DMB

I caught the Dave Matthews Band concert last night in Manassas, VA. This was the 15th time I've seen them. I've been a huge fan ever since my mother randomly gave me their album "Crash" as a gift in 1998. I try to avoid mainstream pop culture, so I've always kind of resented that my favorite band is so hugely popular among the teeny boppers and frat boys, but I guess this a rare incident of the dull masses having good taste.

I used to be pretty fanatical about collecting recordings of their live shows, which they generously allow fans to tape. My collection includes almost 300 shows from 1991 to 2002. I started collecting them my freshman year of college, and early on I had a weird ability to remember setlists for a given show date. Because of my setlist fetish, when I started going to their concerts I would write down the set as they played it. So now I have 15 scraps of paper with a bunch of songs scribbled on them.

Feel free to congratulate me on these tremendous accomplishments.

I enjoyed last night's show. Most concerts feed off of crowd energy though, and playing 10 new songs in an 18 song set isn't going to have the crowd into it as much as a set full of road-tested classics. So this wasn't one of my favorite of their shows, but I liked hearing their live versions of the new material, and was glad they played Warehouse.

They brought out a guest performer, Robert Randolph, who I had never heard of. But this guy laid down some nasty pedal steel guitar and tore the house down. The 3 songs he played with the boys at the end of the night were definitely the highlights.

Last night's setlist:

Sunday Jun 26 2005
Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge

Dream Girl
One Sweet World
Don’t Drink the Water
Hunger For The Great Light
Say Goodbye
Too Much
Out Of My Hands
Grey Street
Steady As We Go
Hello Again
You Might Die Trying
Where Are You Going
Warehouse
Stolen Away On 55th & 3rd
Stand Up *
Louisiana Bayou *

__________________

American Baby
All Along The Watchtower *


* - featuring guest performer Robert Randolph