James S.
Well, we made it.  For 14 1/2 hrs we drove halfways across the freaking country to see this show.  It was great.  I worked my way to the front row and got Dave to smile at me after screaming Granny nonstop. We drove this far and the concert was cancelled right after Dave.  A bolt of lightning hit somebody in the seats!!!!  I can't believe we only saw 3 bands for all of that driving.  Anyways...... Two-Step- Great performance...what a way to start.... DDTW- Good...new it was comming though Nantala...Rapunz- i love that song in concert!!! Too Much- the usual intro maybe played too much? Trippin Billies- Awesome...I love that song and the Jam was just sweet.... Watchtower- GREAT!! What a surprise!!  I never got to see it on this tour and now I did!  A guest from some other band came out and played electric and Dave was just screaming and into it.  So was the crowd.  Great ending. I can't believe they cancelled the show...it is nice out and sunny! We missed about 15 bands!!!!! Whoever was running the show is going to hear from us. PS. I taped it and it sounds great!!!

Jim C.
The cover of this month's Spin magazine proclaims Dave Matthews "The King of Rock".  Well, the Band more than lived up to their new title at Saturday's abreviated Tibetian Freedom Concert.  Playing relatively early on the bill (before lightening struck a number of fans forcing the concert to end ),  the guys gave as energetic and tight a 40 minute performance as my friend and I have ever seen live or heard on bootlegs. It was as if they were staking their claim to the crown and grab it they did. We can't help but think that they've picked up a tip or two about stadium playing by fronting the Stones over the past 8 months. Two Step was an awesome opener.  Sometimes the band has a tendency to "warm up" during openers like TS and doesn't really hit its stride until a few songs into the show.  Not Saturday. As the Band hit the stage, Dave did a Michael Jordan leap in the air and they roared through an extremely powerful TS, complete with all the emotional wailing you could want at the end.  A GREAT opener. DDTW was also powerfully done, with echos of the Tibetian oppression in the song's telling of Indian genocide.  The lack of Bela on banjo was more than made up for by the hypnotic/sensual rythms laid down by Stephan and Carter.  Pantala/Rapunzel was jazzy and great and featured a terrific extended jam (Boyd and Leroi went nuts) at the end.  From there they "Bridged" into Too Much  where Dave's vocals were the story.  Throughout he was in great voice but here his growls and singing were special.  All during the set, he was dancing, smiling, giving looks to the rest of the band and just generally appearing to be having the time of his life -- just as we were. From our vantage, about 100 feet in front of the stage, we could see pretty well and the sound where we were was excellent.  Loud but nor distorted,  so you could feel Stephan and Carter in your chest  - especially on Billies.  Any doubts that DMB could do a great stadium show were erased in our minds at RFK.  As a closer, they did a hurricane-like version ofWatchtower, with some extremely tasty guest guitar playing by Warren Haynes.  Like all the other songs, the passion in the bands playing and Dave's singing was quite extraordinary - you got the feeling they were playing every song like it was their last . . . nothing was held back. In sum, although the set was necessarily short, it was very, very sweet for certain.  The new Kings of Rock for sure.  And, by the way, Stephan's looking quite cool and funky up there these days with his orange hair and baggy/baggy pants.  Carter . . . he's was just chewing that gum and and making every other drummer on the bill feel just a tad humble.  Great show guys . . . we'll see you at Nissan in August.  - Jim and Mary Ellen.

M. T.
Certainly an interesting day at RFK for the first day of the Tibetan Freedom Concert. Got there and down on the floor towards the end of KRS-1's set.   KRS-1 preceeded DMB on Saturday.   Immediatly after their set on the right stage, Dave could be heard speaking and the throng of people began pushing to get to the left stage on which DMB was playing. Opened with Two Step--Nice version with some solid jamming.  The crwod didn't seem to be as into this as they would with subsequent songs,  from the radio. DDTW--Really got a good response from the crowd.  Dave seemed to really be into this version. PNP-->Rapunzel  Everyone seemed to sing the lyrics of PNP in unision which was pretty cool.  Too Much-- Good long jam with this.  Crowd was really into it Billies--By far the highlight of the set.  It seemed that all 66,000 people were singing and dancing along with this one Watchtower-- Dave introduced a guest for this one but over the crowd noise I couldn't hear who it was.   Anyway,  it was a kickass version of Watchtower.  Great solo jamming and a great closer. The weather was nice right up until about 20 minutes after DMB.  IT started to pour and about 5 minutes after it started raining lightning struck several people causing the cancellation of the rest of Day 1.