The Dave Matthews Band seems to catch a lot of flak. Seems to me that it's one of those bands that got popular and is just "cool to hate". As a friend remarked when she found out I had a ticket to go see one of their concerts, "isn't that the band that only white meat heads like?"
Yes, yes it is.
It took me a long time to get into the Dave Matthews Band. Several years ago (almost 10 now, yeesh) my uncle dumped his entire music library on me probably in hopes that I'd expand my taste beyond the seven albums (I cannot confirm or deny that four of those seven were Linkin Park) I owned and played relentlessly. Lots of classic rock and jazz, and a couple of DMB studio albums. I liked a couple of the tracks here and there, but overall the band didn't make much of an impression. It took me a few years to finally burn my way through all of my uncle's music, and at the end I discovered I had passed over a single DMB live album. With nothing else to listen to, I put it on.
I found myself listening to a band I swore I'd never heard before.
Yes, it was the Central Park Concert live album by the Dave Matthews Band that introduced me to the notion that some bands are, indeed, better live. Much better.
DMB obviously have a lot going for them - unconventional rhythm and song structure, solid vocals, really tight musicianship, unexpected lyrics. But it was their raw energy coming from performing live that caused me to Stand Up (ha!) and properly appreciate of all of the above. I'd never seen them in person (despite their relentless touring year after year, they never come to my end of the continent), but I could tell from their official live albums that they're at the top of their game in concert.
Lo and behold I somehow ended up coming to New York. Shortly after the New Year when they posted their summer touring schedule, I was able to book a ticket to their second night in Camden, PA. They had shows in New York itself that wouldn't happen until much later in the summer, at which point there was a chance I wouldn't be around. So instead I had to take a bus two hours to Philedelphia, where I was able to catch a ferry across the river to the venue in Camden.
Immediately after the start of the first all-acoustic set I discovered that I wasn't attending a concert. No, I was attending a frat reunion party for the grads of 1998. It seems they rented a stadium so that everyone could talk and drink and get high, and have room for the Dave Matthews Band to perform as background entertainment for the evening.
The signs were there before hand, of course. Lots of middle-aged white men (and women) waited in line at the gates with their packs of beer and lame shoulder tattoos. As I sat in my end-seat 20 minutes before the show began, a man stumbled up, vomited in the isle, then kept on walking. And it basically all went downhill from there.
What I didn't understand was that attending a DMB show was a favourite pastime. People would show up with their beer, catch up with friends, and talk about how many of the band's shows they've seen. And they'd continue talking about how many times they've seen the band while the band was in the middle of performing. Then they'd take a break to either get up and fetch more beer, or light a joint and pass it around. I eventually just gave up and stood in the isle beside my seat, so I wouldn't interrupt the continuous flow of people to/from my row.
And like I mentioned, the band started with an acoustic set. But the steady sea of conversation ruined it for me - it was difficult to really hear and appreciate the music itself. Thankfully, when they switched to the full/electric arrangement, the speakers were blasting so loud (it just isn't a frat party without loud music) that it was at least near impossible to hear people more than 4-5 seats away.
I realized somewhere in the middle of all this that, no, the Dave Matthews Band does not indeed suck. I feel pretty comfortable defending that statement. But the Dave Matthews Band fans on the other hand, are terrible. They almost ruined the show for me.
To be clear, I'm not just talking about a half dozen people around me that were kind of annoying. No, these people were everywhere. And I could tell this was the case because I heard one of the senior event staff working the isle by my seat mumble to herself, "can this evening just be done with already?"
But to their credit, I was offered to participate in no less than two joints during the show. Dave Matthews fans may be obnoxious, but you can't say they aren't generous.
Either way, part way through the show I was able to relax and enjoy the show (this may have something to do with the second, third, fourth, and fifth-hand pot smoke floating around my section). I'm not a veteran of these shows, so I didn't recognize most of the songs which are, apparently, usually only performed live. But still, the band was in good form and you could tell that despite how long they've been performing, they still knew how to have fun together on stage and enjoy what they do. The final song from the encore was Two Step, which ended in an orgasmic explosion of light, noise, drums, and music. I've seen a few concerts over the years, and this one was definitely the most hardest of cores in terms of rock and roll. It was one hell of a thing to whitness. Very loud, and unapologetically energetic. Great experience.
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After the show I became karma.
We streamed out and rushed to the ferry crossing to get back to Philadelphia. The line was long, following a path that went around a corner and up a hill. People would just cut across the grass to get to the corner and join up with the line, despite the (dunken) shouts of everyone waiting their turn further down the line. Eventually I got to the corner, and a set of four middle aged guys cut in, despite being called out by several people surrounding me. These four guys essentially just said "yeah, whatever, we don't care. We're okay being dicks and skipping the wait." I found myself internally cursing humanity, realizing that this is why we (as a race) indeed cannot have nice things.
I was pissed off at how selfish crap like this is the equivalent of looking at someone and saying "I'm more important than you" when one of these guys lit up a joint and started passing it around between the four of them as they stood waiting right in the line. Before long, one of the police officers watching over the concerts' mass exodus pulled two of the group out of the line, asking them what they were smoking. They claimed it was nothing, and showed their empty hands. The cop wasn't fooled and asked where the joint was, and the two pretended they didn't know what he was referring to.
It was at this point that I looked looked down at the pavement infront of me where the two men had cut in line. Lo and behold, a still-glowing and half-finished joint.
I pointed it out to some of the other people in line that were annoyed with how the group skipped waiting in line. We got the policeman's attention, who came over and picked it up. The two men were sent to the back of the line as punishment, and their two friends who were also sharing the joint remained in line.
I know it's "not cool" to snitch out a pot user, as was reiterated by some woman close by that was pretty offended that I alerted people to the joint on the ground. Even though I don't smoke, yeah, pot doesn't hurt anyone and it probably should be legal. And I probably wouldn't have said anything about it had those idiots been such pricks about cutting in line.
Bam. Karma'd.
And not long after, the other two people still in line realized that their ferry tickets were with their two busted friends now waiting at the back of the line. So the left.
I won't lie, that felt so. Damn. Good.
I also felt a little bit bad for a time. I don't know if I'd do it again, but it was neat to see someone make a dick-move and then get punished for it shortly afterwards through something unrelated. And I got to be the surrogate for karma itself.
It's okay, though. In the end I was also on the receiving end of karma's boot for ratting those two guys out. The concert ran a lot longer than I expected (apparently a DMB concludes about 4 hours after it starts, compared for the 2-3 I planned on), and I ended up missing my midnight bus back to New York. The next bus was supposed to be at 3AM, and actually showed up at 3:30. I didn't get home and to sleep until about 6:30AM.
On the plus side, though, knowing that I had 2.5hrs to kill before the bus arrived meant I could walk from one end of downtown Philadelphia where my ferry landed to the other where the bus terminal was located. I want to say that "in hindsight it wasn't a very smart thing to do", but I knew full well at the time that it wasn't smart to be a tourist walking through an unfamiliar downtown at midnight. But I did it anyways, at least keeping to well lit areas and trying to be extra-aware of my surroundings. It was a nice walk, actually. Philedelphia is a pretty city (what little of it I saw, at least), and along the way I was able to get a late-night Philly Cheesesteak. Right in downtown Philly. A Philly Philly Cheesesteak, if you will.
It was actually kinda gross (they only had Cheese Wiz or American *cough*plastic*cough* cheese), but it was a neat experience to have at 1AM when you're very far from home and not quite sure what the rest of the night will hold for you. Or how you'll even get home.
Strange times. I'm glad I experienced each one of those twenty four hours. But they were very strange.
-Cril
Come on, all of you wanted to lie
Get in line and everything'll be fine
We gotta toss our troubles to the wind
We'll beat 'em all like we did in the end
Money is clean cause we scrub it good
With guns and gasoline we're gonna save the world
Nothing's obscene if we only close our eyes
Boys and girls welcome to this joy ride
Dave Matthews Band - Joy Ride
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