Ben Folds & West Australian Symphony Orchestra - Live In Perth Details

An interesting experiment that (mostly) works

Ben Folds takes his piano-led brand of rock 'n' roll into a new arena by dropping his customary 3-piece bass and drums combo in favour of the accompaniment of the rather larger 83-piece West Australian Symphony Orchestra, for what was part of a larger orchestral tour of the country, and the results are both interesting and impressive.

Beyond the smashingly accomplished ivory bashing and oft-bandied sense of humour, for me Folds' strength has always been in his songwriting, and the idea that is a good song is a good song regardless of the arrangement bears weight here, as there are some truly sublime moments. Drawing largely from the second two Ben Folds Five albums, Whatever and Ever Amen and The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, and his first solo effort, Rockin' The Suburbs, a variety of Folds' songs have been given orchestral arrangements by local Australian musicians. Given the nature of the project, some songs work better than others – the occasional arrangement doesn't work as well as the others, and also the more upbeat tunes, propelled dynamically on the originals by their driving bass and drums, often sound rather messy with full orchestral accompaniment.

But when Folds' songs, the arrangers and the orchestra click, the results are stunning. Rockin' The Suburbs' Smoke, Fred Jones Part 2 and The Luckiest with full strings are lent a beauty that goes beyond what we've heard on the original tracks, and the accompaniments also capture the tenderness of some of Folds' ballads perfectly, particularly on Evaporated and Lullaby – which even segues into a nice jazz moment – from the group albums. But the highlight for me is one of Folds best known tunes, Brick, which does nothing short of send chills down your spine – a truly gorgeous moment.

And Folds clearly revels in playing with a full orchestra, lamenting the fact that he is unable to introduce all of his 'band' personally and even leading them in what is possibly the first orchestral improvised 'jam', shouting out chords as he goes along! Plus, he includes his now customary audience participation, with Not The Same being accompanied by three-part harmony from the Perth crowd.

My only warning is that if you are new to Ben Folds, then a) where have you been? and b) this is possibly not the place to start. Ben Folds is a pretty unique talent – rarely will you find a piano, bass and drums trio rock as much as it does on his albums – and not best represented by this release. But Folds fans will find this a joy – or if not, at least a very intriguing 80 minutes.