The Nashville a cappella group Street Corner Symphony, recent contestants on NBC’s The Sing-Off who performed Gone with Ben on the finale, will be opening for him at the next few shows, starting January 23 in Minneapolis and ending February 1 in Tulsa. Details on the tour dates page.  Ben sat in with Street Corner Symphony and the Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, also a Sing-Off contestant, at a recent show at Nashville’s Exit/In.
Tour
Upper Midwest tour dates
Continuing the Lonely Avenue tour, dates have been announced for several US Midwestern venues in January, including Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, St. Louis, Athens and Champaign. Details on the tour dates page. Update: Also a show at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.
Australia tour announced
As expected, tour dates have been announced for a swing through Australia. Six shows at venues coast to coast have been booked over a two-week span. Check the tourdates page for all the information.
Here’s the press release announcing the tour:
BEN FOLDS TOURING AUSTRALIA IN SUPPORT OF LONELY AVENUE ALBUM
Ben Folds and his band are set to tour Australia in May 2011 in support of his latest album, the acclaimed Lonely Avenue, a collaboration between him and bestselling novelist Nick Hornby, which was released on Nonesuch Records in September.
Folds previously collaborated with Hornby on a song for the Folds-produced William Shatner album Has Been, which The Huffington Post called “One of the few records in recent memory that dared to tell the unvarnished truth about the human condition.”
Ben Folds first found mainstream success in Australia as leader of Ben Folds Five, who ranked #3 on triple j’s Hottest 100 of 1996 with the song ‘Underground’, from their self-titled debut. Their second album Whatever and Ever, Amen went platinum. From inciting the wrath of Midday Show legend Geoff Harvey (Folds threw a stool at Mr Harvey’s piano on daytime TV, prompting a week long on air rant from Harvey), to selling out four consecutive nights with the Sydney Symphony at Sydney Opera House, to penning an ode to his once hometown of Adelaide (called ‘Adelaide’ of course!), Folds has remained part of the Australian popular culture scenery for more than a decade.
Folds’ Australian collaborators have included Missy Higgins, Kate Miller-Heidke and Ben Lee. Back in his native USA Mr Folds has performed with the Boston Pops and the National Symphony Orchestra among dozens of others, composed all songs for international blockbuster movie Over The Hedge and is currently a judge on NBC’s Sing Off, a prime time television show featuring acappella music. Mr Folds’ home made Chatroulette video “Ode To Merton” went viral last year, racking up nearly 5 million views in just over a month.
Nick Hornby often writes about music, musicians, and music lovers in his fiction and nonfiction work. His six novels, some of which have been turned into successful films, are High Fidelity, About A Boy, How To Be Good, A Long Way Down, Slam, and Juliet, Naked. Hornby’s involvement in Lonely Avenue is the perfect complement to Ben Folds’ melodic piano ditties and charming wit. He has also published several works of non-fiction, including Fever Pitch, 31 Songs (a collection of essays about songs that influenced his life), and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, as well as a book of short stories, Otherwise Pandemonium. Hornby wrote the screenplay for the film An Education for which he was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“Lonely Avenue is a meeting of two brilliant minds in near perfect sync.” Rolling Stone, Australia
“In a truly memorable collaboration, Hornby has helped Folds deliver some of his finest songs to date” The Weekend Australian
As a live performer Ben Folds displays a rare kind of energy and exuberance, one of pure passion and excitement and his performances with his live band are not to be missed.
Europe/UK tour announced
As we first mentioned here on the Armchair, Ben and the band are embarking on a tour of UK and European venues shortly after the first of the year. The tour begins in Dublin on February 18, followed by a half dozen gigs in the UK and then another seven on the continent, ending up in Cologne, Germany on March 8 (details are, of course, up on our tour dates page). Tickets can be purchased by fan club members beginning Wednesday, November 10 at 14:00 UTC, 24 hours before they go on sale to the general public. Special VIP packages are available including extras such as early entry into the venue, signed tour lithographs, commemorative VIP laminate, and digital downloads of Lonely Avenue. Nothing’s been announced but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick Hornby popped up at one or more of the UK shows.
Lonely Avenue tour underway
The tour in support of the recently-released Lonely Avenue album is now underway, with dates across the eastern US. At the Detroit show, Ben played a few songs from the new album (Saskia Hamilton, Belinda, From Above, Levi Johnston’s Blues),  but relied on a mix of recent and past material from his repertoire, even reaching into the Majosha wayback machine for Emaline. The set, which ran over two hours with multiple encores, was full of energy, appreciated by the crowd of several thousand at Detroit’s outpost of the Fillmore group of performance spaces (formerly the State Theatre which, according to veteran soundman Leo Overtoom, is one of the best-equipped and most acoustically desirable venues on the tour).  Many dependable features of a Folds show delighted the audience, including the crowd vocal harmony parts on Not the Same and Army, the impromptu riffs from Misirlou and Hava Nagila woven into other songs, and a snippet of Dr. Pyser. Of course, no show would be complete without improv, and Ben did not disappoint with a couple Detroit-themed jams. New bassist Ryan Lerman is fitting in well and had some tasty licks on One Angry Dwarf and Philosophy. Ben told me they are still rehearsing new material for future shows, including some surprises, so showgoers later on the tour have a lot to look forward to.
The tour caps off in December with a date at New York’s Beacon Theatre. After the live finale of The Sing-Off and a break for the holidays, there are plans for touring in the UK and Europe, as well as Asia and Australia in the months following the new year.
