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I bought a copy of Ben Folds Five's appearance on Sessions at West 54th a couple of week's ago. I remember when I first got into BFF while living in Minnesota, how I assumed the band was greater than the sum of its parts.

When Ben released his first solo album I realized what a genius he is, but watching this performance gave me a whole new appreciation for the band. BFF was a really tight outfit, an amazing mix of talent with varied skills.

I regained my appreciation for Robert Sledge's amazing skills on the bass. Sledge's bass formed the unique sound of BFF as much as Ben's stellar piano work. Sledge was so strong on the bass that you never missed electric guitar in this band. He filled in with amazing licks wherever they were needed.

I will admit my ignorance of what makes a good drummer, to me there are only two kinds of drummers: good ones and shitty ones. Darren Jesse falls into the former category for me. He's a good drummer, he never did anything flashy that made you notice him, but that was never asked of him. I did realize what a pleasant voice he has from watching the Sessions performance. Darren's vocals are strong, he has a keen understanding of harmonies and he can do it all while drumming. While I can't tell a good drummer from a great one, I can tell when someone is doing two things at the same time, both extremely well.

The performance got me curious about Sledge and Jesse. In truth, I was more curious about what Robert Sledge was up to, but I found more info on Darren Jesse and notably his new band, Hotel Lights.

Curious, I downloaded the band's self title debut. I was completely blown away! An amazing performance, Jesse singing and playing piano as well as writing compelling songs. Think mellow "Brick"-like BFF style music (Jesse wrote the chorus on the BFF classic) without the Folds sarcasm. Songs like "Stumbling Home Winter Blues" and "Follow Through" (which I really need to send to an old female acquantance in an attempt to explain what I was so fucking mad about) became instant favorites, if these were the old vinyl days, those tracks would be worn out already.

And it got me to thinking about Ben Folds Five. The band broke up after releasing The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. I had always assumed that the split had much to do with Ben's desire to expand musically. But Hotel Lights sounds much more like BFF's final release than anything Ben has done since, in fact, while Ben broke the BFF mold with Fear of Pop and Rockin' the Suburbs, he's now back to the same instrumentation and sound of the early BFF records.

Hotel Lights has the same feel as Messner, thoughtful and moody, often depressing. Hotel Lights sounds nothing like anything else BFF ever did. I like both, I loved Messner when it came out and welcomed the new direction the band was taking. A direction that was never realized.

In the end, it makes me realize that I don't know anything. I made assumptions that were most likely wrong. Assumptions that were probably the exact opposite of what actually happened.

It doesn't really matter, I still love Folds' solo music and I've found a new favorite band in Hotel Lights.

BOJ