I did have the opportunity to catch Ben with yMusic at Bonnaroo this summer, I was … unaware of my surroundings let alone the music being played on stage. “Yeah dude, maybe I know you from there!” I was shitfaced in the back breathing in freshly lit sage, courtesy of a sunburnt girl wearing a knitted top she’d just bought from another girl in a knitted top because she threw up on her dads Grateful Dead t-shirt last night. He thought he recognized me from shooting Ben at Bonnaroo last summer. Bear crawling like a shitty punter on a shitty high school football team at the front of the stage, I met a dude claiming to be a contributor to Maxim, Rolling Stone, and Brevard Nightlife (hmm…). With another whiskey in tow, I did the whole first three song photo pass thing.

The show was at 8:00p.m., and when all was said and done I had missed the opener and was decently drunk with a photo pass and a camera (who the f*ck gave me these?). I had to plan a local/regional shitscapade around central Florida. with my band Gary Lazer Eyes (shameless plug).

Sidenote: I actually did have to rush from downtown Orlando to Melbourne at the exact moment I finished playing Florida Music Festival circa 7:00p.m. I’ve logged a good amount of miles chasing the only key tickler that has ever garnered my attention through and through. When he announced that his tour with yMusic would be stopping in my once removed hometown of Melbourne, FL, at the King Center (my high school prom venue) I was embarrassingly excited at, one, the opportunity to see Ben Folds again and, two, the fact I didn’t have to plot a debt-inducing regional escapade just to see my all time favorite artist. I’ve seen Ben solo in a gymnasium at a small college, I’ve seen him everywhere from Hard Rock, to Bonnaroo, to the University of Michigan auditorium, and a few places in between. There is no un-weird way to put this, but I am a Ben Folds “stan.” In the last 12 years, I’ve seen the guy seven times in three states in several different musical arrangements.

Ymusic for mac