Dave Matthews Band

Haven't updated on here for ages. Well, I have been busy! But another gig calls for some more words of relative wisdom so here goes:

Dave Matthews Band , Wembley Arena 30th May 2007

First, a word about the Arena itself. God I used to hate this place as it was always a horrible old concrete bunker with lousy acoustics. But, it's neighbour the footy stadium has had a recent face lift so the kind people of Wembley have given little brother a facelift too, and by golly it's really rather good in there now. Modern, non-concrete and everythng inside which was a really pleasant surprise. It actually looks like the NEC Arena used to when that was new, but without the horrible colour scheme. The outside has had a switch round meaning that the main entrance and box office is now facing the stadium and there's a good sized new landcaped area between them with a bunch of water fountains to play in - if that's your bag.

The new Stadium looks stunning from the outside with that enormous roof arch. I am so glad they waited for that place until it was done properly, and just plain old got it right. I doubt I will ever go in there, but, hey, it's nice to look at.

We got tickets via DMB's "Warehouse", which is a sort of fan club: an internet subscription thing where you get advanced tickets warning and hopefully priority tickets. My mate Nick is a member and when saw Dave's acoustic show in Manchester the other month we had 3rd row from the front seats, so it works. Trouble is in the States I should imagine that half the crowd in a given DMB show will be Warehouse members so everyone will get priority. Anyhow, for this Wembley show we had standing seats, were told to get to the box office early and we'd be let in first and this proved to be exactly the case. Those of us who had been given blue wrist bands got let onto the floor area and we wandered down to the front to sit down and claim our patch about 10 feet from the barrier, front and centre. Marvellous. Of course I was aware that I was positioned right at the front of a crowd of maybe 5000 standing people and was therefore rather vulnerable to crushing and drunk idiots barging their way through at some point. But amazingly this never happened. Maybe the average DMB watcher has more sense than to go barging 'down the front' as soon as the band come on, maybe they just cannot be bothered. The result that was once we were stood up we retained our space and were pretty comfortable throughout the evening's procedings. So, well done Warehouse and congrats to a very well behaved crowd.

Support was from Ex Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello who was a bit crap really. Think Bruce Springsteen in full on blue collar acoustic mode but nowhere near as good In fact don't think about The Boss at all coz Tom isn't in his league. Still, he passed another 30 minutes before the main event, and he was that bloke from Rage and Audioslave so he deserved a bit of respect.

And then, quarter of an hour early, on to the huge stage casually sauntered the Dave Matthews Band. It was pinch myself time as after 10 years of waiting here I was , stood about 20 feet from them. Maybe the reason why Britain doesn't 'get' DMB (well, there are meany reasons, but here's one…) is that while most bands would pile in guns blazing for their opening number of their fist UK gig in a decade DMB start very quietly almost like an orchestra tuning up. Dave strums his acoustic a bit and hums something a bit melodic while the others join in gradually… nontiantly. The audience goes bonkers at first when they amble on stage but are soon quiet , watching and wondering what's going to happen. Not much really, and we are treated to a 5 minute piece of what would best be described as atmosphere before Carter Beauford gets his proper drumsticks out, counts them in and the band thunder into their opening number proper - the mighty Don't Drink the Water. And that is the escence of the Dave Matthews Band. They easily could play a whole evening of crowd pleasing up tempo showstoppers from their extensive back catalogue, but they choose not to. They do pepper the set with a few choice foot stompers: Louisiana Bayou, Stay, So Much to Say, Too Much all got an airing as well as the inevitable and fantastic Ants Marching. But just as much they will head off into a 15 minute jammed out Jimi Thing where everyone may get a solo. Noodling nonsense this may be to many but to actually watch them do this live is a treat - to see the interaction between them: the nods, glances, smiles and their cues to each other to head off on one, or bring the band back in together is great. I don't know of any other band who would get away with this in gigs of such a large scale, but this is what these guys do. And lets not forget that they do this on an even bigger scale in the States where they will fill the big (20 - 25,000 seater) ampitheatres effortlessly all summer. They are utterly unique, and I feel pretty privileged to have seen them actually.
They did nearly 3 hours for us and finally encored with a belting Two Step during which drummer Carter went paticularly bonkers, cutting loose round his enormous kit. It was a bloody fantastic gig and now I really see why these guys have the live reputation they do. Hopefully it won't be 10 years before they are back over here again.

But, gigs in London mean a road trip and it was half past 3 when I got home this morning. It was actually getting light by that time. Nick and I shared the driving and, fuelled by Red Bull and chewy mints, we did the long drag back up the M1 without nodding off which was an achievement.

So, that was it. Roll on the next gig, which is a big one: Peter Gabriel and Crowded House in Hyde Park in 3 weeks. I hope the weather improves as it was bloody awful this weekend….