Dave Matthews Band Rocks My World

After three long years, I saw the Dave Matthews Band perform on Saturday night for the 11th time in my life.  (Um, it's either 11 or 12, somewhere I have a list...)  While people may think it's strange to see one band so many times, non-fans should understand that they play a different setlist every night, so each show is a completely different, yet amazing experience. 

I converted Trey a few years ago, since my previous convert, Best Friend Kimberly, moved.  And this year, I was able to purchase four tickets together in advance, rather than just two, using my Warehouse Fan Club membership.  (Yes, I pay dues to be a fan of DMB.  No one said I wasn't a dork.)  To my surprise, my stepdad, Jay, wanted to go, so Mom and Jay came with us! 

This was the First Concert Ever in the new Busch Stadium - quite a to-do around town!  It was typical July weather in St. Louis, too bad it's only early June.  Also, I turned on my camera to find I had a dead battery, so any photo I post here will be liberally taken from other sites!  

 
This was pretty similar to our view, except we were only about 20 rows off the field, right behind the Cardinal dugout.  Great baseball seats!  At first, I was unimpressed with what the fan club provided, but once the show started, I was grateful I was there, and not anywhere past 20th row on the floor.  Sometimes, the luckiest of Warehouse members get upgraded to the front row - this happened to me in 2000, Kimberly's first show.  It ranks up there in best moments of my life, and can only hope that lightening will strike twice for me!

The Black Crowes opened, which was great since I've never seen them.  Of course, they don't play the fan favorites, so while it was great music, there was only one song I knew and it wasn't my favorite.  There was an instrumental two or three songs in that was awesome - have no clue what it's called.  

Regardless of the sweltering heat, the novelty of a first-show, or Chris Robinson's skinny butt shaking, the whole point was DMB.  They opened with "Two Step," one of my overall favorites, and I could tell Jay was diggin' it, too.  And to most everyone's excitement, they had two guest musicians - the largest man to ever play the smallest horn (don't know his name), and Tim Reynolds, the guitarist that Dave tours with on his own, and who is just incredible.  Playing electric guitar the whole show, it added a decidedly different and hard-rock feel to the show than I've ever heard before.  (Dave is the only guitarist, and he plays acoustic more often than not.) 

Large Man, Small Horn

Tim Reynolds, who plays better than he looks.

To see more photos, check out DMB Rocks Busch Stadium.

I only heard one song from my established Top Five List, "Crush," but was giddily surprised when they played two obscure old-school favorites, "One Sweet World" and "Recently."  While I haven't heard the official time, I'm pretty sure they played a two to two and a half hour set before breaking! An incredible mix of old and new, with an outstanding cover of Neil Young's "Hey, Hey, My, My," in which Dave channeled Neil, sounding nothing like himself!  

As a side note, there was a die hard Nancy of about 22 years old, right behind Jay and Mom, who said "All right, some Black Crowes!" when the song started.  Mom and I sniggered, I enjoying the fact that while he knew every single word to every DMB song, he was, overall, an idiot.  FYI, in Dave-speak, a Nancy is not a derogatory term, but a die hard Dave fan.  If I ever think I'm remotely worthy of my fandom, all I have to do is spend about five minutes at Nancies.org, and I realize that I'm a casual fan at best!  Though "Dancing Nancies" comes in at #2 on my Top Five List.  

They ended the first set with "Ants Marching," which is typically one of my favorites to hear live, but I had overdone it with the jumping and dancing like an idiot during "Crush," so maybe I was just too tired, but it didn't have the same excitement for me.  Maybe it's time to do another set-ender, boys.  The encore, while great overall, was only OK for me personally - I'm always holding out hope to hear my #1, "Lie in Our Graves," and almost always disappointed.  

Alas, they ended with "Everyday" with the Honey, Honey of "#39" mixed in, "Louisiana Bayou," a newer song that I neither love nor hate, and a surprising cover of Sly and the Family Stone's funkadelic classic "Thank You" - "thank you for letting me be myself again."  Dave actually put his guitar down at the end, and sang around the stage holding the mic stand like a real rock star.  So Weird!  But it was great, I mean, who doesn't love Sly and the Family Stone?  

So it was awesome, and I can't wait to see them again.  In the meantime, I've converted yet another - when I told Jay during the concert that I'd see them again tomorrow if I could, he shouted back, "Me too!  This is some f**kin' awesome s**t!"  I couldn't have said it better!