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I went to the DMB concert on May 2, 2009 in Dallas, Texas. Here is my experience for posterity. ^o^
We left about 6:50 (show at 7:00), and we KNEW we were going to be late. We just didn't know HOW late. I called the Superpages.com Center to find out the ETA that DMB would take the stage, and they told us 8:30-ish because the weather had delayed everything a bit. We didn't get to the show until almost 9pm. We parked during "Spaceman", walked to the entrance during "Cornbread", and made it to our spots during "The Maker." I was in a shit mood by this point because I'd missed them playing "Funny the Way It Is" and "Spaceman"; Spaceman is my favorite of the new songs, followed closely by FTWII.
HOWEVER, they played the best version of Why I Am that i've ever heard, and it lifted my mood immensely. Before it, Dave talked about why it is Roi's song; when they were listening to "the groove" that would later become WIA, Roi would apparently move his face a lot because he really liked it. Dave said "He didn't dance, but he would dance like this [makes face] in his FACE!" After Why I Am, Dave did the most hilarious thing that I tweeted about. He said "I'm glad you all made it okay. In Seattle, it rains all the time like this *pssh pssh pssh* [hand motions], so I forgot what it rains like down here. *crowd cheers like Texans do every time you say anything about their damn state* I thought the final days had come. *then, in falsetto, silly voice* O shit! This is the big one!" Cracked me up like CRAZY! If you download this show you hear both these things.
Then Stefan began fiddling around on his bass and from the chords he was sticking with, I got this huge knot in my chest. Then he teased a riff I knew VERY well, and the knot grew. Then he played the first 6 notes of the "Crush" bassline and I burst into tears again. I think I'm making it a habit. Or maybe it was just this weekend. I cried all the way through the song. If I can be said to have a "List of Things To Do Before I Die", just about everything in the world is on it. But the top 10 is smaller, and two of them have happened in the last year: I heard DMB play #41 live with the Sojourn of Arjuna interpolation, and on Saturday night I stood, listening to DMB play Crush live, holding the hand of the man who will always embody that song for me. My mascara was freaking EVERYWHERE. One of the best versions of Crush I have ever heard, with the Tim vs. Jeff duel at the end. It was stunning.
After Crush, the wind turned, the front came through, and it was suddenly COLD. Started raining again. I am not the biggest fan of Dancing Nancies, so I didn't mind going out into the vendor area (we could still hear everything) to see if anyone had anything we could use as a poncho. We wandered about a bit until we came to one vendor, where Bryan goes "Hey, what is that thing that's marked $5?" I looked. It looked like...a poncho? A clear piece of plastic with "Dave Matthews Band" on the back, and "Dave Matthews Band Summer Tour" on the front, where a "pocket" would be. I told Bryan I thought it looked like a poncho, and then the vendor looked right at us and goes "Do you need ponchos?" Hells yes we needed ponchos...it was raining pretty decent by this point. We bought 2 & put them on. We looked kinda like tools, but we didn't care; we were dry! Plus it was clear, and I could hold my iPhone underneath it and still use Twitter. I didn't mind so much not sneaking any of my cameras in (I forgot both of them in the rush to get to Dallas), because it was raining & I could not have held up either camera.
It did bother me that I couldn't hold up the phone & do an LJ voice post for my QuadCore DMB BFFs. We decided we'd rather have the back wall of the center to keep the wind off us, so we went to the very back, very top of the lawn. It was a GREAT view of the stage from there, even if the band was tiny. You really got the entire feel of the light show, and how all the colors played together. It was awesome. At some point, Bryan goes "If you could hear any song you wanted right now, which one would it be?" I thought of "So Right", but another thing on my list is to hear "So Right" at a concert with Q, so I didn't want that one. I opened my mouth and said "Grey--" and then the band cut me off with the opening notes of Grey Street. I gaped at Bryan with big eyes, and he started laughing. I turned around and yelled at the stage for the 2nd time that night: "THANK YOU!" I was seriously feeling Grey Street this weekend, with all the stress on me.
And then, encore break! And during the encore break, the rain began in EARNEST. It rained like it can only rain in the freaking south. Florida, Texas, Arkansas--I've seen this kind of rain in all those places. Where it just gushes down from the sky as though God had turned on a million waterhoses and pointed them straight down at us. And then the lightning started. It rivaled the lights on the stage. At some point (well, obviously at 10:27 pm), I realized I was standing in a thunderstorm downpour listening to Dave Matthews Band play Ants Marching while lightning struck all around. I felt ridiculously alive (thus the boom de yada tweet) and I realized that with my friends and Bryan, I could do anything. I could probably even save the world one patient at a time while I was at it. And then, just as a total shout-out to Bryan with his immense love for Led Zepplin, Jeff & Rashawn interpolated "Stairway to Heaven" in Watchtower! I caught it first. I was like "They're interpolating something..." and I didn't quite know what it was. Bryan started to concentrate too, and suddenly I was like "HOLY CRAP, STAIRWAY!" and Bryan's eyes went O_O!!! He wants a copy of it from my download now. :)
# 19:30 #DMB scheduled for 8:10 but will probably be later. Yay! We might make it! #
# 19:31 Pls traffic. Plz go faster. #
# 19:49 Gonna b late now bc traffic is sitting still on I-30e on ramp. Fate wants me to miss this concert #
# 19:57 Guess I'm gonna have to look @ setlist app to tell me what opener is. #
# 20:03 Something big happened on I-30. we may not make it till 9. WTF, universe? #
# 20:10 @davejmatthews I hope you guys put on a good show cause it looks like I'm going to miss most of it. #
# 20:12 *waves at weekly davespeak ppl* I'm not at the #dmb concert yet. I-30 is chaos. #
# 20:14 @smts41 amen that! <3 sojourn #
# 20:22 I'm seeing #dmb opens with bartender. Not my fave so I'm all right. #
# 20:28 #dmb I have high hopes for LR show since this one is becoming an epic fail for me. Plz god don't let them play crush till I'm there #
# 20:34 @jorajo that cannot be what's causing this traffic. srsly?! #dmb #
# 20:36 Not unhappy to miss stay or leave either. It would make me cry today. #dmb #
# 20:37 Hope you guys at WDS are watching my epic battle to get to the damn concert. Still exiting I-30. #dmb #
# 20:38 My iPhone recognizes #dmb as a word. :) #
# 20:43 Where are WE going? Supposedly to a #dmb concert if traffic would move. :( #
# 20:45 @quiara I'm sorry you couldn't come but it's been pretty much fail this far. Still not there. #
# 20:57 Holy crap there's something going on @ cotton bowl & it was the traffic #
# 20:58 @indiegoddess I think we're home free now. #
# 21:08 Omfg we're here #dmb #
# 21:13 #dmb maker. Holy lord I'm here, what? 8 songs in? #
We left about 6:50 (show at 7:00), and we KNEW we were going to be late. We just didn't know HOW late. I called the Superpages.com Center to find out the ETA that DMB would take the stage, and they told us 8:30-ish because the weather had delayed everything a bit. We didn't get to the show until almost 9pm. We parked during "Spaceman", walked to the entrance during "Cornbread", and made it to our spots during "The Maker." I was in a shit mood by this point because I'd missed them playing "Funny the Way It Is" and "Spaceman"; Spaceman is my favorite of the new songs, followed closely by FTWII.
# 21:15 Holy crap fonz with the glasses ftw! #dmb #
# 21:19 Roi Moore danced with his FAYCE! #dmb why I am! #
# 21:26 Dave: O shit this is the big one! #dmb #
HOWEVER, they played the best version of Why I Am that i've ever heard, and it lifted my mood immensely. Before it, Dave talked about why it is Roi's song; when they were listening to "the groove" that would later become WIA, Roi would apparently move his face a lot because he really liked it. Dave said "He didn't dance, but he would dance like this [makes face] in his FACE!" After Why I Am, Dave did the most hilarious thing that I tweeted about. He said "I'm glad you all made it okay. In Seattle, it rains all the time like this *pssh pssh pssh* [hand motions], so I forgot what it rains like down here. *crowd cheers like Texans do every time you say anything about their damn state* I thought the final days had come. *then, in falsetto, silly voice* O shit! This is the big one!" Cracked me up like CRAZY! If you download this show you hear both these things.
# 21:27 Crush. They're playing Crush. O god thank you guys thank you thank you I'm crying. #dmb #
# 21:33 So much you have given love that I would give you back again & again & again & again #
# 21:34 Coffin/Reynolds duel time for face rocking. #
# 21:34 Coffin/Reynolds duel. #dmb #
Then Stefan began fiddling around on his bass and from the chords he was sticking with, I got this huge knot in my chest. Then he teased a riff I knew VERY well, and the knot grew. Then he played the first 6 notes of the "Crush" bassline and I burst into tears again. I think I'm making it a habit. Or maybe it was just this weekend. I cried all the way through the song. If I can be said to have a "List of Things To Do Before I Die", just about everything in the world is on it. But the top 10 is smaller, and two of them have happened in the last year: I heard DMB play #41 live with the Sojourn of Arjuna interpolation, and on Saturday night I stood, listening to DMB play Crush live, holding the hand of the man who will always embody that song for me. My mascara was freaking EVERYWHERE. One of the best versions of Crush I have ever heard, with the Tim vs. Jeff duel at the end. It was stunning.
# 21:37 How can he have that much breath?! #dmb #
# 21:41 Raining! #dmb #
# 21:45 Nancies. Raining & freezing ass cold! #dmb #
# 21:51 Omg I now own a #dmb poncho #
After Crush, the wind turned, the front came through, and it was suddenly COLD. Started raining again. I am not the biggest fan of Dancing Nancies, so I didn't mind going out into the vendor area (we could still hear everything) to see if anyone had anything we could use as a poncho. We wandered about a bit until we came to one vendor, where Bryan goes "Hey, what is that thing that's marked $5?" I looked. It looked like...a poncho? A clear piece of plastic with "Dave Matthews Band" on the back, and "Dave Matthews Band Summer Tour" on the front, where a "pocket" would be. I told Bryan I thought it looked like a poncho, and then the vendor looked right at us and goes "Do you need ponchos?" Hells yes we needed ponchos...it was raining pretty decent by this point. We bought 2 & put them on. We looked kinda like tools, but we didn't care; we were dry! Plus it was clear, and I could hold my iPhone underneath it and still use Twitter. I didn't mind so much not sneaking any of my cameras in (I forgot both of them in the rush to get to Dallas), because it was raining & I could not have held up either camera.
# 21:56 Moved to top back lawn. Perfect view of full stage. Don't even care if poncho makes me look like a tool. I'm warm! #dmb #
# 21:57 Warehouse #dmb #
# 21:59 And we have lightning! It really is the big one! #dmb #
# 22:02 Storm freaks dave out. :) it's really raining now. Like hard & lightning & thunder!!! #dmb #
# 22:04 Wanted to voice post LJ but rain won't let me hold up phone! Rashawn is a trumpet god! #dmb #
# 22:14 Grey st #dmb holy cow the RAIN is big fat wet & hard! #
# 22:16 Bryan goes "what song u wanna hear?" & it was this one! #dmb #
It did bother me that I couldn't hold up the phone & do an LJ voice post for my QuadCore DMB BFFs. We decided we'd rather have the back wall of the center to keep the wind off us, so we went to the very back, very top of the lawn. It was a GREAT view of the stage from there, even if the band was tiny. You really got the entire feel of the light show, and how all the colors played together. It was awesome. At some point, Bryan goes "If you could hear any song you wanted right now, which one would it be?" I thought of "So Right", but another thing on my list is to hear "So Right" at a concert with Q, so I didn't want that one. I opened my mouth and said "Grey--" and then the band cut me off with the opening notes of Grey Street. I gaped at Bryan with big eyes, and he started laughing. I turned around and yelled at the stage for the 2nd time that night: "THANK YOU!" I was seriously feeling Grey Street this weekend, with all the stress on me.
# 22:20 Did I say it was raining hard before? Holy hell. #dmb #
# 22:26 Ants #dmb #
# 22:27 I'm at a #dmb concert on the lawn in a thunderstorm. My life is...I don't even know what to say. Boom de yada! #
# 22:29 Lawn slip& slide with ponchos! Major ligtning; it rivals fenton! #dmb #
# 22:36 Pretty sure watchtower #dmb #
# 22:36 Moat slip & slide #dmb #
# 22:36 Poncho allows tweets. Thx poncho! #dmb #
And then, encore break! And during the encore break, the rain began in EARNEST. It rained like it can only rain in the freaking south. Florida, Texas, Arkansas--I've seen this kind of rain in all those places. Where it just gushes down from the sky as though God had turned on a million waterhoses and pointed them straight down at us. And then the lightning started. It rivaled the lights on the stage. At some point (well, obviously at 10:27 pm), I realized I was standing in a thunderstorm downpour listening to Dave Matthews Band play Ants Marching while lightning struck all around. I felt ridiculously alive (thus the boom de yada tweet) and I realized that with my friends and Bryan, I could do anything. I could probably even save the world one patient at a time while I was at it. And then, just as a total shout-out to Bryan with his immense love for Led Zepplin, Jeff & Rashawn interpolated "Stairway to Heaven" in Watchtower! I caught it first. I was like "They're interpolating something..." and I didn't quite know what it was. Bryan started to concentrate too, and suddenly I was like "HOLY CRAP, STAIRWAY!" and Bryan's eyes went O_O!!! He wants a copy of it from my download now. :)
