Thirteen years is a long silence for a band that never really lost its audience. Ben Folds Five — the original trio of Ben Folds on piano and vocals, Robert Sledge on bass, and Darren Jessee on drums — has announced its first tour since the band disbanded in 2013. If you followed their 1990s run, missed their brief 2012 reunion, or simply assumed this moment would never come, April 2027 is your answer. Nine dates across the American South and Texas are confirmed, with more reportedly on the way, though nothing beyond this initial run has been confirmed per Consequence.
The Dates You Actually Need
The confirmed schedule covers nine cities from Knoxville to Birmingham, giving the South first crack at the reunion.
- April 12 — Knoxville, Tennessee — Tennessee Theatre
- April 13 — Chattanooga, Tennessee — Tivoli Theatre
- April 15 — Jacksonville, Florida — Florida Theatre
- April 16 — Pompano Beach, Florida — Pompano Beach Amphitheater
- April 17 — Clearwater, Florida — The BayCare Sound
- April 20 — Austin, Texas — ACL Live at The Moody Theater
- April 21 — Houston, Texas — 713 Music Hall
- April 22 — Irving, Texas — The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
- April 24 — Birmingham, Alabama — Avondale Brewing Company
This is a selective regional run, not a full North American sweep. Treat it accordingly — if one of these cities is within driving distance, the decision is already made for you.
One Trio, Thirty Years, and a Recording They Buried
The reunion coincides with a 30th-anniversary edition of the band’s debut that surfaces a scrapped earlier version of the album.
The timing is not accidental. The reunion arrives alongside the 30th-anniversary edition of the band’s 1995 self-titled debut, packaged with Original Shelved Attempt — an earlier version of the album the trio recorded and then abandoned. According to Rolling Stone, Folds said something didn’t feel right about that first attempt, so the band started over entirely. That instinct to scrap and rebuild rather than settle explains a lot about why their catalog holds up.
No guitar, no genre shortcuts. Just piano, bass, and drums producing something that still sounds like nothing else from that era.
For broader context: Folds resigned from his National Symphony Orchestra advisory role in February 2025 following a leadership overhaul at the Kennedy Center under President Trump. He indicated that remaining associated with the institution risked implying support for its new direction. The reunion is its own story, but that backdrop is worth knowing.
No new Ben Folds Five studio album has been confirmed in the current announcements. The focus is live performance — which, for a band this good in a room, is proof enough.
