Mike Jutan's World: DMB Show at UC Berkeley, Sat. Sept 6

Oh MAN, it was awesome.

The Dave Matthews show last night at the Greek in Berkeley was just INSANE. We were literally 2 METRES from the stage and I am SURE Dave looked directly at me at one point (haha, and so were all the people around me... "Oh man!!!!! He JUST LOOKED AT ME!!!!" haha)

It was GLORIOUS. The music was amazing, the jams were tight and just outta control. It was sooooooooooooooooo cool to be that close, that's the closest I've ever been to the stage (even compared to the 2nd row behind the pit seat at the 2004 Molson Amphitheatre "unexpectdely sitting beside Kristjan Bergey" concert. :) Ammmaaazing.

They played mostly old stuff, and a lot more covers than usual (Sledgehammer, Money, etc), but MAN it was intense. Everyone was SO fired up. There was so much energy and chemistry on stage, and Carter was tearin' it up on the drums, the beats were a lot different than usual, and Satellite sounded different than I've ever heard it before in concert or on any of the live CDs. Amazing. Same deal with Pantala Naga Pampa, it was just so, so different than usual.

Oh yeah. AND TIM FREAKIN' REYNOLDS was there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was in his usual insane Electric Guitar virtuoso style, and his solo on Jimi Thing made me want to pass out I was that blown away by the awesome.

WHAT A SICK SHOW!!!!!!!

And the best part about it? I'm going again tonight. :) Tonight I'm hoping to hear maybe some of the classics too like Crash Into Me, Crush, Dreaming Tree, Stay or Leave, The Maker... that would be glorious. Actually the way they were changing it up last night, I'd love to hear Ants Marching...

Another strange thing was this is the first show without LeRoi, which was sad. Dave mentioned it at one point, and I think they are just making the most of their time on stage to pay tribute to their friend. Pretty freakin' amazing. Jeff, the sax player from Bela Fleck, has been playing on stage with DMB all summer, and he was really good. He had some of the classic LeRoi riffs solid, and added his own crazy technique and wild playing to it, which definitely had a different flavour, but it sounded great. It's hard to compare to LeRoi in terms of integration with the band, since he played with DMB for 17 years... but it was pretty exciting and a new sound, which was nice. Rawshawn Ross on the trumpet was a powerhouse as usual. Didn't see Butch Taylor on keyboard this time but there was some sort of synth action coming from backstage. Stephan owned the Watchtower intro solo as usual. And Dave was in pure form. It was AWESOME.

Here are some pics and the setlist.

Saturday Sep 6 2008
University of California, Berkeley - Greek Theatre

Seek Up
Proudest Monkey
Satellite
Pantala Naga Pampa
Rapunzel
Louisiana Bayou
Out Of My Hands
Fuzzy Wuzzy (Improv)
Sledgehammer
Lover Lay Down
Rhyme And Reason
Jimi Thing
Where Are You Going
Money
Warehouse
Stay (Wasting Time)
__________________
Anyone Seen The Bridge
Too Much
All Along The Watchtower