[Name W.
Mixed feelings on this show... First off I wasn't too fond of the venue. We had driven three hours from Long Island to get to The Meadows in Hartford. Grueling drive on very little sleep. We missed the initial "short-cut" exit and had to proceed to the more bottlenecked exit. It took us an hour of extra time to finally get into the venue. Me missed Bela just as we got in. We had lawn "seats." I was initially under the impression that they wouldn't sell you a spot in the venue where you couldn't see the stage. Meadows is an outdoor venue and the stage is recessed into the ground and they have a very elaborate video system where they film the show and simulcat it on three relatively large screens. I was a bit peeved that I was going to a show to watch it on a tele. But oh well, we were already there I guess. Dave seemed to be in very high spirits tonight. He was very happy. Because I was watching a close-up of the band the whole time I was able tie see some great close-ups on Carte and Dave and the rest of the boys. The lighting has improved. Now onto the set-list. OSW: A favorite. He did the extended intro for a bit. I have been to a number of shows and this was my first OSW. He even threw in the Swin Naked for me. BOWA: Another favorite. A real shocker since he rarely played it last summer's tour and the last time I had heard it live was back in '95. A nice treat. Jimi Thing: It was ind of cool to see it so soon in the set-list. When Dave mentioned smoking his mind you could see a big grin on his face that couldn't be concealed (thank-you JUMBO VISION). Crash: I like this song. The crowd went nuts of course, especially when we got a King of the Castle. :) LIOG: Now, Bela enters. I have listened to Bela on and off since I was in Junior High and my best friends mom was a Bela freak. She also dug Buckwheat Zydeco pretty hard, but that's another band, another story. He seemed very "entranced." Very occupied with what he was doing. Now I love LIOG, especially with Bela. He looked so intent that my friend renamed "Tripping Billies" into "Tripping Belas." But that is just her opinion. No flames. I could really see a lot of stuff that I would have never caught thaks to the Jumbo-Tron. I guess you take the good with the bad. Seek Up: Mediocre jam. Not bad. I really like it when they throw it in the middle of the set. #41: Jeff Coffin came out and jammed out a nice #41. Nothing too special but realy nice. The extra sax added a little something to it. Both Bela and jeff exited after this tune. Weight of the World: I was expecting this as well as For the Beauty of Wynonna. I got WOTW. I would have like to hear it with more of a band arrangement. I first heard the revamped, new lyriced version from 2-17-97 in Denver and I dug it. This was pretty good. I kind of liked the old lyrics a little better. This seems like one for the new album. Say Goodbye: A really good version. Pretty standard. He mentioned his kynd and the kids loved it. Ants: Bela came ut for this one and the crowd went nuts. As much as it is played, I dig this tune. I was glad to see that they didn't close with it. Natue--> Billies: I love the drawn out Nature intro. He vocalized on it quite a bit. Bela continued to hang out on stage with the band. It was oretty good. I thought that this was the closer...much to my dismay. LLD: I love this song. I am so glad to see that it is back from the dead. This was the highlight of the night for me. Fabulous. SMTS-->ASTB-->Too Much: What more can I say. I am not to fond of SMTS but I dig the segue into Too Much which is an alright song. DIDO: I could have swore he replaced "Boy" with "Boyd." Standard. Final Notes: Dave was in VERY high spirits and we could tell. The crowd was very well behaved. Dave expressed his dislike of the whole lawn deal. He kept on trying to make up feel better by saying that we had more room to "bump uglies" with our "best guy or best girl." The crowd was cool. Everybody pretty much had a good time and danced. The bathroom was another story. If you want to hear that one then e-mail me. It's strictly ill. A pretty good opener for my little DMB mini-tour that will end on the 11th at Jone Beach. See you there!

[Name W.
I thought this was an excellent show. The band was in high spirits, it was a gorgeous night, and the crowd was great. Dave commented on how cool the audience was. There was a fair amount of Davespeak, for a band show anyway, ranging from the lawn people, having the advantage of open space, being able to get it on (accompanied by funny hand gestures and smirks) with their significant others, as well as a SMTS dedication to a couple who were lawn-ers at last year's show, and who had gotten married. I was happy to see OSW (don't you love to swim naked?) as the opener, but I was ecstatic to see the return of BOWA!! Woohoo! The Jimi jam was awesome! Dave was going crazy, with his trademark dance in full effect all night, it was almost like he was flailing at times. =) It was great! LIOG was beautiful, just beautiful. Seek Up was great, although I do think last night's was better. Carter Beauford on the drums! Yahoo! Two Step was amazing! There was this great jam, and at the end, Carter went wild (though I do suspect they had gotten a little lost with it and were trying to find their way back). I think #41, however, was the best jam of the night. With Jeff Coffin and Bela doing a jam reminiscent of 12-31-96 (whoever posted earlier noticed too), Dave did a little gyrating of the hips, hands out in front of him, grooving along to the melody. It was awesome! And if anyone ever doubted Roi, he was certainly back in full force last night. LLD was simply gorgeous, as was all his soloing during the set. I would have liked to see him a little more enthusiastic, but hey, he sounded great, so I'll settle for that. Leave Me Praying was fucking incredible (one of us had tears in our eyes). Unfortunately, it seemed to be only Dave, Stefan, and a little Carter, Roi and Boyd nearly non existent. But they seemed to be soaking in the new music and getting used to the feel of it, so I hope later on in the tour, there will actually be a true full band version of it. Ants was excellent, just possible one of the best I've heard live. Cool new off tempo jam at the end, and everyone was enjoying it and having fun with it. Billies, always a crowd pleaser, was great with this beautiful slowed down Nature intro (with, I think?, alternate made up Dave lyrics--I heard "Would you be my wife?"--eek!), better than last night, and the SMTS-->Too Much segue got the whole housee dancing and grooving. I was not expecting DIDO for the encore, but it was awesome. Not one of my faves, but cool to hear anyway. Dave was great on this one with his teacup, God of my own bit in it.

Just as an aside, Chris brought up DIDO a while ago. I think we'll see this one more often on the tour this summer (like LLD). Though they didn't play DIDO much on the holiday run, it did appear on the setlists quite often during the fall tour.

This brought smiles to our faces. There's a McDonald's by the Meadows, and on the sign, below the golden arches, it said, "EAT DRINK AND BE McMERRY WITH THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND." We had to take a group shot by it!

Once again, I couldn't find any nancies except for one (Christy, if you're still on!). The parking lot was jam packed (we tried looking for red tape but no cigar), so we just decided to walk it from our hotel, being that we were just down the block. Hugh, I waited for you and even paged you, but you didn't call back. I had to sell your ticket by 7, I'm sorry.

Well, I think that's it. Thanks for reading, and hope to see you all at Jones Beach (and maybe Great Woods) and PNC!