For Tar Heel musicians Ben Folds, Darren Jessee and Robert Sledge, a homecoming is in order.
Excitement was palpable on campus following Tuesday's announcement for a Ben Folds Five reunion slated for Sept. 18 at Memorial Hall.
We are so excited about this show" and it's just an opportunity that concert presenters and activity board chairmen would dream of" said Tom Allin, Carolina Union president.
The group disbanded after a tour for its fourth and final album, the 1999 release The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.""
Carolina Union Activities Board" which spent $11700 on the show" booked the trio in conjunction with Cat's Cradle and MySpace.
""It was brought to us originally by Cat's Cradle three or so weeks ago" Allin said. They said we have an opportunity" but we would have to move fast on it.""
Folds played a solo show at UNC in 2007" which sold out in a matter of hours. Students camped out overnight for tickets although this is prohibited by University policy.
Allin is predicting just as much of a rush for tickets this time around.
Of the tickets 630 have been allotted for students" which will be on sale starting at 10 a.m. Monday for $22.The general public is able to purchase tickets at the same time via etix.com and myspace.com/benfolds for $40.
""I would suspect that it would sell out pretty much right away" just based on sales for his previous show at Carolina" said Frank Heath, the owner of Cat's Cradle.
Many of the band's fans were surprised and excited by Tuesday's announcement.
I was really surprised because I was of the inclination that their split was pretty final"" said senior Josh Sharp, who has seen Ben Folds' solo show multiple times.
I saw him in 2006 and 2007 with a band" and the band he used was pretty much a faux version of the band he used to play with" so I'm really excited to see him with the original.""
Heath said the trio's show would differ from Folds' solo show.
""This will be a completely different vibe"" he said. I think there are a ton of people out there who are going to be more excited about a Ben Folds Five show than just a Ben Folds show.""
The band is to play its final album in its entirety"" an exciting prospect to fans who see it as the band's most artistically adventurous venture.
""It's my favorite album"" Sharp said. There's a lot of interesting instrumentation in the songs that I don't know how they'll do live.""
The announcement and the upcoming Andrew Bird show contrast to CUAB's quiet first semester last year.
""We've set a high bar for ourselves"" Allin said.
It's hard to find a lot of bands that we want to reunite and then get them here on top of that.""
BUY TICKETSTime: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through FridayLocation: Memorial Hall box officeInfo: www.unc.edu/cuab
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