Nancy M.
Dave and Tim provided the cool, well-behaved Berkeley audience with an incredibly special show. Perhaps a once in a lifetime show. It's hard to choose highlights, as both Dave and Tim were "on" all night long. However, the Granny opening was much appreciated; the 6/8 Stay was great, including awesome jamming between Dave and Tim; the fast Satellite was extremely fine - love the new chord progression they've added this tour; Wild Horses and Jimi thing were TOO cool (blues man!) - listen for the cool blues lick at the end of Timmy's solo on WH; If I Had a Boat was sweet and whimsical. And I'm gonna say it: I LOVED Crash and Crush! So there! They are both terrific songs. So what if they are singles? Fair amount of "Davespeak," such as the chemistry teacher who would bang his head on the blackboard to get the kids quiet and the sad South African whipping story, but intense music was the main focus of this show. Dave seemed happy, in much better spirits than he was in Sacramento the night before. This show was a true gift - get it.

Todd S.
All I can say is Halloween. This song was by far the best song I have ever heard live. It electrified the crowd. After totally silencing the crowd with an amazing passionate version of IBYU, Dave And Tim blew away the crowd with the greatest loudest version of Halloween ever. Just tell me are you satisfied with fucking?

David L.
Dave and Tim lit it up in Berkeley with style. We had a great crowd. Dave only commented to the people up front who were arrving late during the first couple of songs. The 12 string sounds so sweet in Wild Horses and The Last Stop. Help Myself was truly jamming. I'll Back You Up into Halloween. From one great extreme to another. I could definitely get into hearing Diggin' a Ditch quite a few more times. All in all a rockin' 3 1/2 hours of acoustic music. The Davespeak was classic as well with stories of his high school teacher falling down the stairs with his hands in his pockets and administering some painful beatings on Dave's backside. Come back soon Dave & Tim!!

Jason K.
Breathtaking and totally intimate is the best way to describe this show! I have seen DMB 3 times, but this was my first Dave and Tim. So many things about this show were great: the venue (the acoustically-perfect and beautiful Berkeley Community Theatre), the crowd (sure, they yelled out for songs pretty much, but they were quiet when they needed to be), and the mindblowing nearly 3 and a half hour length!!! I would not be surprised if this concert set some sort of time record for Dave shows. Dave and Tim took the stage to a deafening roar, as Dave dryly commented, "Tonight will be a spoken-word evening. No music." It took about 5 mintues to get the crowd calmed down enough for them to start: a sweet Granny led off the set. It started out kind of tentative, but they were really into it by the end. I was just thrilled to hear this gorgeous song for only my second time live. A lot of people were still arriving during the first few songs, which provided the inspiration! for a lot of sarcastic Davespeak (i.e. "Oh, hi! Thanks for showing up! No, I'll wait for you to sit down!"). Highlights as the show continued include: The Stone sounded awesome acoustic, much better than with the whole band because you could hear every bit of Dave's snaking guitar line. Reconcile Our Differences is an incredible new song...I hope it ends up on their next album. It reminds me a little bit of Tom Petty's "Don't Fade on Me", but the chorus is in a major key. It clearly seems to have something to do with religion, as Dave sings, "Bartender, fill me up a cup of what Jesus drank before three days below" (or something close to that). The chorus goes, "Bartender, please/I'm on bended knees...Please God/I'm on my knees." Very cool!! Stay in 6/8 time seemed to confuse the crowd, and it wasn't great...but it was still interesting. The transition from Proudest Monkey to Satellite totally rocked, and I loved watching Dave's fingers go crazy on Satellite (cool Timmy accents, too). People kept yelling out for Wild Horses, and I'm glad they did it. Dave played it slow, and he seemed to really get into the lyrics (especially, "Let's do some living/After we die," where he had a fat grin on his face). The highlight of the whole show for me was Help Myself. I have this song on some of my tapes, but I never thought I'd hear it live. This was the first time on the tour, and it was sooo intense. Both Dave and Tim were ripping into their acoustics, and that guitar line is so vicious! Halloween also rocked the crowd--I actually like it better with Dave and Tim than with the whole band. By the time we got to the encore, the already-pumped audience was over the top. We were graced with another new song, Digging A Ditch. This is another definite keeper. I was impressed by the lyrics (something like "Digging a ditch...and when my troubles are through...I'll dig a ditch for you"). Lover Lay Down was a little too slow for the encore, and you could tell that they were almost about to do something else (practically everyone was BEGGING for #41, but alas--we didn't get it). Ants was a sweet closer, everyone was singing along and the vibe was AMAZING!!! Anyway, there was a lot of great Davespeak, too: a story about Dave's chemistry teacher who used to bang his head against a chalkboard until the students would be quiet (and who later fell down the stairs), getting flogged by school authorities, another one about Dave and Monk attempting to detect who had farted on a plane, Dave saying how he would use his Affrin bottle as a flamethrower if he was a superhero, his comparison of Spotlight to a turd (!), his comment that he didn't know "what the f*ck Crazy even is", and his respone to "I love you Dave!" from a male audience member: "At least you've got that going for you!" This was a show I will not soon forget, and I can't wait to see them again in this close-up setting!

Joel W.
After seeing Dave for the 15th or so time I have come to the conlusion (again), that while talented, Dave lacks that certain bit of spontanaity that I crave in my music. Gee, what a shock that he closed with that "classic" Ants Marching. While this selection sent the screaming teenies (ie: "I Love You Dave") into a tizzy it prompted me to head for the door early. Dave is predictable, mysoginistic, and really wants to be Adam Sandler. He caters to a bunch of kids who were "well behaved" enough to have only filled half of the auditoriums drinking faucets with puke. His "epic" 3 1/2 hour set was only so long because of his need to engage a bunch of wankers in meaningless screaming matches. The reviews listed here merely reinforce my belief that Dave's gang of fans are some of the most easily pleased in the music world. Needless to say there will be two extra tickets available for the next Dave show.

Melinda P.
Wow what an excellent show this was. It was the seventh time that I saw Dave Matthews perform, but the first with Tim Reynolds. It was a much quieter and more intimate scene than all the other concerts that I had been to. The crowd was very into it, and there wasn't an empty seat in the house. Everyone was screaming out song names and it was apparent that Dave was getting pretty annoyed. Crowdmembers were also getting annoyed, they kept telling people to shut up. I decided to go for it at a moment of complete silence though, and I yelled at the top of my lungs "Help Myself". Dave made a funny comment that I didn't quite catch and then he played Crash. I was amazed, however, to hear the next song, he played Help Myself. I later found out that it was the first time he did it on the whole tour. Dave playing Help Myself made this show the best Dave Matthews show I have ever been to.

Chris
Great show! HIGHLIGHTS: "Last Stop" sounded great acoustically, the reprise outro was sweet. "Reconcile" (I prefer "On Bended Knee") is a very cool song, nice dark feel to it. "Wild Horses" and "Wynona" were also very cool. It's great to hear Dave singing covers. "Help Myself" was a good surprise, sounded nice. "Jimi Thing" had the line "Smoke my kime" (sp?). "HALLOWEEN" was damned excellent! I've never heard that song with that much emotion. Dave seems to really get into it, and the audience gave it a standing ovation. "Chatterbox" was crazy. I was amazed at the sounds Tim produced from his guitar/pedals! "Diggin a ditch" has some DEFINITE potential as a song. It's still in the creative process, and I'd love to see how it continues to evolve. LOWLIGHTS: The crowd was sort of obnoxious, yelling out song requests, and random stuff. The sound system @ Berkeley could have been a lot better, both louder and crisper. I had to really struggle to hear the Davespeak! Other than that, it was an awesome set. I definitely want a copy of this show.