When one of your favorite bands gets back together for one show, to run through a great album from the first track to the last track, that’s pretty sweet.

Burgo and I were Twittering back and forth last night about the news.

Color me stoked!

Here’s the official press release:

LOS ANGELES- September 3, 2008- MySpace, the world’s premier social network, today announced the exciting launch of its newest music program, Front to Back, celebrating iconic albums that have helped shape the MySpace Generation. MySpace kicks off this program by reuniting beloved alt-pop band Ben Folds Five with an exclusive one-time live performance of their final studio album together, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, in its entirety. The concert will be the band’s first performance together in nearly ten years and will take place in the band’s former hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina on September 18, 2008 at the UNC Memorial Hall. The show will be rebroadcast on the Front to Back official MySpace profile in October http://myspace.com/fronttoback .

We are honored and excited that Ben Folds Five is helping launch this new music program,” said Josh Brooks, VP of Music Marketing for MySpace. “Front to Back is about connecting and re-connecting the MySpace community, fans and bands alike with some of the most acclaimed and inspirational albums ever produced.”

Front to Back asks leading artists to perform one of their own seminal albums, from front to back, in a live concert that is then later aired on the site. The airing of the event includes interviews with the band as well as artists who were influenced by the album. Presented by Nowwhat.com, tickets to the Ben Folds Five Front to Back taping will go on sale to the public through etix.com on September 8th at 10 AM EST. Additional Front to Back performances will be announced by MySpace in the coming months.

Piano-based rock trio Ben Folds Five formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1993. Comprised of Ben Folds on vocals and piano, Robert Sledge on bass and backing vocals and Darren Jessee on drums and backing vocals, the group quickly became heroes in the world of indie alternative-pop. The band, well-known for their hit single “Brick” from their platinum-selling 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen, was together seven years before disbanding amicably in 2000, at which time Ben Folds began his esteemed solo career while Darren Jessee went on to form the band Hotel Lights and Robert Sledge went on to play in the now defunct International Orange. Folds’ third solo studio album, Way to Normal, releases on September 30, 2008. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner was released in April 1999 and was the fourth and final album from Ben Folds Five. It cracked the Top 40 of Billboard’s Album chart and reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Internet Albums chart.

“When MySpace approached me about doing this gig,” Ben Folds said, “I misunderstood and thought they wanted us to play Purple Rainfront to back, so of course I said yes. But we’re happy to do “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner” instead. Of our three albums, this one brings back the most vivid memories. It was actually written to be one song of many movements, which is why there are motifs that appear throughout the album. That should make ‘Reinhold’ a natural to be played front to back.”

Proceeds from concert will benefit Operation Smile: Changing Lives One Smile at a Time. For more information, please go to operationsmile.org.

link

Ben Folds Five – Your Redneck Past (live in Japan)