Tyler B.
Ahhh.....my first show. And it was sweet. First, the Plaza is a covered open air venue, with a capacity of 4500 people it was very nice. I started out 4 rows from the stage, but due to lack of dancing room, I ended up about 8 rows back by the end of the show. Crowd wasn;t tooooo bad, a couple big crowd surges, but not bad. One crowd surfer though (Hey buddy, Metallica is coming soon enough). Lots of "I love you Dave!" girls, grrr... Lots of folks made the drive up from Washington State from the people I talked too, I felt like I was one of the only Vancouverites there. Didn't actually catch the soundcheck, my friend saving us a spot in line did. I can't believe they played Dreaming Tree! Groove Collective: Kicked some seriously phat beats. Nobody seemed to be into them though...too bad, they ripped shit up. Rapunzel: Nice upbeat opener to get the crowd going. Boyd sorta went off on this, setting the tone for the rest of the show. Crush: Favorite Song from the new album and it's even better live. Stephan was awesome, laying down the funky bassline. Boyd & Roi had a little duel towards the end. Tripping Billies: Boyd went off!....and so did the crowd (goodbye dancing room). Last Stop: Sounded like we might get Minarets from the first couple strums so I was ready to go insane, but it was only Last Stop. Not that it isn't a great song, just 'rets woulda been wicked. Typical: Really nice, 10 minute version. Dave flubbed the lyrics at the end. The Stone: Don't really like this song; wasn't impressed by it live, either, but it led into.... Drive In Drive Out: Wasn't really a segue, more of as soon as The Stone ended DIDO kinda like Nancies>Warehouse from last year. The Crowd went just crazy on this song, even a little moshing/pushing. Don't Drink The Water: Nice, but I miss Weight of the World & Leave Me Praying.....although Dave did a good job trying to sound like Bela. Too Much: Wicked version...got the "eat up your children" and "can't smoke too much" lines. True Reflections: Kindof expected it, since they've been doing it so much, but it was nice. It mellowed the crowd out since no one new it, except a few of us. Is this ever going to make it onto a studio album? Jimi Thing: Wow! like 10-15 min with some serious jamming and Leroi came out (he sorta hid ont the side of the stage, the whole night) and had an amazing solo.  Definite Highlight. Stay: Dave fucked the lyrics up bad. he missed a verse & came in at the wrong time on the chorus. It was pretty funny. Kinda missed the do-wop girls on background voacls though.  LIOG: Another nice nice jam, with Boyd going postal on the violin again. Two Step: A great closer to a great set. Lots of energy. E: Watchtower: It was good, but Bob Dylan was playing at a club 2 minutes away, so I was hoping for the ultimate guest appearance. Overall, a wicked show. Dave was great. Boyd was on fire most of the night. Stefan and Carter have got to be the best rhythm section in music today. They are the glue that holds the band together. But, where was Leroi, he seemed to be hiding most of the night and only seemed to appear for a few solos. Where is Ants?? It may have been overplayed last tour, but that doesn't mean drop it all together. Also, where is Warehouse? Looking forward to the Gorge on Friday.....

Nick D.
running time 8:25-arpox 11:00(I forgot to check) I liked starting out with Pantala and it is of course natural to have it lead into Rapunzal.  Crush, a damn cool song just itching for a jam at the end it was cool.  After grooving to that jam Billies rocked (yes it really rocked).  Last Stop is a cool song period.  The hidden track to me just seemed to be thrown in there but I don't really remember so.... Good Typical, Stone, DIDO and Too Much.  True Reflections was different than I had heard it before, it was just Dave and Boyd for the first verse.  It made the lyrics stand out more and they are good so I liked that.  DDTW without banjo is much better.  What can I say about a Jimi Thing in which Dave solos?  Someone once said that he was not a good soloist, well maybe he wasn't once but he has been practicing.  I hate to say this but Dave messed up Stay a couple times.  He apologized and of course I forgive him ('cause he's human too), but it was about the only flaw tonight.    Do you know the part of LIOG when it gets really soft?  Think about a violin solo on top of that.  This may have happened before but not to my knowledge.  Two Step built up a feverish frenzy (prose?) and I think is a great song to end with.  Some may not like hoe they jammed during Watchtower, but I thought that it was neat that they carried their improved rifts through to the end of the song.  On the whole, they jammed a lot.  Almost every song had a point where they went off of the melody or of the rhythm (or off of both).  I only called the two Jams because they didn't go back to the original song.  Even with the omission of some old favorites (One Sweet World, TSTJL) and the radio songs (Ants Marching, Crash Into Me) it was a great show.  Add on the part about the venue only holding five thousand people and I'll say that it was the best DMB show that I've seen. 2)For all y'all that sing in the audiance...cool belt your lungs out in your car or your own home.  If you want to sing at a show go ahead but please not so loud.  As with every rule there are exceptions, sing during Ants 'cause you know that Dave'll stop and let y'all have some of the spot light. 3)I don't know if it was the size of the show or what but for a GA show it was very mellow.  There were a lot of drunken Frat boys and their girlfriends but there were also quite a few older folks.  Anyway the floor was calm and where I was (about thirty feet from the stage) there was enough room for me to get my groove thang on (you know my white boy lack of rhythm dancing to the melody).  Most of the people around me were also dancing and that was a good thing.