Dave Matthews Band

The concert season is getting bigger and better with each passing day. Another night at the Knob for the Dogg & BLT. Another assholes to elbows sellout. The weather looks frightful to start the night (its a Dave Matthews tradition to get soaked at the Knob), but the temp is good and the crowd is partying hard in the parking lot. From car to car, all one hears is the sound of Matthews CD's blaring, young people playing frisbee or hacki-sack, and overall high spirits. This is some great atmosphere!

The warm up act, "Old Crow Medicine Show" is very talented, but better suited for Nashville, not Detroit. 2 Banjo players, a stand up bass, a fiddle, and a piano is all there is to this act. Made me feel like an extra from Deliverance! Not bad, but who wants to squeal like a pig? They play before a sparse crowd of maybe 4,000. Other than 3-4 couples dancing in the pavilion, no one seemed to care. After all we are here to see DAVE!!!

At approx 8:30, Dave Matthews takes the stage and the power and crowd are amped up exponentially. The stage contains vertical, 30' tall LCD screens on either side of the band, with approx. 800 pot lights overhead and behind the band. A visual extravaganza only matched by near perfect sound. After the bands plays a couple of tracks from the latest album, its on to old favorites like Satellite, Stay, Crush, So Much to Say, Crash Into Me, Too, much, etc. The highlight for me was when they ripped into the Talking Heads "Burning Down the House"! They PLAYED IT AS WELL OR BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL!!!! The band plays on to nearly 11:00 PM. The end to a perfect night comes at the Starlight, dancing with 150 fans while waiting for traffic to clear.

Atmosphere A
Staging A
Weather C+
Crowd A+
Bands C+
Lighting B
Staging B

Overall B+. An excellent show that left us all pretty darn happy.