Seeing Things from a Better Side than Most Can Dream - DMB and a Few OAR Songs at Hershey

I think the reason why my opinion of Dave Matthews fluctuates so much is because the stuff that he does that I like, I really really like. And the songs that he does that I hate make me feel like I'm dying a slow death. I think that's the biggest thing that I learned from seeing him play for nearly three hours in Hershey last night. The problem is, the Dave Matthews songs that I like could probably only fill the time span of roughly an hour.

And Hershey was not built to handle a jillion Dave Matthews fans.

Here's the whole story.

Paul and I had every intention of getting out of work a little early to get there, but that didn't work out for either of us. Traffic was pretty bad. We pulled into the first lot that we saw. This later proved to be a bad move. We ended up having to take a long walking detour to cross the street, which took us several blocks in the wrong direction. The fuzz was everywhere instructing the crowd of where to go, so it's not like we would have been able to do anything about it. I guess they're trying to control the crowd, but they're really giving Hershey's logistics a bad name. We could have outsmarted them by saying we were going to go to the park, but my brain had not kicked into gear in time.

To top it all off, Joyce Meyer was at the Hershey Arena. So, you had the drunk and stoned hippie kids all mixed in with the bible bangers. What a show!

We continued walking and walking. As we got closer, they had the show piping through a sound system outside the stadium. I was pretty disappointed because I knew OAR had to be at least half way finished with their set at this time. Seeing them was one of the deciding factors in purchasing the tickets. By the time we got to our seats, we had missed everything but the last two songs. All I can say is that what I heard there and outside was good. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to see them another time.

Dave came out at around 8:30 with "Best of What's Around" which put a smile on my face. I was hoping this would be a show where I would hear a lot of stuff that I knew and liked. He played "Pig" and then went into "Say Goodbye," which is my absolute favorite Dave Matthews song. During the opening jam before the song, I told Paul that if they were playing "Say Goodbye," I'd be happy enough to never need to see them live again. Not being a very big DMB fan, Paul seemed really happy to hear that.

As for the rest of the show, the full set list can be found here. Here are a few random observations. They take a really long pause between songs. Paul and I were coming up with things that you can do between songs at a Dave Matthews Band show. We came up with playing another song, ordering a pizza and reading War and Peace. The band was really good. There's a lot of talent there. He played a few songs that I know and like a lot, ending with "Ants Marching," which was cool. But a lot of it was the mind numbing stuff that I don't like. But I realize that he's not playing a private show for me, so I just have to suck it up. And Dave hasn't changed much over the years. He's still hot.

Here are my crowd observations. I saw a guy who looked a lot like Joe Plasko and a girl who looked like this chick from one of my classes who has really weird speech patterns. The chick next to me seemed significantly older than her boyfriend, but then I realized that they're probably about the same age. She just looked old because she smoked a lot. I'm pretty sure the guy in front of us who was tagging along with a lovey dovey couple had the hots for the girl half of the couple. The crowd was really into the show, screaming and singing the lyrics back to the band with their thick Dutchy accents.

We made our way towards the exit before the encore started and hung around near the exit until it was over. But we still got crushed. We shortened the amount of time and effort that it would take to get to our car by jumping a fence and j-walking across a four lane highway. When we got to the parking lot, we noticed that the retarded cops directing traffic were not letting people make left turns. We saw a guy make one and almost run the one cop over. God forbid they do their job and actually direct traffic rather than blocking it off and inconveniencing people. Fucking power trippers...

Overall, it was good. It wasn't the worst show, but not the best, either. I probably wouldn't see them again, but then again, I'm not a die hard fan. I climbed the mountain and got the experience. There's no need to do it again.