A Sad Day For DMB Fans

This post is in memoriam of Leroi Moore, the departed saxophonist of the Dave Matthews Band who passed away today. He helped create some of the music that played in the background of many great memories for both me and Marilyn. We will both miss hearing his solos live in concert as he entertained thousands of cheering fans. Rest in peace Leroi.

What Would You Say

Now it is time for the second part of the Dave Matthews Band concert at Alpine Valley on Saturday, August 9. Simply put, the show was awesome. The best concert I have ever been to. Just kidding. Nothing will ever surpass Radiohead. Unless Radiohead decides to be the house band at our wedding. Speaking of wedding, I forgot to mention that the Radiohead concert was on Aug. 1, exactly one year before our wedding, so how could it have been bad. Did I mention that the Radiohaed concert was the best show I have ever been to? Well, in case I didn't, it was great. The show was in Grant Park during the first night of Lollapalooza and they played a sparkling two hour set. But alas, this story is about the Dave show.

A rather unfortunate incident happened to me during the first song, which I detailed in my previous post. The first song was a "Dancing Nancies", a personal favorite. The next song was "Seek Up", which I mostly missed as I was washing off my foot. Unlike previous shows in the last few years, the Band seemed to dig deep in their catalog and played old jam after old jam. This set included "Crush", "Halloween", "Ants Marching" and covers of Pink Floyd's "Money" and the Talking Heads "Burning Down the House." The personal highlight for me was "Spoon", a rare deep cut from Before These Crowded Streets. It really was a great show and here is a link to the set list if you are interested.

Why Dave Matthews Band Fans Might Be Worse Than Sox Fans

I will make no excuses for enjoying the music of the Dave Matthews Band, but I think I have had enough of their so-called fans. The seeds for this story were planted last year after we attended a Dave show at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. We hadn't seen them in a couple of years and were looking forward to seeing a band we both like after the dry spell. To put it simply, the show was a major disappointment. We heard couple of faves, but the set was primarily filled with their newer music, which neither of us particularly care for. On top of the set list, Dave fans have become more and more obnoxious as we have gotten older. It has apparently become a sport to get totally wasted and act like a fool at the shows, which is not my style when attending a concert. (Yes, I know some of you might bring up my personal debacle that was the Blink-182 concert that some of us went to. All I can say is that every dog has it's day, and that was mine.) Anyways, after the show was over we both agreed that the Toyota Park show was most likely our last Dave concert. We have both seen him numerous times and I personally would rather save the money, or go see a band that I have never seen before.

Fast forward to May of this year. Ben and Mindy were over for dinner and made the comment that they had four extra tickets for the two night stand at Alpine Valley this year. Marilyn said we would take them with no hesitation. Naturally, I was shocked, but apparently she had no recollection of our previous conversation. Her defense to taking the tickets was the fact that shows at Alpine were "the best." After three months of waiting, the concerts arrived and I admit I was excited.

Since we had lawn tickets, we had to find a suitable spot to watch the show. After finding such a spot, Mar headed to the bathroom (big shock). I was dutifully protecting our spot when an obviously wasted fellow walked by. It appeared that he was carrying beer in a sideways fashion and spilling it on the ground. My foot got splashed and and he continued to stumble up the hill. After he passed, I noticed that the beer was very warm and had a rather disgusting feeling in my stomach. I looked at the woman behind me and asked her,"Was that guy pissing?!" Unfortunately, her response was yes. This is the moment that my rage began.

Marilyn returned from her trip to the bathroom and I was totally irate. All she could do was stand there in shock as I tried to control my anger over having just been urinated on. If there was any type of consolation, I was happy that Mar was not there, otherwise she would have had her whole leg peed on. Second, I was glad that I was wearing my Crocs, which Marilyn hates, but they are resistant to odor, bacteria and liquid; unlike the sandals I was going to wear. At this point we headed to a bathroom so I could wash my foot, despite the fact that the show had already started. The next surprise was waiting for me in said bathroom.

After walking up to the lodge, I went to the men's room, which thankfully had an attendant. He was nice enough to grab me some disinfectant and I began to wash my foot. Since one foot was the sink and the other was on the ground, I was standing in an awkward positions. Well, this position was apparently inviting. As I washed my foot, another supposed fan decided that my butt looked good enough to pinch. Once again I was totally shocked. I immediately turned around and asked the kid what he thought he was doing. He responded by telling me that he thought I was someone else, but kept his hand on my butt. As I mentioned, I was only standing on one leg, so I couldn't really move, but I sure as hell could scream, so I kindly asked him to remove his hand and move along. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I was enraged that two people could be so drunk and out of hand that they decided to be totally ignorant. This is why I longer like attending Dave Matthews Band shows.