When Ben Folds announced dates for his What Matters Most tour earlier this year, being the super fans that we are, we knew right away that we wanted to see him. We were excited to see him with the Columbus Symphony at Picnic With the Pops because we had tickets at a table in 2020 that were eventually canceled and refunded as the pandemic stretched on. We decided we also wanted to see a show that was just him and his piano. Detroit ended up being the closest city on the tour with a date that worked for us, so it was decided that we would have a little overnight getaway in June. We (correctly) figured we would probably need it after going through all of Charlotte’s graduation festivities, and Detroit is such an easy drive. So, reservations were made, tickets were purchased, and we eagerly awaited our COVID revenge concert.
When we were making plans, I knew that we wanted to meet my older brother and his wife for dinner since they live so close to Detroit. My brother ended up being out of town, but my sister-in-law Susan was able to meet us. We met at a restaurant called Union Assembly, and not only was the food outstanding and the location close to our hotel, the restaurant was between the iconic Fox Theatre and The Fillmore. We had just seen the Temptations musical Ain’t Too Proud, so it was exciting to see the venue we had seen on stage in real life. Here are a few photos.
After dinner, it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the concert. The concert venue was called Sound Board Club, and it was in the MotorCity Casino complex. After discovering this, Keith had reserved us a room right in the attached hotel, so we were able to walk down to the concert and back to our room. It was amazing not to have to worry about driving and parking and getting out of a lot with everyone else when the concert ended. I am a big fan of that and will likely seek out more experiences with those perks. The venue itself was nice – our view was pretty good. We took photos of the stage while the opening act, Tall Heights, was playing. We also got in line for merch so that we could get back to our seats by the time Ben Folds took the stage. We did an obligtory 0.5 shot of ourselves to try to be cool for our kids. As you can see, we are not actually good at 0.5 selfies…
We had mixed feelings about Ben Folds’ performance at this concert. We felt he was pretty low energy, and it didn’t really seem like he was having as much fun with Tall Heights as he has with other bands on other tours. We also thought the concert ended a lot quicker than expected. Ben did play a lot of new music from What Matters Most and several old favorites, but he sounded a little weak. He did not do as much talking and explaining of his songs as he has at other concerts, and I definitely missed that. We were reminded later that he had had COVID during the tour, so we thought maybe he was still a bit run down from that. Then this fall he has had to cancel his European tour due to and issue with his hands, so maybe that was also a factor. Either way, we found ourselves checking out the hotel gift shop and heading back to our room earlier than anticipated. It was a stormy night, so we were super grateful that we didn’t have to leave the building at all. Here is a shot of Ben Folds and also the view from our room.
Overall, the people I got to spend time with made this a wonderful get away. Spending time with Keith and getting to see Susan were well worth the drive. We will have to see if we will attend any new concerts with Ben Folds. Maybe, after 14 years of seeing every tour, we will have to find a new artist to follow fanatically.
Have you ever attended a concert at a casino venue and then also stayed in the hotel? Where was it? Who did you see? Inquiring minds want to know – give me the deets in the comments. 🙂
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