Picture this: a beautiful Friday with comfortable mid-80 degree weather. It's your weekend and you've got more planned than the typical stay at home enjoying Netflix and a book. It’s time to clear your mind and take an adventure, going farther than you’ve ever gone before.

I’ve been packed for a week. I’ve done my research of the area I’m going to, I’ve made my hotel reservations. I’m ready to get out of town and experience life a little bit. A three and a half hour drive with my best friend. Life doesn’t get any better…or so I might think.

After a long drive with three stops along the way we make it into the city and to the hotel. It’s 3 in the afternoon and we’re dying for food. We get up to the hotel room and get settled and decide to find food. We head back down to the lobby and were not satisfied with the choices so we went back up to the room to look at other options. As we’re looking over the possibility of room service we keep hearing a loud cracking sound. Keep in mind the day has been completely beautiful. I go to the bedroom where it’s even louder and move the curtain aside. It’s not only pouring rain but there’s hail hitting the window!

Now how is that going to affect us getting onto the next leg of the adventure? Luckily it stopped about as fast as it had started. By this time we’ve decided just to order a pizza from around the corner and have it delivered to the room.

An hour goes by and still no food other than the snacks we had brought with us. Sounds like a great vacation already. Instead of bringing the delivery up I met the delivery person in the lobby 4 levels down. Thank God for elevators.

Things can’t get any worse, right? We could have been the band playing at the club who got caught in the hail storm on the way into the city.

We have now reached a night I shall never forget. We have reached the club that I had expected to be packed with people in their mid twenties. May I say I was disappointed? Most of the people on the floor that night were in their mid forties, at least. Whatever. My friend and I head to get our sodas for the evening and find a place on the floor to stand and observe; which happened to be in direct sight of the backstage entrance.

After literally no more than maybe a minute of us standing there we both notice the lead singer of The Dives, Evan come out. It’s still long before the band is due to hit the stage. At first I thought he was just stepping out to observe…until he actually came out around the rope barrier. Do I take this chance to go talk to him or wait and hope he walks by? Fat chance of that happening. I walked over his direction. It took a few minutes for others to get through but I could wait. He’d already acknowledged my presence.

After the patient wait we had several minutes to just talk. Here’s your chance, don’t blow it. We started the conversation a little awkward, both of us trying to do greetings at the same time. But it quickly eased into a light, casual conversation about the weather (remember the hail), which we laughed over. I was able to get a picture and had to laugh again at his excitement over the sticker on the back of my phone. I then admitted that i was a supporter of The Dives adding to his excitement. The lights were going dark so he excused himself to go back but invited us to come chat after the set. Who’s going to say no to that?

The set was great! I was excited when they performed the song ‘Take It All’. That was the first song I heard by them on Soundcloud and was over the moon that it was part of the set. My other favorite, ‘Make It Like the Movies’, was their closer. I was kind of upset that my phone’s storage was full and wouldn’t let me record ‘Anticipation’, but I got pictures so that was ok. I was madly clearing space so I could get the rest of the set recorded, which worked by the way.

I did go back to chat with the band after the set. I let them know how much I really enjoyed the set and that i loved ‘Take It All’. Now Evan takes over the conversation, excitedly telling the guys to check out the back of my phone, which I pulled back out to show the Dives sticker on the back. He then proceeds to tell them about our earlier conversation when I admitted being a supporter. I honestly don’t know who was more excited about the interaction, but who cares. We were having a good time. We got a few pictures, doing a retake with the flash on since the first one came out kind of dark.

Here’s the end our time together before the final band, The Dead Daisies hit the stage.

Now, I may have left Detroit, but Detroit has not left me. The band may forget my face, but I know they’ll keep doing the one thing that makes them great; making music and having fun. Evan may even forget the small girl he met in Detroit, but I suspect and hope that as The Dives go forward he and his fellow bandmates will remember what it was that made people like me fall in love with them. It wasn’t just the great chords, killer musicianship skills or awesome harmonies, it was their fun personalities and passion for their music.

Detroit and The Dives: A night to remember. And one I shall never forget whatever life throws at me next.