Credit: Photo via Ben Folds/Facebook

Credit: Photo via Ben Folds/Facebook
Ben Folds was far from home when the coronavirus halted the world last March. He had just arrived in Australia to play some shows with an orchestra, and decided against flying home to the US, due to the probability of flights being cancelled all across the board. He managed to find an apartment to lodge in, and also perform a number of live stream shows for his quarantined fans. To hold everyone over, the “You Don’t Know Me” performer even penned a song about the pain of living in a pandemic-stricken world. “We thought we'd be living 1918 again/But we messed that up so bad, God had to toss 1930 in,” he sings.

Folds might very well still be out of the country, since his next show is a Flymachine live stream taking place in Aussie on June 30. But he’s clearly ready to hit the road in the U.S. again. He just announced a new, “In Actual Person Live For Real” tour, which includes a stop at Tampa’s new, state-of-the-art Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The tour will feature both solo and orchestral performances, and Tampa fans will be experiencing a solo performance.

Tickets have already gone on sale, and they start at $45. Don’t bring your kids, either–being the Hard Rock, this show is going to be 21+ only. Oh, and just FYI: The Ben Folds Five will not be there, as they haven’t done anything together in nearly a decade.

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This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2021.

Josh Bradley is Creative Loafing Tampa's resident live music freak. He started freelancing with the paper in 2020 at the age of 18, and has since covered, announced, and previewed numerous live shows in...