On not being the same after that

I'd like to go into further detail about my previous post. I wanted to point out that this was one of the first songs I recognized when my friend Chris went through his playlist. Two years ago Mr. Folds himself performed at St. Olaf, and thanks to my then-roommate Tyler I learned about it and went. I had no clue who the guy was at the time, and I probably would've done just as well to not go to the concert. But I went anyway. And the first thing that came to mind I was in awe of how he played the piano that night, mostly because it reminded me of how I loved to improvise sometimes. I didn't know any of his songs or had a measure of his fame, but I was already finding some similarities to our approaches to the piano.

The final song of the concert was the one where he had previously directed the audience to sing a pair of diatonic triads (going from A minor to C major). As it turned out that's how the song ended. But what stuck with me was the elation of going to a concert and singing a pair of "heavenly" chords (that was the intended effect). I was practically euphoric, not because of some piano master conducting a bunch of non-choral Oles to sing a pair of triads perfectly, but because I was amazed that I was just starting college at a school where people actually sang in tune.

Of course, once Chris played more of Ben Folds' songs and I finally downloaded iTunes, I was able to really understand several of his songs. And this particular one, "Not the same" (the song with the "heavenly" chords---the same one that fueled my elation) was based on a true story of one of his close friends who got high on acid at a party one night, climbed a tree, and became a "born-again Christian" when he came down from said tree the following morning. If you were to notice the title of my previous post, which had the full text of the song, you would understand that "this guy" was not referring to Mr. Folds, but rather the friend that was born again. Even if the means that he took to reach said status seems a little questionable to me, the elation that comes with being born again is great. I have experienced it once or twice in my life (especially in January 2005), so I can relate.

Anyway, essays, projects, and Christmas Fest concerts await me. As well as various people that I know will be in attendance on different nights.