What an honor to be the last show of Ben Rector’s ‘The Biggest Tour I’ve Done So Far Tour’.
I arrived at the State Theater with about a half hour to spare before the opening act started his set. This called for perfect time to take pictures of the venue and just take in the beauty of the venue. This also was prime time to purchase a T-Shirt at the merchandise table. Once 7 pm came, the ambiance for a concert was more than ready.
The opener was 18 year old Tennessee native Jacob Whitesides. He definitely has the ideal looks and aesthetics to be the next teen heartthrob. It seemed obvious that with his looks that he would generate more support from young females but as I observed the audience around me, consisting with many late 20’s couples and college age people but there was people of all ages, everyone was enjoying the young performer. Most people didn’t know any lyrics to his songs and couldn’t sing along but I saw people checking his bio on his phone and making personal notes to look into Whitesides music.
Whitesides himself was as charming as he is good looking. He would ask the audience how we were and his presence on stage was one where you could see someone truly passionate about music. He’d play his guitar, sing and jam with his bandmates. The way he presented himself was definitely swoon worthy. He ended his set with singing his hit song “Lovesick” and boy did he leave everyone feeling that way and wanting more.
There was a 30 min. intermission before Ben’s set began.
The lights dimmed, a lone spotlight shone on Ben on the piano and he sang and the crowd roared. With a strong start with “Fear”, the tone of the concert was set: good vibes, good times. Basically all you need for a perfect night.
Ben was extremely charismatic plus extremely funny (in a sarcastic manner) all night with his little talks in between songs. One of these times came before he sang “Crazy” where he told the audience as a musician he enjoyed singing “fun upbeat songs” but sometimes they need to sing “serious songs” and apparently the next selection was one of those serious songs. Everyone laughed once “Crazy” begun. The lyrics completely contradict the serious idea. For example: “We got off work and met at Bed, Bath and Beyond // You looked at curtains, I bought a birthday card for mom // We wanted tacos, but the taco truck was gone // Last night was crazy, yeah”.
Another moment of classic Ben humor was showcased when he told the audience of a spotlight incident at his Georgia concert where the spotlight was on his bandmate Cody Fry on the piano for two and half minutes while he was in the dark playing his soul out on his guitar. He joked with the spotlight men there that it wasn’t a problem and he wasn’t angry for the mistake and he asked them to blink the lights twice if they weren’t angry. Our Minnesota lights people played along and blinked the lights twice while Ben told us back at Georgia they only blinked once.
Ben played a few songs from his latest album while playing some older songs from past albums but it didn’t phase the crowd as we all continued to sing along and dance with the little space we have between seats. There was some a mashup of “Loving You is Easy” with Jackson 5’s “ABC. We danced along to his cover to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and even did the “Cha Cha Slide” in between “Let the Good Times Roll”. And for you Bachelorette fans, Ben played Jojo and Jordan’s song, “When I’m with You”.
One of my favorite things is when musicians go out there way to mention the venue’s city whether in song or just during the talks in between. During “I Like You”, Ben was truthful in saying he told every city that he liked them but he told us he really meant it here at Minneapolis.
He explained to the audience how after he would say “this will be our last song”, he and the band would run off to the right of the stage, wait for the crowd to be at a fevered pitch and return for an encore. Ben said we had to act surprise. So he did as he said and Minneapolis applauded and screamed and at some point the entire theater began the backup vocals to his latest single “Brand New”.
That performance of “Brand New” was electrifying. It’s the kind of performance that epitomizes the greatness of live performance where you feed of the energy of the crowd, your voice cracks but you keep singing and you dance like you’re the only one in the room. It’s the kind of things people live for. Ben sounds exactly like his recordings and it was just absolutely wonderful.
As a theater, we took the obligatory tour video with Ben. How cool to be in the final video of this tour.
He ended the night singing one more song: “ The Men that Drives Me Places”. It completely shows how he is such a humble, fun loving guy.
In conclusion, from the words of Ben:
“Let the good times roll
Everybody throw your cares away
Let the good times roll
Leave your worry for another day
Let the good times roll
Leave yesterday behind
And let the good times roll tonight”.
Now to cure this post concert depression with non-stop playing of Ben’s music.
