June 29, 2004 - Cleveland, OH - Dave Matthews Band, Keller Williams

Venue:  Blossom Music Center

This is the first and only Dave Matthews Band concert I have been to, and it was the first of only a few shows I attended with my friend Libby.  Libby and I would end up exclusively going to jam band concerts (this and O.A.R. later).

I was into DMB's earlier output and I still consider their third album, 'Before These Crowded Streets', to be one of my favorites, but I find myself listening to DMB less and less each year.  Like my waning fascination with progressive rock, my interest and fascination with jam bands would see it's end before too long.

We had lawn tickets and Keller Williams played solo acoustic to open and was fine.  I recall that the Black Eyed Peas were originally slated to open, but cancelled and were replaced by Keller Williams, because they were blowing up at the time.  I might not remember this correctly though, because I cannot seem to find any evidence that this happened, but I don't know why my brain would make something like that up.

Dave Matthews Band put on a good show and played a few of the songs I wanted to hear, including 'The Stone'.  They were touring with some new songs that didn't have clear titles yet, but most of which would be on their next record, and I had no complaints about their set or their new material.

The crowd was almost entirely drunk white dudes, many of which were dancing and lovingly mocking Dave Matthews guitar playing and footwork.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, imagine a man playing guitar with the strap tightened up almost as far as it will go, who is also moving his feet like Linus does in the old Peanuts cartoons.

One guy nearby had a tower of beer cups stacked next to him in the grass that made it to at least 12 by the end of the night.  He also ended up flat on his back, sleeping by the time the band closed with Rapunzel.