Web Forms :: Display A Record Count From Sql Database Connection?

sometimes learning asp.net feels so heavy handed compared to some of the general purpose scripting languages like php. for examples, all i want to do is create a sql connection that pulls a row count and displays that number. I don't need a grid, list, detail page, etc., nothing this heavy... a simply query that will display a simple bit of text. for the life of me I can't figure out how to do it. Using these controls, I'm not in the code behind with the query, so I wouldn't attach this to a label (or would i), and there's nothing i see in the toolbox that does what i want. Perhaps i'm too accustomed to php but it feels like with asp.net, major things are simple, and simple things are hard.