Ben Folds Five Announce Their First Tour in 13 Years
Ben Folds Five have announced their first tour in 13 years, with nine spring dates across the American South, according to Pitchfork. The band said more stops will be announced later.
The trio is Ben Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee. They formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and became known for piano-led rock songs built around Folds' keyboard playing and his singing.
The tour opens on April 12 at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. It closes on April 24 at Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham, Alabama. In between, the band plays three Texas shows: ACL Live at The Moody Theater in Austin on April 20, 713 Music Hall in Houston on April 21, and the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on April 22.
Tickets for the Houston show go on sale on Friday, October 23, according to a post from Live Nation Houston on Facebook. Other venues have not yet published their on-sale dates.
The band has a history of stopping and starting. The Music reported that Ben Folds Five split in 2000 and again in 2013, and briefly came back together in 2023 to mark the death of a loved one. This announcement is the first set of dates since that 2013 split.
Anniversaries have also played a part in the band's recent activity. Earlier this year, the band released a version of its first album that had been shelved, meaning it was finished but never put out, to mark 30 years since the record's original release. In a September post on Folds' official Facebook page, the band said the 2027 dates were coming soon.
For fans who can't get to the South in April, Folds' website lists further dates in the coming months, including a December 16, 2026 show at the Kimmel Center's Marian Anderson Hall in Philadelphia. The site also lists two nights in Canberra, Australia, on January 22 and 23, 2027. Those listings appear on the website's tour page.
Folds has also been busy on his own. He released his solo debut, Rockin' the Suburbs, on September 11, 2001. For now, the spring dates are the clearest sign of what comes next for the trio, and the Houston ticket sale on October 23 is the first step fans can take.
