Ben Folds live in Canberra - review

I've been a big Ben Folds fan for a couple of years now - I've got pretty much everything he's recorded, even the obscure stuff. Which is why last night's concert at Canberra's Royal Theatre was so satisfying: Folds doesn't build his set around his big radio hits - in fact, Brick and Rockin' the Suburbs, perhaps his two most mainstream hits, were nowhere to be heard, not even in the encore. It was a night for the fans, who know and appreciate his clever and cheeky while poetic lyrics and his powerful piano solos. He paused before Effington to explain the Lydian mode; he reminded us that he was about to play a song in F -"that's one flat, everyone." His unique nerdy style went down great with his audience, young nerdy guys and their young nerdy girlfriends, and young nerdier guys who are so nerdy they don't even have girlfriends (like yours truly).

It was an intimate concert - he got up and took requests, sending his band offstage to revert back to the solo-piano style which no one in the world does better. He even played Emaline, an obscure song from an obscure album, and he was genuinely pleased when someone requested it. He got Kate Miller-Heidke, the support act, up for three songs- she marched in during Songs of Love at just the right moment, bringing her bizarre pop-opera voice seamlessly into the Folds universe, with its French horn player, dishevelled multi-percussionist, and piano stool which was hardly sat on.

Of course he played Rock this Bitch, a song that changes every show, and whose lyrics and chords are made up on the fly. He played the rare "fake" version of The Bitch Went Nuts (which I think is better than the "real" version), which retains only the hook line, half-rapping to a funk groove. And a Kesha cover made up the trifecta of brand new tunes that even die-hard fans like me hadn't heard.

He'll never fill stadiums, because his music is too creative, unconventional and dorky for them. And he's actually such an accomplished pianist that it would be great just to see him play if he had a sore throat and couldn't sing. But lucky he could last night, because it was by far the best concert I've ever been to.