could be just a smidge cooler. There he was, rocking on a Steinway, half-standing the entire time (work those quads, Ben!!) with an orchestra at his beck and call.

Seeing as Ben was playing with a symphony and projected on the jumbotron, it was inevitable that the few orchestra members immediately behind him would be visible as well. What immediately caught my vision was the section leader of the second violins. The moment my eyes alighted on his figure*, three words came to mind: Big. Burly. Bodybuilder. Never before in the course of my 26 years have I ever felt compelled to describe a violinist that way, but there you have it. You can't really tell from the semi-blurry photograph (immediately to the left behind Ben), but he bore an uncanny resemblance, ironically, to John Kreese, sensei and fearsome master of the Kobra Kai dojo. His image wasn't (or was, I suppose) helped by the extremely low-cut black polo shirt he was wearing, the collar of which he would occasionally flap to cool himself off. Gross.

...But I'd have to say my favorite part (other than Ben's lerpy demeanor) was the portly, bald, goateed, 30-something percussionist in the very back. If you ever do attend any sort of symphonic concert, the percussionists are always by far the most entertaining to watch. While the strings saw, the woodwinds blow, the horns blare, there are the percussionists, frantically scrambling back and forth, from timpani to marimba to triangle to crashing cymbals and back again. This particular specimen banged on his cowbell with pure, unadulterated glee, and I highly doubt the annual BSO repertoire calls for as many drum licks as he happily obliged on that night. You go, Portly Bald Goateed Percussionist!

My last observation goes out mainly to those of you who attend church with me, but for everyone else in general, can you deny that Ben Folds shares a striking physical similarity with our very own Gorilliland?!

Ben

Gorilliland

*so I looked up Big Burly Second Violinst on the BSO website and discovered his name to be Ivan Stefanovic. Dude, a name like Ivan Stefanovic just demands a bodybuilder physique...