After the cool late-night performance by Jason Mraz, I woke up excited to the next day, about to see Dave Matthews Band for the first time! So taking that into account, this isn’t so much a review of the show, but a personal account of how I felt that evening, seeing a band I’d been wanting to see for many years.

I went to the show with some Finnish friends, one of whom is also a big DMB fan. We had one seat on the mezzanine (that I had accidentally purchased) and all our other tickets were standing. I decided to go to the mezzanine, because I knew I’d be happy to just see the band, and definitely could see them well that way. And it also felt natural because most of the time I’ve been listening to DMB I’ve been by myself.

I think the whole mezzanine was sold to fan club members, so I was sure to find some people who speak English next to me. Funny thing was that right next to me happened to be a Finnish couple who I didn’t know at all. Those seats were just the perfect place to see the band, very close to the stage.

The opener was Alberta Cross, a New York based band signed to Dave’s ATO Records label. It was so nice of Dave to come up and introduce them first. Alberta Cross played played a good set, but I was just too excited to see DMB in a moment to concentrate on their music. Then it took about half an hour to make the stage ready for DMB, and Dave’s koa-colored 12-string Taylor was right there waiting for him.

After an intro that fooled many, the first song finally turned out to be Bartender, which was just the perfect start to the show. I loved the solos and wanted it to go on forever, and it did last almost 15 minutes. Next up an energetic new song Shake Me Like a Monkey that really got me up and going. Most people were seated who were on the balcony, but some where standing. During this song the someone behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to sit down. That wasn’t nice, how can you possibly sit through such an energetic performance? But I was feeling so good that I didn’t let it bother me and tried to stay as low as possible, finding all kinds of ways imaginable to dance on the chair. And this is something that changes from country to country and venue to venue, whether people get up or stay seated, so you want to be discreet about it.

“Somebody hit me with a moose,” Dave said after the song. The toy moose was supposed to be my friends’ nice souvenir from Finland, but Dave thought it was from Canada because that day was Canada Day. We tried to shout that it’s from Finland, but he didn’t hear us. Afterwards somebody told us that Canadian people who don’t like him throw moose at him, so we can just hope he didn’t take it in a bad way.

The next song, You Might Die Trying has developed into a cool jam towards the end, the song did well to keep the flow going. Spaceman is a song from the new album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King and I was thrilled to see it live. Corn Bread is not usually one my favorite songs, but I have to say it was amazing. Moreover, everything they played that night was impressive to me. Last year I had been thinking about traveling to the States to see them, and was pondering whether I could get anything better than tickets to the lawn (from where you can hardly see the band), so it felt unbelievable to see all of them play so near and I dug every moment of it.

Everyday is a song that European audience loves, especially the “honey honey” chant. I always get so excited about the scat parts. Seven is another new song, there’s just something about watching this amazing band play right there in front of you and sing along “love you, love you, love you, you, you.” Grey Street was one of the songs that I was hoping to get, and it was even better than I had expected!

Next up were two new songs, Alligator Pie and Funny the Way It Is, both were cool. Then two songs that were among the best that night, an old classic Crush and So Damn Lucky, which has developed into an amazing live song. Lying in the Hands of God was definitely one of the best of the new songs, even though this was a pretty short version of the song. An old song Jimi Thing was nice to see. The new trumpet player Jeff Coffin showed off a with solo playing two saxophones at the same time. He’s a great musician and has done a good job bringing his sound to DMB. I also liked the trumpet player Rashawn Ross very much during the show.

Next the drummer Carter Beauford started playing the snare intro of Ants Marching. What followed wasn’t Ants, but a song called Too Much. Then again, it wasn’t. They just played a “fake” version of Too Much in between, and even though I knew they did things like that they still got me! Ants Marching is like an anthem of DMB, it felt good to see. This closed the set.

People in every direction...

Dave started the encore by himself with an old American song Rye Whiskey, Tim Reynolds played cool guitar solo after that. Don’t Drink the Water was a big crowd pleaser. The theme song of their new album – Why I Am – closed the encore. That song really has got a nice groove. I was sure they are not going to close the show with that one and play a double encore, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Carter Beauford threw one of is drum sticks to me, and that was definitely the best souvenir from the trip!

I had so much energy for the show, I was feeling so good all the time. When I look at the show on paper now, it doesn’t look that impressive. But it truly was for me, and I think for most other people there. Many of the hardcore fans in the States like to demand very much from the setlists, but they have seen the band over 50 times, usually. We get to se them so little that we are easy to please.

The full setlist with notes is available on DMBAlmanac.com. There’s also a taper’s recording of the show on antsmarching.org torrens area. It’s of pretty good quality, and to me, brings back good memories!