This past Saturday, I went with three friends to go see Dave Matthews Band in Hartford, CT – my first attempt at something on the 101. I have seen Dave there at least six or seven times going back to high school. At first, it was a very chill place to go tailgate and relax before the show. In 1999, though, there were huge riots there. Although it was cool to see (who doesn’t want to dodge rubber bullets?), I stopped going for a few years after that. Thousands of people were coming just for the drinking scene and ruining it for everyone else.
Anyway, back to this year. We got there early, and for the first time, we finally got a grill (thanks to Jared). Despite eating frozen Price Chopper hamburger patties, we managed to have a great time. We played some frisbee, talked to random people, and were assaulted by underage couples making out all around us. For whatever reason, all of the trash from central Connecticut (read: Red Sox fans) decided to make passionate love up against the van we parked next to. This lovely couple attempted to suck each other’s faces off for a good 20 minutes at one point. Based largely on their looks, they received boos from most of the parking lot. In order to capture this revolting moment on film, Jared took one for the team and pretended to gaze longingly at the Meadows Dodge Comcast Arena.
The show itself was great – we had lawn seats (which we usually do for DMB) and had a little bit of room around us, despite it being packed. The energy was a little different than most, which was probably due to the set list. Almost half the songs were from their new album, which was not a bad thing since they played most of the good ones, but some fans show up expecting to hear Satellite every time for the next 20 years. Here was the set list, courtesy of AntsMarching.org:
- Funny The Way It Is
- Stay or Leave
- Anyone Seen the Bridge
- Too Much (Tease)
- Ants Marching
- Lying In The Hands Of God
- Pig
- Spaceman
- Why I Am
- #41
- Alligator Pie
- Jimi Thing
- So Damn Lucky
- Squirm
- Burning Down The House
- You And Me
- Two Step
- E: Time Bomb
- E: All Along The Watchtower
#41 got the crowd into it, and at one point there was a 25 minute saxophone jam so it was definitely worth seeing live. Additionally, they randomly covered the Talking Heads’ Burning Down the House, which was both funny and well played.
Now that this is done, only 5 more concerts to go, and I already have tickets for OAR this summer.
