The Start of 1999

By Ryan "Shep" Shepard

Ah, 1999. A big year mainly because it's the one right before 2000. Ignoring that major fact, it's not much different. So we can turn our attentions to something much more important, that being the Dave Matthews Band And His Wacky Bunch.

Let's start with Mr. Matthews and Mr. Reynolds. The tour is obviously going strong, selling out everywhere. Like we didn't see THIS coming. Dave could probably book shows with NO instruments, just telling booger stories, and sell those ones out too. Dave at your nearby car wash; look at him scrub! Thirty bucks, please.

Well, I'm one of those grumpy masses who couldn't swing himself (or herself) a golden ticket to one of these shows. You can imagine my slight disappointment, especially with there being THREE shows nearby (Buffalo, Syracuse, Ithaca, and Utica...wait, that's FOUR, my bad) and no tickets anywhere. I didn't expect much luck in the first place, so, I plan on turning my attentions to the spring or summer tour.

What, you say? A summer tour? A SPRING tour? Well, let's look at the facts.

Last year. A spring tour, starting in Roanoke. The band tours, they go to Europe, they come back for the summer tour...they had a blast. Who wouldn't? One show pays for pretty much all the airfare. It's not like they're counting frequent flier miles to save a buck.

So 1) it's a safe assumption they'll follow roughly the same mold again. They made a fortune off last year's tour, and far be it from Red Light to not lasso the cash cow, so to speak.

Now, this is speculation. Someone posted to Nancies (and I don't recall who, so my apologies) that the band was tentatively slated to play Michigan this year, possibly more than one date.

Nothing against Michigan, but the Dave Matthews Band isn't starting a tour in the middle of the U.S. From a planning standpoint, that makes no sense. Therefore, one would think there'd be shows BEFORE those in Michigan. And face it, we're all hoping they start the tour in Virginia again. It would, as Wesley Willis says, rock hard like the magic kiss.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a reunion meeting of Nancies again like what we had last year. Keeping in mind that we have people that have put together some amazing meetings (i.e. Brian Pace and Julie Burns) I think we could have us a real hum-dinger. And hey, I don't use the word hum-dinger much, if that really is a word.

A lot of people have messaged me over ICQ or email, wondering if I'd been able to get a ticket to Dave and Tim. And I haven't. If I do by the time this prints, it'll be sheer luck, and I'll be grateful as hell. But for the thousands of us who had no luck; I'm hoping this brings up your spirits just a little. There'll be plenty of Dave and the boys to go around well into the fall.

In the meantime, do what I'm doing in the interim, and snag tickets for other bands that come through your area that you've heard people mention. I've got a ticket for Bela Fleck this February; Carly Gordon raves about the Pat McGee Band -- they're playing Rochester shortly, from what I've heard.

Check out other bands -- then go get your DMB tickets.

Enjoy your January, and don't forget that you can write me (although I'm slow to respond) at shep@nancies.org.

ryan "shep" shepard