Simply, incredible. Dave and the band looked like they were having an incredible time and the crowd totally fed off their energy. (I'll go into more detail further down in the post)
Before the show, I met up with Lauren W. at the Park & Ride in Mira Mesa. We had a fun drive down to Chula Vista, surprisingly only hitting traffic when we merged onto the 805. After having lots of fun telling the other cars to move (okay, maybe I was the only one talking), we made our way over to Ben Farris' house. It was really great to see Naomi (Ben's mom) again. I don't think I had seen her for about a year, so it was great to catch up in the five minutes we were there. After picking up Subway, the three of us had more fun in traffic as we parked at Coors Amphitheater. Then we waited for Nate H., who was stuck in more traffic, we went in to the show. Unfortunately, we waited so long that we didn't get to see the opening act: Slightly Stoopid. Oh well. Not a big deal, but we didn't pay to see Slightly Stoopid, we came to see Dave. And the Band. And Butch. He's not an official member yet...yeah...
Lauren and Nate's seats were in section 303, but Ben and I had seats in section 201.
Yeah, that's where we were sitting...sweet...
Since we had some time to kill before the band was coming on, we decided to see if there was any merchandise we wanted to get. There was. An awesome poster. Every tour, they make concert specific posters(ie: has a general design with the date of the show and the venue) and this tour's posters are great. This poster is mos def goin' up in my room when I move in. I'll post a comment when the images are available in the DMB store.
Anyway, so on to the show:
Lights go down, we're all stoked. I'm sitting next to a couple that had gotten tickets from a friend who couldn't go. it was their first Dave show. I don't think they knew what to expect. The first song starts: "Pantala Naga Pamba -> Rapunzel." Awesome. Great opening song. It was also a great live version. Carter, the drummer, and Stefan, the bassist, kept going back and forth with slight nuances. All in all, a great opener. Before the first song was done, I smelled a familiar smell. I said to Ben "you know you're at a DMB concert when the first song hasn't even ended and you get a whif." Good times. Didn't partake, but they sure did. Back to the music...I was very worried about the setlist. This was the first show since the three show Gorge stint, and I was anxious to see if they would revert to some of their older setlists, like the show in Marysville. Instead, they opened with a song they have only used once before as an opener. Awesome.
After that was "One Sweet World" with a crazy scat outro, courtesy of Dave and Carter. It's a good song, but I think it's a bit overplayed in shows. This was the 21st time they've played the song this tour, and last year, they played it 31 times...that's a bit much for a song that was never on a major studio release (ie: from "Under the Table" on). I am also REALLY glad it wasn't the opening song. It just doesn't have the same feeling of an opening song as PNP->Rapunzel does. Also, it would have been the 10th time on this tour that One Sweet World would be an opener. That's just too predictable for me. Also, it's a pretty slow song. As a second song in the list, I felt like I was almost ready to sit down. Anyway, bottom line: good song, but I won't be disappointed if the song takes a break for a few years.
Then came the first song from the new album: "Stand Up(For It)". This is a song that is great on the album, and even better live. On the album, the first part has a voice through a vocoder that takes the voice down an octave or two; live, Butch Taylor(the pianist/backup vocalist) just spoke some jibber-jabber, but it sounded pretty cool. The crowd really got into dancing throughout this one. Although, it's hard not to when Carter's pounded out the incredible beat for this song. Even cooler: LeRoi helped in vocals (the "Stand Up" part). Since when does he do that?!? Yeah, I was excited.
After that one, Butch did a cool string (keyboard strings, of course) prelude, Dave gets up to the mic, and conducts the vocals (Dave, Carter, Butch) for the intro "yeah"s of Dreamgirl. A really great version ensued with some mild jamming between LeRoi and Boyd. The song has really come into its own live. It's really great to see how this song has evolved since it was first played live.(and yes, I have a version from june 4...it's changed) Then, instead of the song ending and the lights resetting, Dave went straight into "Hunger for the Great Light". It was not a transition I was expecting, but it really worked well because Dreamgirl has a lot of harmonies, and the beginning of "Hunger" has some great three part harmonies. Hunger was okay; strong and powerful, but kinda short without too many changes between the studio and live versions.
Then, a curve-ball. Carter starts doin' this solo. I say outloud "You Never Know?" because the solo sounded like it could have been the introduction for YNK. Still unsure, we waited the solo out. Then it hit me: "Say Goodbye." One of my favorite DMB songs, and they totally played it. The version was just great. Nothing completely over the top, but a great all-around version of the song. During the opening drum solo though, some guy ran on stage and started dancing without a shirt. Then a security guard whisks him offstage, and Carter didn't skip a beat. He just went on like nothing was happening. Awesome.
Then, "Grey Street." Great song; powerful, crowd dancing, good vibes. Nothing special, nothing bad, only greatness. I was really glad they played it because it is one of my favorites, and it's even better live.
Next, the "American Baby Intro." I thought it was very risky for Dave to be playing this song in such a military town, but they went for it. The song started with Dave doing the main riff solo. Then the song built. Everything revolved around this one two bar riff. The song just built and built until Dave was literally screaming "SHE SAYS...YEAH" with such a passion that I just got chills. It was beautiful. I really think that of the new album, the American Baby Intro is the most under-rated track. Not many people pay attention to it because it's so abstract for DMB, yet it encapsulates such incredible emotion. After the show, I was looking at the fan forums and many people who travel to multiple shows a summer said this was a truly stellar version.
Surprisingly, there was no direct transition into the next song: "American Baby." Good song, well translated to live performance. After "American Baby", I turned to Ben and noted that I was surprised that we were 10 songs into the set and there hadn't been a slower song yet. Then they played "Granny". Good song, nothing too special. Although, it was great to see all the fans shouting "LOVE!" and "MAYBE!" Such curious lyrics: love, maybe.
Next, a crowd favorite: "Warehouse." Can't go wrong with live "Warehouse." They even did a salsa style outro. Groovin'. At the end of the song, Carter and Butch trade looks, nod at each other, and Butch goes into "Norwegian Wood!" WHO DOES THAT?!? It was the second time in the tour they've done that outro, and it was so great. Then, Butch goes into the intro for "Steady As We Go" and as the song goes on, christmas lights light up on the light rigs around the stage and by the climax of the song, the fibre-optics behind the stage lit up in the firedancer. It was so sweet. Here's a pic.
Then they started ending the set with "Louisiana Bayou." It was a good version, but I think it would have been better with a guest or two as they had done in previous shows. Oh well. Then they did "What Would You Say," and I was pretty surprised that they had LeRoi (the sax player) do an extended solo, and then they didn't go into "Anyone Seen The Bridge? -> Too Much" which is a transition they usually do with "What Would You Say". I was caught a little off guard. I just checked up on it though, and they usually play this one as it's own, and go into that segue between "So Much To Say" and "Too Much"...So Much to say, What Would You Say...such slight differences...
Fortunately, they ended the show on a really high note: "Tripping Billies". Such a great song live. Again, nothing too special, but just very energetic.
After a long encore break, they came back with two songs that I was very disappointed with: "You Might Die Trying" and "What You Are." Don't get me wrong - these are good songs. But as an encore? I was really hoping for something "Watchtower" or "Ants Marching" or "Everyday" or something like that. But no. The version of "Die Trying" wasn't bad, but it just seemed like the guys just ran out of gas. I was really bummed that the closer was "What You Are". The introduction before the song was interesting, but almost scary. I'm sure the guys behind us must have been tripping like crazy. After the concert, we sat in traffic for about an hour and a half. Oh well.
Overall:
The concert was really great. With the exception of the encore, the setlist was really great. If I had a list of songs I wanted to hear, just about all the songs they played would have been on the list. Plus, they mixed things up and kept it interesting for those who have been going to the shows all tour (or at least those who have been downloading the shows all tour:-)). I was impressed with the way the new songs translated live. They played my favorites from Stand Up, and I really can't wait to hear what they come up with next. All in all, a great night.
Pics from the show(More will show up later):
No comments:
Post a Comment