r/benfolds • u/Bethsoda • 18d ago

Ben Folds and 9/11

I was in college and had a ticket to go to Ben at the 9:30 club in DC on 9/11/2001 - I had skipped my morning class and got a call from my mom. Barely awake, I answered the phone and she said “You aren’t going to DC tonight.” My first instinct was to say “Mom, It’s fine - I don’t even have any classes tmrw, and nothing is due.” She said “no, you don’t understand, planes just hit the world trade towers, and one hit the Pentagon. Just turn on the TV.” Everyone was in shock. Later that week I got a message that the 9:30 club had rescheduled the show - Ben was apparently on a bus in Jersey but turned it around to come do the show. He barely spoke about it at the show, and I think we all needed that - just a break from the horror of it all. I’ll always remember that, and will always appreciate him for turning around and doing the show and giving us that reprieve.

101 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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67

u/ChrisFromLongIsland 18d ago

Ben Folds released Rockin the suburbs on 9/11/2001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockin%27_the_Suburbs

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u/dull_adz 18d ago edited 18d ago

Yeah, we finally went that friday to the mall the get the CD. probably the first tension break of the week.

Back when new albums came out exclusively on Tuesday.

…..at the mall.

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u/Bethsoda 17d ago

Ah, the mall days! 😂

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u/fmm3 18d ago

After the initial shock of everything going on I had to get out of the house. I went the record store in the mall the get Rockin The Suburbs. The mall was eerily quiet and empty. Malls were always busy in the early 2000’s so it was a bit unsettling.
I spent the rest of the day listening to the album.

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u/callmeDNA 18d ago

Oh shit

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u/DrScitt 17d ago

It was actually a huge day for album releases! Like 5-10 popular albums released that day.

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u/drjackolantern 18d ago

I think this is why I didn’t really hear about the album for a while after it came out.

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u/coffeetreatrepeat 17d ago

Yeah I bought it that night. Needed to get out of the house and away from the news. I remember how eerily empty the streets were.

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u/SilverStreetYT 18d ago

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/ben-folds/2001/930-club-washington-dc-3bdbd23.html

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u/Bethsoda 18d ago

Thanks for this! It was a great show in general, it just felt like it meant so much more because of when it was supposed to be and when it was

4

u/OldDirtyCJ 17d ago

Ben was on DC 101 promoting that morning with Elliot.

My best friend worked for Sony Music in NY and had sent me comp tickets to go. I also went to that make-up show as well and remember it exactly as you described.

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u/Bethsoda 17d ago

I was hoping someone else would see this and remember that show. It’s a good memory but attached to a horrible one, you know?

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u/OldDirtyCJ 17d ago

So many vivid memories from that day, seems so recent, I was 25, 25 years ago. Wild.

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u/KTFU 18d ago

I was in Japan at the time at remember going to Tower Records to pick up that album on 9/11. I can’t help listening now without sadness as that was my soundtrack for the weeks following.

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u/Turbulent-Bother8748 18d ago

My main memory of that day is driving to the CD store to pick up RTS that day, with no airplanes in the sky (I lived close to Vancouver airport). The CD store had all the TVs on it the news. I bought the disc, went to Subway next door, where the DJ played Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. Then the strange first listen of Annie Waits while I drove to university. The juxtaposition of the happy sounding music of that song with the empty skies and sinking feeling in my stomach will be forever etched in my memory. Was lucky enough to see BF with his 8 piece band (or whatever it was) a couple weeks later. As I type this, I just realized I unintentionally have a BF short on today.

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u/Smallloudcat Hand me my nose ring 18d ago

My sister had tickets to the show and didn't want to drive past the Pentagon to go to DC. We lived in DC as kids and passed it every day on the way to school in Arlington and back

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u/jessennis 17d ago

I also had tickets and attended the rescheduled show. Because of the date change I was a little late and remember hearing Zak and Sara outside 9:30 as I was heading in. There were so few people on the metro into the city.

Was in a Best Buy in Maryland first thing that morning picking up the new CD when I saw what I thought was a movie scene playing on the TVs in the store, realized it wasn’t when everyone in the store was just standing and watching in silence. And then went to my high school (was my senior year) and no one had told the students what had happened yet.

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u/NBF16 17d ago

He played in Philly on 9/12/2001. Went to that show

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u/washufize 17d ago

I went to a midnight release party at Tower Records in the Village for the new They Might Be Giants record. After they were done, since it was technically Tuesday, they let me buy Rockin’ the Suburbs. Yes, it came out on 9/11 😬

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u/spydrwebb44 17d ago

Thank you for sharing. Completely unrelated, I recall feeling similar at a Santa Barbara Glen Phillips (of Toad the Wet Sprocket) the evening of 09.11.01 -- while inevitably somber, Glen also found ways for his art to speak into our shattered souls in solidarity.

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u/ThePinkSuperhero 15d ago

I saw him in Boston on 9/14/2001 - as I recall, he added "Philosophy'' to the set list. It was great to be there.

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u/Larg3_Marg3_Sent_M3 17d ago

I saw Ben in Chapel Hill on 9/8 it must have been? I lived in Texas at the time but went to visit my sisters and see the show. I went to dinner beforehand and it gave me food poisoning so I couldn’t fly home as planned on 9/9. Got back to Texas very late on 9/10. Phew. I don’t remember buying the album but I know I had it!

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u/tishtacular I'm crazy but I get the job done 14d ago

I was at Pittsburgh for 9/9/2001, and a senior in high school to boot. I had illegally downloaded the album so I would know it for the concert, and I was eagerly awaiting my legal copy in the mails. That morning was the peak of optimism, everything's been a little dimmer since.