Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge

Yesterday, September 1st, 2007, I went to the Gorge and saw the Dave Matthews Band perform the second of a series of 3 shows the band is doing in the beautiful venue.

Let me tell you something about the Gorge. It's gorgeous (I don't do puns), but it's also far. Very far. So if you have an upcoming concert to go to, and it will take place at the Gorge, make sure you really really like the band.

Thankfully, that was the case yesterday. I've been a Dave Matthews Band fan for over 7 years now, and even though the last 3 records released by the band (Everyday, Busted Stuff and Stand Up) are not as great as the Holy Trinity (Under The Table and Dreaming, Crash and Before These Crowded Streets), the DMB still maintains its incredible and indisputable excellence on stage. It's funny how everytime you see them play, they do it as if it were the last time they ever would. You get total commitment to the audience and the music as Dave and his buddies drive people crazy with monster jams that keep music lovers in a sort of ecstasy, and at the same time tire out the people who've never listened to an entire CD and can't really enjoy good music unless there's a catchy chorus somewhere in the middle of the song. It's so easy to tell the two kinds of people apart. For people of the second type, as soon as the band starts playing a new song, if they don't recognize it as something they've heard on the radio, they quickly lose interest and start chatting to someone equally disinterested close by, waiting for the next song. By the way, those people are usually drunk or semi-drunk. Unless they're the ones onstage. :)

Anyway, the show was incredible, one of the best I've ever seen up until this point of my life. The set list follows below.

1. A Dream So Real
2. Two Step
3. Loving Wings
4. Where Are You Going
5. Corn Bread
6. Hunger for the Great Light
7. You Might Die Trying
8. #27
9. Don't Drink the Water
10. Eh Hee
11. Smooth Rider
12. The Stone
13. Dancing Nancies
14. Warehouse
15. Shotgun
16. So Much To Say
17. Anyone Seen the Bridge?
18. Too Much
19. Sister
20. Tripping Billies

As a band, the DMB has numerous memorable songs that every fan wants to hear live, but of course, it would be impossible for the band to keep its spirit of fun and originallity if they just went ahead and decided to play those songs in every performance. It just wouldn't fit the profile of this amazing and competent band. And even though, because of that, sometimes a fan (such as me) will leave the concert without hearing that one special song (Ants Marching, for instance), one of the unknown/unreleased ones will stand up (no puns, remember?) and fill the void. And this time it was a tiny yet powerfull song called "Sister". What a beautiful and pleasant surprise.

To wrap things ... when I left the Gorge yesterday at 11:30, after 2 and a half hours of great music, I was one happy motherf*cker. And I was gonna need all the happiness I could get, for the 2 and a half hour drive back to the Seattle area. I give it 5 stars out of 5.