March 27th and 28th, 2002

Marc Chevalier

We enter and occupy the El Rey Theatre for two nights of triumphant shows with audiences that totally love Ben. It is kind of like this wherever he goes, unless of course you are that moron, I mean member of Korn, who was quoted in a magazine as saying that Ben’s music is like the theme from “Cheers.” Obviously this fine young gentleman has never seen Ben rip a live 414 out of its clip, and madly rake it up and down the keys. At these solo shows, he has gotten into the habit of taking his vocal 58, and rubbing it on the strings of the piano like a beatbox, punctuating the riffing with occasional brutal slams of the mic directly to the metal frame.

As we go into the first afternoon, I organize two piano tuners. One is our stalwart friend Keith Albright, who I assign the task of repairing Ben’s touring grand piano, which gets set up in the lobby. The other, Ed Green, hired by the promoter, tunes the Baldwin that is onstage, delivered just for these shows, so that Ben’s personal piano could sit them out, and be fixed.

When I worked a Cake show where they co-headlined with Ben Folds Five, a few years ago, there were two pianos on tour with them, with an actual Baldwin tech as part of the crew. Each day, she would be busy fixing the damage Ben inflicted on one piano, while setting up the other for that night’s show.

I check out how Marc Chevalier approaches his mix of Ben’s piano and vocal. I would say that it is very ambitiously conceived, and sets out to transfer far more of the low end of the piano than most live mixers would attempt to. I tell Marc how Tori Amos’ mixer, Mark Hawley, approaches the task of mic-ing her piano, with three 414’s. The goal for both artists seems to be when they come down on that left hand, the building they’re in should shake on its foundation.

Recording rack

Marc is using two Shure KSM-32’s on Ben’s Baldwin, plus pickups, one by Helpinstill and one by Pure Piano. I find it interesting that he also puts a tiny SM-98 condenser all the way at the end of the soundboard, and he tells me how that seems to help fill in any tiny part of the spectrum that he is ever missing. I relate how I have used a pair of them for L/R top Leslie rotor mic-ing, with very nice results. Back by the FOH board are two more KSM-32’s in the air, as ambient mics for the multitrack recording that happens every night, to a Tascam DA-88. Marc works off two rolling racks, that contain tube mic pre’s and compressors.

The signal from the snake passes thru the preamps and comps, enters a small rackmount split in one of Marc’s racks, and then goes to the inputs of the DA-88, and the house board du jour.

There are two stereo Universal Audio 2-610 tube pre’s, that receive Ben’s vocal, the Helpinstill, and the two KSM-32’s on the piano. The room mics, the piano’s SM-98, and the Pure Piano pickup all go into a quad Sytek MPX4A preamp. Ben’s vocal is compressed with a Teletronix LA-2A.

There is also a Mackie 1202 16 channel mixer, but it used only to monitor playback of the DA-88, should there be a need to check the tapes.

March 29th, 2002

Joe DeLorenzo

Joey D. leaves the Los Angeles hotel long before I arrive to meet Ben and Marc, and motors off to Vegas on his own. Joe and I agreed he had best make the run on interstate 10, heading east out of L.A., before morning rush hour starts. As it is, I estimate I spend an hour on that freeway, going 20 miles an hour, until we break free and start blasting up the 15 to Vegas. I have been to the House of Blues there a couple times, with Berlin, and Morrissey, so I am not sweating the gig. The PA will work, and we will eat well. Sure enough, the folks there take good care of us. Opening for Ben is a guy from England named Neil Hannon, formerly the leader of a band called The Divine Comedy, who were quite successful in their native land.

Marc Chevalier stays at the FOH console to soundcheck and handle Neal’s performance, one guitar d.i. and vocal. The crowds are polite to Neil, although we think few of them are familiar with his previous work.

I tell a friend in an e-mail that Neil is a good advertisement for smoking, and Ben is a good advertisement for not smoking. They both deliver powerful vocals, although Ben doesn’t smoke at all, and Neil smokes frequently.

Foolishly, I order a pint glass of coffee at 10PM, and find myself back at the hotel too wired to sleep. I go out and have a couple of beers, and manage to get to sleep between 2:30 and 3 AM.