Zack Rippy

This Saturday, I caught a Dave Matthews Band concert in Atlanta with a few good friends. This was not an ordinary concert. It was a benefit for the Piedmont Park Conservancy. There were supposedly 54,000 ticketed people in attendance. Press reports since have said their could have been as many as 96-110,000 there! The entire event (minus a very limited number of expensive VIP tickets) was a general admissions affair, which means that there were no assigned seats. It was just a huge park, and you could get as close to the stage as you wanted to, provided you got there early enough. We also had early admission tickets from The Warehouse (the DMB fan club), so we were in a separate line that got in an hour early at 3 PM. We arrived in line around 10:30 and hung out for a while. We took turns going to grab some lunch. We got there in perfect timing though; there were only about 150 people in front of us and within an hour of getting in line, there were already more than that behind us.

One really cool thing was that the stage was insanely close to a street near where we were waiting. When the band soundchecked, we ran over there and could clearly hear them practice some of there new songs. Very cool.

There was another early admission line filled with people who bought their tickets through the park conservancy. Fortunately for us, they let the Warehouse people in about ten minutes earlier. We literally sprinted to the “lines” within the park, they scanned our tickets and we took off! It was a mad dash to the stage. I was shocked to see how close we got. We were within 10-12 feet of the stage when we got there. Insane. One annoyance is the fact that I did not bring my camera. They are usually pretty strict about not allowing cameras into the venues. They were not allowed here either, except, in this case, security did not check a single person that I could see. I got some pics with my phone, but I wish I had my camera. Oh well.

At this point, it’s like 2:55 and we are already getting pushed and crowded. That would be the story of the evening. We stood there the rest of the night. The entire night. No sitting. No moving. No eating, drinking or bathroom breaks. Finally, at 5:30, the opening act took the stage. It was The Allman Brothers Band. I have never really listened to their music, but they are definitely an amazing jam band. Warren Haynes tore it up and they had three people playing great percussion (2 drum sets and a true percussion set), but the highlight of their set was Derek Trucks. This man is absolutely amazing. He makes it look effortless, too.

Finally, at around 8:05, Dave Matthews Band took the stage and the place exploded. We thought we were crammed before…it was nothing like we were once DMB took the stage. They opened with a great version of One Sweet World, a favorite of mine and a great way to open a show. The energy of 54,000 people pumped for this band was incredible. The sound was unbelievable. We were close enough that we could actually hear their instruments’ sounds directly…not just from the speakers.

Carter Beauford, their drummer, one of the most amazing musicians alive, was on fire. His kick just absolutely owned that place. You could feel it in your chest. Once the opener was out of the way, Butch Taylor (keys) played a little impromptu version of “Happy Birthday” for Leroi Moore (sax, clarinet, pennywhistle) and the crowd sang.

The actual setlist was:

One Sweet World - Awesome opener!
“Happy Birthday”
Two Step - A great version that Carter just ripped to pieces!
Cornbread - My favorite of the new songs.
Don’t Drink The Water - There were some sound issues during the extended intro and the band kinda jammed around a bit while they were resolved. There was a loud bass hum or something going on. This song absolutely rocked though!
You Might Die Trying - Continued the pace after Don’t Drink The Water. This songs is really fun live.
Grey Street - Dave pulled out the 12-string and I was hoping that meant Grey Street. It’s my all-time favorite DMB song and I was thrilled to hear it live!
#27 (Hope You’ll Be By Me Then) - Another new 2007 song. I like it.
What Would You Say - Warren Hayes came out on this one and the place was on fire. This was old-school DMB at their finest!
Melissa - This is an Allman Brothers Band tune and Greg Allman came out to sing and play on it. There were a couple of communication issues between him and DMB, but it was a good song and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it.
Louisiana Bayou - A Stand Up song that I really don’t like on the CD, but it is terrific live. Boyd Tinsley (violin) had a long solo and was really working the crowd. (pic)
Dreaming Tree - Insane. This is one of my favorite songs, but it’s one that is very rarely played live. They owned this song. It was an absolutely fantastic version. Dave nailed this laid back fan favorite.
Eh Hee - This is another new song. It’s pretty good. I enjoyed it. Dave released it solo directly to iTunes. I prefer the full band version.
So Much To Say - Classic DMB song with a great intro.
Anyone Seen The Bridge - This was nuts. They segue from SMTS into this little bridge jam, but this time after the last song, the entire band literally froze in place. Then, over the course of the next minute or two, they made these perfectly syncopated hits. After the last one, they froze again, a few seconds later, Carter pulls this insane drum roll and Dave repeats the “Baby!” ending line of So Much To Say and they then actually go into Anyone Seen The Bridge. From there, it’s straight into…
Too Much - Again, classic DMB, though they mixed it up with a ridiculously slow tempo change. It was cool, but almost too slow.
#40 - This is a super-rare tune that is occasionally teased, but rarely played. Dave played the first verse and chorus all the way through. Apparently, it was in response to a guy right in front of us who had a sign that said “#40″ on it. Very cool.
Warehouse -It doesn’t get any better than this.
Stay - A good song that the crowd really loved. This closed out the main set and the band left the stage. A few minutes later, they came back out for an encore that consisted of:
All Along the Watchtower - This was just perfect. The band and the fans were going crazy during this on. Stefan’s (bass) intro was great. The only thing that could have made this any better would have been if Derek Trucks had come out to tear up some lead guitar on it! The last hit of this segued directly into the first snare hit of…
Ants Marching - An old classic and no better way to end a show!

In almost every way, it was just an incredible day. I doubt I’ll ever be as close at a concert again. When Dave thew out his pick, it flew over our heads. We were that close. Carter handed and tossed out some sticks, but I didn’t any, unfortunately. Musically, they are simply fantastic and they put on an amazing show! Dave Matthews Band is absolutely my favorite band or musician playing today, and it was an incredible experience to be so up close for such a phenomenal concert.

A few notes:

To the directly people in front of and behind us - you rocked. Early in the afternoon, we formed a bit of an alliance (Office reference) with these people. You see, there were more than a few morons who just showed up and tried to force there way to the front through 54,000 people…at least a few thousand of us who had been waiting for many hours. Well, those in our immediate vicinity held the perimeter relatively well and kept most of them back. In fact, one dude (green shirt) managed to con his way up through everyone, claiming he was just going to greet his friend and then leave. Josh sets the stopwatch on his phone and tells “Green Shirt” that he has five minutes. Well, with ten seconds left, about 75 people start counting down from ten to zero, at which point Josh yells, “Hey Green Shirt. Time’s up! You’re outta here!” to the cheers of those around him. Well done, Josh! Everyone looked out for those around them though - those who left were of course let back to their spots.

Beach balls are a staple at such events. A dozen beach balls in a crowd is cool. 500? Not so cool. These two guys in front of us started grabbing them when they came their way and they would literally rip them apart. Quite awesome. Stephen joined in the fun as well and must have been responsible for the deaths of at least twenty rogue beach balls. Nice work. Here is a crummy picture I took of Stephen’s beach ball graveyard.

Atlanta police apparently have no idea how to perform crowd control. If you watch the Central Park Concert DVD, you’d see a crowd comparable to this one, except that the police had organized rows of small gates, creating aisle ways and passages for access in and out of various areas of the crowd. They also had an army of officers out in force. In Atlanta? Not so much. I literally saw two uniformed police officers in front of the crowd. Two. When two girls got into a fight, this one lone cop had to work his way from the barriers in front of the stage through a sea of people and deal with these two out of control women by himself and then fight his way through the back to get them out of there. It was ridiculous. Fortunately, DMB crowds are relatively mellow. If this had been a hostile crowd of any kind, that poor cop could have had some issues.

There were numerous HD video cameras around the place, as well as microphones to capture crowd noise. There are rumors that this could be an official CD/DVD release, or perhaps a LiveTrax release through the band’s website. I’d love it if this were true. It’d be great to be able to re-live the evening. There are ten songs that were played though that were also played on their last official DVD release (Central Park), so they might not go that route. Still, a release of some sort would be awesome!

Finally, a big shout out to the Dave Matthews Band for allowing their concerts to be taped by fans and also to the fans who spend much of their own time, money and energy to tape the shows. I am in awe of how great these tapes can sound. Thanks to them, I have already (legally) downloaded two different audience recordings of this show.

Saturday night was an event. It was an evening I won’t soon forget.

Dave Matthews Band

DMB Almanac Entry

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 8:28 am and is filed under In My Life, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.