Charles H.
Another show full of energy. And a really strange setlist to boot. The combination of Tripping Billies, I'll Back You Up (yes, I'll Back You Up), Jimi Thing and Halloween was to say the least surreal. Everything seemed really well done tonight... from two excellent solos from Carter and Greg Howard to the Jimi Thing that never ended to a level of synchronization in lighting effects that I haven't noticed in previous shows. And there was lots of incoherent mumblings from David Matthews himself, including "This is the weirdest fucking audience I've seen" and something about "Happy Halloween". Very cool show. One minor annoyance... the lighting director left the spinning multicolored disc lights on the audience after the second encore song... the discs that I have seen used to tell the audience to cheer really loud for another encore. This went on for about 30 or 45 seconds. Everyone was cheering really loudly, and I honestly thought we'd get another encore. Then those lights faded out really quickly and the house lights came on. Doh.

Brian D.
What a show! On all hallows eve, dmb rocks the oakland arena. He comes out saying "happy halloween yall" and instead of an opening with Halloween as many expected, Don't Drink the Water came out with a burning rage. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this version much more than Thursday nite or any other time I've heard it...better jam. Right into Rapunzel was a nice transition and this had a badass jam with Greg Howard...the energy was better than the other shows, that was obvious. Crush...awesome...crowd pleased. Two Step, as usual, a great dance/jam song. Warehouse, heard on Thursday, but you can't beat this song live. Dreaming tree was reallllly long, but good, now the setlist was dying down , but after this, it got nuts. Being Halloween, I wanted a surprise, and boy did I get it...Dave talked to the crowd more than usual tonite and it got really quiet...than he begins to play I'll Back You Up...how great was this. Finally, something old and unreleased and so damn unexpected. Dave sung this absolutely beautfully with just him almost the entire time. This was the and I mean The highlite of the night and maybe every dave concert ever! I am not exaggerating at all, it was a magical moment for true dave fans. Sorry for writing so much, but this concert was great, and it went on to end with Crash (actually pretty damn good for once) and Watchtower with timmy and greg howards working up a storm and the lighting was really cool. The arena tempted the audience with an almost second encore, but then the house lights came on after a while. Still though, Halloween, Dave, great mix. By the way, Halloween was another highlite but I'll leave that for the next reviewest. Thanks for listening.

Max R.
This show was absolutely AMAZING. Greg Howard sat in the whole show, not just some songs, and Tim was great as usual. Joshua Redmond sat in on two songs on the sax, and he sooo good. The band played I'll Back You Up (I had never seen this in cocert before, and I am so glad I finally did.) Tripping Billies was INSANE. Boyd was all over the stage, and just about deolished his bow. There was so much energy on the stage--and, to top it all off--HALLOWEEN. It was GREAT. This was the best show I've seen ever.

Greg H.
Oh MY GOD! This was my 7th show (3 of which the last 3 in SJ Sacramento and this one) and by far the best. This show blew the other 2 out of the water in my opinion, and I mean waaay out of the water. This had all the energy in the world plus more and they came ready to entertain on this Halloween night. Typical openings with DDTW and Rapunzel, but with energy and dave dancing all around the stage. Two Step was the best of the 3 concerts tonite. It had a better sound and a better jam. Crush was lacking a little bit...I'd have to say SJ had the best Crush. Warehouse was the best at this one...with a funky bass solo by Stefan and Dave gettin crazy at the end. Dreaming tree, same as SJ. HIGHLIGHT HIGHLIGHTS HIGHLIGHT: I'll Back You Up, I'll Back You Up, I'll Back You Up. I've heard this twice live and this one beat it out by soooo much....soooo much. This was amazing and completely unexpected. All the ladies were just like giving up themselves to dave, and I must admit, dave sang! this damn sexy and the whole crowd was into it...a beautiful sight from the early days of dmb. Other highlites: Jimi Thing! Yes! W/ an all new funky bass solo from stefan as well as some Greg Howard moments. This got all the non-fan fans of dmb going and really excited me. Too Much was great as usual, better than Arco and San Jose. Most of all though, All Along the Watchtower had way more energy than Arco Arena's last nite. I really thought the Arco's lacked something in the Watchtower, less Timmy and everything, but then tonite, Timmy was on fire, dave was having fun, and it was obviously to much of everyone's pleasure. Of the 3 California concerts (SJ, Arco, Oakland) Oakland was #1 by far, behind it was SJ, and coming in what I think was leased enthused nite, Arco Arena. Still Arco did have an ok version of Rhyme and Reason, but at least its a version that the other 2 lacked. Arco arena isn't a must have for tape traders but Halloween '98 definately is!

[Name W.
Overall--

Great venue, IMO. You could see anywhere you were and the lobby was nice. Dave was wearing a suit, which I thought was odd, since it was about 90 degrees inside. We got a whole bunch of obligatory Happy Halloween comments from him, of course. The whole band seemed pretty happy. And the lights were awesome!!

DDTW-- this was so much more solid than the other times I've heard it. It gets a lot better live each time.

PNP->Rapunzel-- It's a nice song but it always seems too bass-heavy live. But we got some nice Dave-dancing.

Crush--very nice. Lovely outro with Tim.

Two Step-- This song never fails to amaze me when I hear it live. It was goregous as usual, with Tim adding so much to both the outro and intro

(somewhere around here Dave says "We got some aliens down here in the front row. Hey, take me to your leader. Get some of that alien-ass")

The Dreaming Tree--nice with Greg. I absolutely love this song, but it just seemed so out of place in the huge arena. People took this as a chance to sit and talk...too bad.

Warehouse-- Finally--my first live Warehouse. It was wonderful.

Billies--Always rocks hard. Boyd was tearing it up as usual

Dave brings out Joshua Redman, who is an amazing jazz saxophonist. Dave says something like "Bringing out our good friend from the east coast, he's bicoastal, Joshua Redman"

IBYU-- Never ever expected this but it was beautiful, especially with Joshua's solo. Goregous....

Jimi---awesome light system!! Very solid version with great Timmy and Joshua solos

Halloween---they had to play it--there was no way out of this one!! And it was amazing! This and Watchtower kicked ass. The opera outro was really good too---his voice sounded amazing. There was a bad ass Carter drum intro too

SMTS-->ASTB?->TM--- the best version of this. The Bridge is so so so much better!! It was shorter but had a groovier vibe to it. Too Much was fab.

Encore---I swear, DMB has the longest wait for an encore of any band I've seen!

Crash--Eh. I've heard it before. But Dixie Chicken is always good.

Greg's solo----ahhhhh. All I could do was sit there with my mouth hanging open.

Watchtower--the best best best version. Who said Dave's voice wasn't up to par??? He growled on this one. Again, the lights were fab.

One of the best DMB shows I've heard. The lights were really great, sound was okay, but band's preformance was hot. All I have is glorious things to say about tonite's show.

Matias C.
Phenomenal concert!! This show was the best I have yet seen. All the musicians were in top form, including both guitarist extraordinare Tim Reynolds and amazing Chapman stickist Greg Howard. Highlights of the show included the amazing Tripping Billies which closed the show before the encore and Jimmi Thing. Carter blew the house away in Billies and the soloists just kept it coming in Jimmi. Tim Reynolds truly displayed his awesome talent and versatility in this show as he backed Dave up on most songs and at various times as he took some breathtaking solos. He at times used some strange effects to change the sound of his guitar to that of a brass instrument or a keyboard...it was very interesting. But Carter really stole the show. He had multiple solos as intros to songs like Halloween, allowing him to show off his awe-inspiring skills as the best drummer in the world. His use of dynamics really stood out tonight. As for Leroi and Boyd, they seemed to lay back tonight ! as Joshua Redman(sp ?) took to the stage. Here he added an inspired solo to "I'll Back You Up". The setlist was all but incomplete. All that was missing was maybe Ants and Satellite...but Dave really made up for it with songs like "I'll Back You Up" and "Dreaming Tree". Crash began the encore and preceded the final song Watchtower. Greg Howard began the song with an unbelievable stick solo. I saw many jaws dropping to the floor as he grooved with the boys. His hands were flying all over the board! This was a concert that left you filled with excitement...some even said it was a life-changing experience! This is one I won't forget. 10 of 10 on my scale.

Tim K.
show no. 4...the best, definitely. The energy was amazing....never seen anything like it at a dave show. Started with DDTW, which was more lively than Shoreline in May or most of the other times i've heard it. PNP into Rapunzel next, and i think dave flubbed some of the lyrics...said stuff out of order. Crush next, and i will take this opportunity to worship the amazing carter and the most awesome drum solo i have ever heard at the end. By this point, we were ready for something older, and we got it...two step, AGAIN with a phat drum solo from carter at the end, after which they seemed to stop, but kept the bass line and the beat going softly in the back, and they got it going again. great warehouse, best billies i've heard (props to boyd), then i'll back you up, which i thought was cool, but granny would have been better...Jimi Thing next, joshua redman can seriously play....usual extended jam outro. Next, you knew it was coming....Halloween!! Dave's voice was so full of rage it was amazing, and carter was kicking it at the end. A damn fine SMTS-->ASTB-->Too Much to finish, then a looong wait for a encore. Crash was ok, not one of my favs, but Watchtower....timmy was all over it, outrageous solo, after greg kicked it off Overall, the vibe was amazing...nice choices on the setlist, great job with the old stuff. And good Davespeak, too...."take me to your leader"...haha

Alex T.
It seems as though everyone has already given their two cents on the band's Halloween performance '98, but I just felt like sharing a few of my own opinions about what some people missed... All in all, everyone's right on the money that the show was awesome. It was my first, and it's impossible to not enjoy yourself and get down with the boys. A few quick complaints about it, though - Leroi was sorely underused, and seemed disappointed to play a few of the tunes. It just didn't seem like he was enjoying himself. Carter's trademark drum solo into what most people expected would be Say Goodbye just died somewhere and the band jumped into Halloween instead. (Shocked the crap out of me, but I had to grin...) The jams during the songs were all very nice, but once or twice they just lost cohesion. I was in the fifth row and caught Dave stealing a glance at Tim during one of the more out there Jimi jams i've ever heard, as if to say, "hey, that's enough bro, you're losing em...". The ending Greg solo on the chapman stick was pretty sweet, but when dave tried to pick it up and tim tried to move with it into something of a full blown impromptu song, Greg refused to drop what he had started with and it sort of got lost. The setlist was pretty neat, if strange and unorthodox. There are a great number of songs this tour that seem to be missing in action, though. I was hoping to hear #41 and Lie In, and seeing as though it was Halloween i understand why they wouldn't fit. But a number of ho-hum songs found their way in, notably the encore tunes Crash and Watchtower. Both are good songs, yeah, but as far as encore tunes go, I would have liked to have been surprised. Watchtower is a good finisher, and was performed better than I've ever heard, but it was hard to enjoy such a trite encore pairing. Why not something novel and yet anthemic and representitive of everything that is Dave, like Pig? Life would have been complete seeing that... Dave also sort of lost his audience with the long, long, long Dreaming Tree. I dutifully watched and listened and loved, but almost snoozed. Some songs aren't concert material, dave. Good points were plentiful, though I haven't focused on them. Halloween was incredible - lots of emotion out of Dave, and this is my favorite song by him... double bonus! The night was owned by Boyd, and Carter reaffirmed his place in my mind as the greatest drummer alive. I'll back you up was the sweet surprise for the Oakland crowd, and the lighting added so much to the mood... Dave really looked like he meant it, and I wished my girlfriend weren't back home in southern california. Touching moment. *sniff!* There was plenty of dancing from the boys in black, Dave and Boyd, and though Greg didn't get quite as jiggy with it as most would have liked to see, maybe that's just not his style. He played the whole set and was much appreciated. It was a seven man band, sometimes eight, and everyone seemed happy. Except Leroi. Poor Leroi. Anyway. Those are my observations. Toots and the Maytals were/are awful, but their cover of the Specials' Pressure Drop was quite pleasant. His side vocalist / dancers have to be robots, though. I swear. Too bad Oakland didn't feature Bela and Co. as the opener - How sweet that would have been!

Julia M.
This concert was the best concert of The Dave Matthews band that I have ever been too. Five of my friends and I were lucky enough to be picked from the eighth to last row at the top to go and sit in the secoind row on the main floor. It was incredible! The band completely weent off on every song and they were all having such a good time. Dave seemed to be very impressed by all the musicians that night. Tim was there and he completes "All Along the Watchtower." Hands down the Band gave an EXCELLENT performance and I would not say there is any song that could've done differently. At the SAn Diego concert and the Oakland concert they ended with an encore of "Crash" and "Watchtower" which just completely go off. The intensity during the beginning of Watchtower just waiting because we know they are going to jam is unbelievable. The crowd was also very enthusiastic and into it in Oakland, more so than in San Diego. I think this is part of the reaon they gave such a great performance.