History of Rock and Roll ⇒

When I first heard him, I was taking my favourite course, Music 308: History of Rock & Roll. This was a fabulous course that explored the roots, politics and social aspects of modern day music. It was, of course, taught by a hippy (I don't remember his name). It was also the course I got my worst grade in! You had to turn in a writing assignment every week and it turns out that I am not a great writer! Any hoo, he (the professor) would play music as the students arrived. It was always something different, rock, blues, folk, etc. And then I heard them. I walked into the classroom and heard this amazing group; part funk, part blues, part rock, part poetry. The Dave Matthews Band! It was Crash that I was listening to. And man, was I ever hooked! That weekend I went out bought that album, and I have been a huge fan ever since!

I have seen them everytime they have come into town and this time was no exception. I gathered a few of my concert going buddies, Greg & John, and headed off to the concert with our women in tow! To properly appreciate a Dave Matthews concert, you must not be hungry so we booked ourselves into Dix for delicious food and beverages. We decided that the opening act, Josh Kelley didn't interest us that much, so we took our sweet time enjoying the evening.

Then it was time. We entered the hallowed halls, found the bar, then found our great seats (Section 116, row 6, thank you very much!). We only had to wait about 20 minutes for the band to start playing. And play they did!! The thing I love about his music is that it gets inside you. You can just lean back, close your eyes and let yourself get carried away by the music and lyrics. And I love the crowd; everyone just sways. They don't dance, just sway. Sniff, sniff ... what's this? I also love the smell of Dave Matthews concerts ... a great collection of smoke and pot! It was, as usual, a fairly mixed crowd; about equal numbers of men and women and large age range. His music, it seems, has almost univeral appeal.

You always wonder which Dave you will get when you go to his concerts. Last time we saw him, his voice was shot, so it was mostly instrumental solos. This time, however, we got the mellow Dave. There was only one really hard-rocking song. Thankfully it was "All Along the Watchtower"! I hadn't heard that one live in a long time!! Woo hoo!! The played a wide range of songs from all of their albums (I think, it is hard to keep track of what song came from what album); it was a great mix!

After 2 1/2 hours of playing, they packed it in and called it a night. And so did we.