Ben Folds Five Announce Harvest Festival Sideshows

Among the big names in the forthcoming Harvest Festival bill – that includes sheet music peddler, Beck, indie darlings Grizzly Bear, boho-rockers The Dandy Warhols, and the recently announced Silversun Pickups and ‘Come On Eileen’ progenitors Dexy’s Midnight Runners – there’s one that stands out in particular for Australian fans. That of the much-beloved Ben Folds Five.

Ben Folds recently flew back to the coop to reform Ben Folds Five with bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee earlier this year, with news that they’d be recording their first new studio album together since 1999’s The Unathorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, and along with releasing the first taste of their forthcoming album; the reunited band were announced as part of Harvest Festival.

Now, following in the footsteps of Icelandic ethereal ensemble Sigur Ros, Ben Folds Five have announced their only Australian sideshows for two special dates in Perth and Folds’ own former hometown, Adelaide.

The piano/geek rock pioneers have always been popular with Australian audiences, calling themselves “punk rock for sissies” and carrying Ben’s own baby grand piano from gig to gig. Now 12 years since they split up at the top of their game in 2000, the trio will be playing their first shows Down Under since the turn of the century on the eve of the release of their brand new album, The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind.

We’ve already had a taste of the band’s first album in 13 years in the unmastered cut, ‘Do It Anyway’, but along with the sideshow announcement comes another selection from the album in the form of ‘Erase Me’, featuring the familiar fuzzy bass and jazzy affectations of Ben Folds Five’s golden era.

You can have a listen to ‘Erase Me’ and scope the exclusive sideshow details below: