Joanne
Well, I wish I could say that tonight was magical. But it wasn't...I never would think that the second night of a two night stand could be worse than the first, but I think this one was. There were some nice moments, but nothing truly magical - repeated Stay from the night before - oh, goodie. Felt almost like a repeat of Listener Supported with Butch, the Ladies, Too Much, Crash, Jimi Thing, Rhyme and Reason, LBV, Stay, and on, and on. Some of the highlights - Dave forgetting the words to the first verse of Billies - and making a face cause he knew he screwed up! The little jam they played before OSW is gorgeous. Stefan has this truly silly hat on, looked like he was an escapee from the Australian outback. Dave said, y'all know that you are going to be on IMAX, and later out came the "living legend" Al Green to do Take me to the River - wearing this goofy gold lurex jacket and sunglasses - totally bad-ass. Dave came out for the encore and said, well, could y'all act happy again cause we want to be certain we got it, and the Rev. Al came out and did it again! Cool to hear Pretty Pretty Girl again on Recently, just like Deer Creek. And the absolute highlight for me was hearing GRACE IS GONE for the first time - so beautiful, personal, and passionate - "Give me one more drink, but make it strong cause I don't need to think. She broke my heart, my grace is gone, give me one more drink and I'll go." Now THIS was magical! I had field seats midway back in the center section, looking straight on towards Dave - incredible, especially once we figured out how to take the chairs apart to make our own little dance floor! The "real fans" would say that this show officially sucked because they played BOTH Crash and Satellite. After four shows in seven days, how am I going to make it seven weeks til Alpine????

Jeff R.
First, I'd like to say f-off to the Chicago Suntimes writer, Bobby Reed, for writing this about the previous show: "...violinist Boyd Tinsley demonstrated that he is the weak link in the DMB chain" That's total crap!!! I'm tired of newspapers sending these so called music critics to shows generally populated by gen-x-ers. They seem to only give good reviews to artists with the last names such as Dylan, Springsteen, and Young. Whew...anyway the reason why I brought that up was because Boyd must have read it or something because he seemed to have even more juice than I had ever seen previous. As far as the set went, I would say the highlights were Jimi Thing, Grey Street, Sweet Up & Down, the *2* Take Me To The Rivers (only because they had to play it twice for the Al Green IMAX filming), and the 1st Grace is Gone of the tour. Grace is Gone was very mellow...not quite sure if the band stripped it down simply because it was the first song of the encore...I can't wait until I get a copy of the song so I can listen to the words again. From what words I picked up, it sounded amazing. I can't wait until I the new disc comes out as a result of this show.

Frank M.
Well tonight was just great. A lot of energy from the boys. I was scared after seeing last night's setlist that there was no way they could top it, well I wasn't there yesterday, but tonight was awesome! The crowd was really energetic, except for my section who all left to get better seats (I was almost behind the stage),and the big fight (I'll get to it later). Billies and OSW were pretty standard, but I liked Billies as an opener. SMTS is always great to hear and the crowds' energy really came out...i missed ASTB-->TM but oh well. R&R was good, Jimi Thing ruled! The crowd statyed with it the whole time... it had some great new jams and I love Dave's new solo. Crash - people put this song down way too much, I personally have more fun when everyone around me is having a good time, and since everyone else loves this song, i had fun. I love Grey Street, the crowd lost some energy but I think they liked it. Satellite was good, but Recently was awesome! Best jams of the night and I LOVE the Pretty Girl outro. Then came the IMAX filming with Al Green...Take Me to The River... it was such a fun song! Al Green rocled the whole Stadium...he was packed full of energy and the crowd LOVED him. Stay was another great crowd pleaser. LBV is always nice to hear, and I really like JTR (I do miss the old refrain, but it's still good)...this is when the fight happened though. about 10 kids were throwing punches all over the place right infront of me...it was a mad scene and a bunch of people cleared out of their seats...though it was fun to see the fight, it destroyed the little energy my section had, and no one payed attention to JTR and Sweet Up & Down. I don't think anyone else in the other sections even knew it happened though. 2 Much was a good closer...I liked the new lyric "F*** IT UP!" and for the encore they did Take Me to The River again because they wanted to make sure that they got it right for the IMAX...so I guess this was the first DMB concert with a repeat in the same setlist. Al Green still stole the show the second time too. then Dave Slowed it down with Grace is Gone...pretty song. And then an AWESOME ants closer... the best Ants I've ever heard! Another First was a 3 song Encore, unless you count #40 as a full song. Overall a terrific concert!

Michael B.
After tailgaiting outside the friendly confines of Soldier Field all day I went inside time enough to catch a good portion of Ben Harper's set and he tore it up. After the break DMB opened up with Billies with a nice nature intro followed by the insturmental intro to OSW. SMTS was good to hear but the highlight tonight was Recently complete with pretty girl outro. The Al Green appearence was an interesting combo to see. The song definatley got the crowd going but it seemed a bit too contrived. JTR tonight was another high point and it has a great jam. Tonights jam also varied from last nights which makes me very happy to see the boys mixing it up. I think they could have done more with the encore considering the crowd did not seem to like Grace is Gone, a slower song, but they came back around with a solid Ants. All in all it was a decent show but last nights was more memorable for me.

Allison H.
Once again my sign caught Dave's attention. It said "Could I have been Al green" which he pointed to smiled and laughed. We flipped it over with the other message "Dave Ur Sweet Up and Down" Which he said "OWWWW" in the mic! Gotta love any attention. My friend Stella and I met up with our friends in their 15th row center seats. We had 4th on the left side, but it was way off to the side. One thing you have to realize is all the chairs were connected together by plastic rings, so with downtime between Ben Harper and Dave we melted down the rings and made the show... well General Admission. Tripping Billes what a way to start! Never saw that coming. I've noticed in the four shows I've been to this tour Dave is much more animated and talkative. Anyone else notices this? I guess he's adjusting to these big crowds! I was hopin' and prayin' we'd get Anyone Seen the Bridge but it didn't happen, regardless a pretty standard version of SMTS. I'd have to say the star of the night... L E R O I he was fantastic tonight! Great solo's. I'm not sure what song it was on, but while Dave was tunning his guitar he just started singing some song, I have never heard it before. I felt like I was flung into a Dave and Tim show. He just stood their singing while the rest of the band tuned. RECENTLY... oh, I remember last tour thinking I'd never hear this song now it seems to be a standard, and to top it off he brought in the "Pretty Pretty girl" outro! This one seemed to go on forever! Then Al Green came out... the charismatic man in his shiny gold coat got the crowd goin'! This man had stage presence! Runnin' around the stage pointing to the crowd getting the whole place going! Dave just played, danced and smiled at this crazy guy! It was great, everyone was going crazy trying to be on camera. I have come to the conclusion that Sweet Up and Down is DEFINITLY my favorite song thus far on the new album, this song totally gets me going! Daves voice is incredible as are the lyrics. As we waited for the encore, booom Dave comes out at least 2 minutes later "We're doin' this IMAX thing and I believe this is the largest crowd to be filmed, so do you mind if we do that number again for ya?" Whoa, totally unexpected I thought we had it done and canned on film, but hey three song encore and the chance to watch al green go nuts, bring it on! Thanks to my friends I'm almost sure our poster got on film, we did see it on the JUMBO-TRON, so look for our sign "Could I have been Al Green?" Grace is gone reminds me of Digging a Ditch. Same mellow melody, but I love it! A great bluesy bar song, i predict it will be kind of like the "spoon" of the new album. A song that we won't hear much after this tour and the album is released. The night completed with Ants, and the withdrawl sets in. Not another show till August 19th!?! Ya'll better leave us some good reviews to keep us goin'!

Chris C.
I'll keep it short, this was the seventh show I've have the pleasure of seeing in nine days so i have much to say. I bud of mine and i started out in green bay and hit deer creek, cinnci, and finally chicago. Last nigh was a good show. triiping billies was ok. he didn't start with the little guitar intro and messed up a line which even he laugh offed. OSW was great. Most people didn't know what it was and even more had no idea of what the instrumental intro was (note to fans: BUY Remember Two things). The rest of the show was went well. highlights: recently (should play every show) and Grace is gone. That song is going to replace satelitte and crash as their new love song (thank god). As for the other shows. night two in deer creek had to be the best. As those of you who were there know. The encore in the rain of tripping billies was the best. Nice to hear #40 on Thurs and Mon. New songs song good, After seven shows you start to get the words down. Also loved when they play So Much to Say into "anyone seen the bridge" into Too Much. Low lights of all the shows: #36 with the lovely ladies. I remember when that song used to be raw like theold versions of halloween. I will never like this new version. other low lights:DDTW and satelite. I am sorry but if it is between the song that jane likes or the previous two, I'll go with dave's sister. Well, gotta go. I am looking for TRADERS for all of the shows I've scene and heard. I Have tapes and cd's but more importantly tickets to the ALPINE SHOW (2 row seven night one and 2 row eleven night two)0 that I cann't use to trade.

Casey R.
The show started off with Billies, which is a great opener with an energy level "through the roof"! In order to keep the review short, I will just list my highlights of the show. First of all, Jimi Thing! WOW!!! This in my opinion, was the best Jimi Thing ever! Boyd and Leroi jammed out solos that absolutely blew my mind! Dave followed that up with one of the best solos I have ever heard him do. Grey Street is an awesome new tune, but my favorite of the new songs has to be Sweet Up and Down! That song is the epitamy of JAM!!! Recently was great, even had Pretty Girl jam. Long Black Veil? Only the best version of this song I have ever heard!!! The "lovely ladies" brought graceful to a whole new level sending chills up my spine!!! Grace is Gone was very beautiful. Now to Take Me to the River. When Al Green walked out, I felt intensity like none other. Al and Dave jammed out the song while showing me what the word phenomenal really means! With Al Green, that had to be the most stylin jacket I have ever seen. Now on to Ants. HOLY SH**!!! Could the crowd ask for anything more in that song?!? Boyd is the man! Carter went nuts. It is absolutely insane how unbelievable this was tonight. They did the 1-2-3 beat thing while Boyd soloed, and Leroi broke out that familiar sax part as Boyd finished up, while 75,000+ went absolutley crazy! To the critics that say this show was "below par", why did the band have 75,000 people screaming for more. Obviously they are doing something right. All in all, just a totally insane show!!! What a way to leave Chicago with a BANG!!! Til Alpine...

Tony K.
Well, it's nice being able to write a review again since my last show was over a year ago. I made it to both shows at Soldier Field, and I have to say I was impressed with the stadium feel to the show. My compressed two-day highlights: Thursday: I got chills four times--Watchtower, LIOG, Gray St., and Bartender. Highlight of this show was definitely LIOG-- Boyd had a pretty solo with Ode to Joy in it, and this also had the BEST solo I have ever heard from Butch. Onto Friday: I had a setlist written out beforehand, and I got nine songs on it. Jimi had a nice Dave solo in it-- glad to see him getting more comfortable with the big crowds. Butch was conspicuously missing from the solos tonight, but LeRoi made up for it, especially in Recently. Recently was by far the highlight of the night for me with Pretty Girl, which I hadn't heard live or recorded since 6-6-93. I could rave more about it, but I won't. Al Green was a lot of fun, and Gray St. again seemed to go over well with the crowd. I loved Grace is Gone, and I know I'm lucky to hear it because I'm not sure how long it will stick around in the big stadium arena setlists. It will be a good D&T song. Well, that's my abbreviated review. For me, Thursday was better than Friday, but both shows were solid.

JP
After looking at the setlist from the previous night I knew that the crowd would be into the show because they didn't play the typical crowd favorites, so I prepared myself for a heavy dose of Crash, Satelitte, etc... Tripping Billies was a strong opener, and Crash and Satellite definitely excited the crowd. To keep this short I'll just give my standouts for the night. Al Green was superb with Take Me To The River...TWICE!! Definitely unprecedented... when the encore was set to begin, Dave came out and asked if they could play it again for the IMAX cameras...It was more wild than the first time around! Recently was a pleasant surprise, and they each busted out a nice solo--Boyd was absolutely on fire all night long. I am an instant fan of all the new songs, but Sweet Up and Down just completely got me grooving, and after that was over I really didn't think they could keep the level of excitement up, but they jumped into Too Much...I like it much better when they play it with a funky style. Ants Marching was a no-brainer for closer, but its still a solid. It was an excitement rollercoaster for the encore, beginning with Take 2 of Take Me to the River and then playing Grace is Gone...a very slow new song, and then closing the show with Ants Marching. I like Soldier Field ten times better than the World, and even though my seats were close, I'd be interested in hearing what people thought about the venue who were sitting farther away.

Brad
Tonight was a great night for anyone who listens to the radio, or the lady behind us with her 2 thirteen year old kids. Ben Harper opened the show and played an awsome set. Much better than the night before, and he got into it alot more to. Burn one down was great, and he started steal my kisses with DMX, gonna make me lose my mind! He played a much better set and show than the night before. No one really sat down or cared though and that was a dissapointment. When dave went on everyone went nuts, seemed like a little more energy than the night before. Tripping billies was alright, nothing special. The show went on with not really any amazing jams, all much shorter than last night. He played more songs and it felt like he was playing for the camera's filming him. Crash, satellite, too much, ants....you could have just watched MTV. Was happy to hear one sweet world....he teased alot of songs like this earlier in the show. Highlight was Al green who had tons of energy and was running around in a gold suit. Only thing was it was like he just came out did his thing for the camera, and left. Came out after dave had started and left before dave was finished. Good song though, got everyone singing. Too much of Too much. Not the best closer. Really loved Grace is Gone, everyone melowed out, but what a great tune. Ants was fun, hadn't seen it in the five shows i've been to, so it was nice. Good combo of 2 nights if you went to both. First night was dominate and definetly for the true dave fans, people who have 1 dave cd and listen to the radio liked tonight better. Great stadium and City. ..see ya in alpine

Julie A.
It was a great concert. I was in the 29th row, (Thank you warehouse) I was upset that I had such good seats and still had to watch the screen the majority of the time, due to the number of people standing on their chairs. Being a new DMB fan, I liked Tripping Billies as an opener. I didn't expect that. Leroi had a nice sax solo before One Sweet World. So Much To Say didn't have the Anyone seen the bridge outro. Jimi Thing had a long jam. Grey Street is a good new song due to the rhythm. Al Green was an unwelcomed guest as far as I'm concerned. Was I the only person there who had never heard of him or what?! Dave needed to explain the IMAX thing a little more and we shouldn't have heard to hear Al twice no matter what happened. I had been looking forward to seeing the Lovely Ladies and was disappointed that one was missing/replaced from Listener Supported. I didn't think they had the same quality value. Dave's facial expressions were fun to watch on the screen and I look forward to the Alpine concert.

Brad H.
Well, while not a bad show in any sense, this show was nowhere close to Thursday night's show. For my friend Jason, this was his first DMB show, and I must say it was not a bad show for a first timer, and he really enjoyed himself. The night showed some promise when they started off with Billies, then they went into OSW, and it was still going pretty good. By the time they started SMTS, however, I knew this was going to be a weaker show compared to Thursday. Jimi Thing had a good, long jam, and Leroi laid down an awesome solo which my friend Jason, being a clarinet player, loved the hell out of. During Crash, the crew was once again showing video clips on the two large screens. Grey Street was awesome, as usual. Once again, Dave got into the song so much, he broke a string. Recently was great, especially with the Pretty Girl outro. Al Green then came out and the launched into Take Me To The River, and man, can Mr. Green wail! This guy is right up there with the Godfather of Soul himself! Stay was the second repeat of the night. Next came Long Black Veil. I'm sorry, but the Lovely Ladies have to go on this one. Long Black Veil is a great song, but they ruin it. After the set break, Dave came back out on stage and said they were going to do a second take of Take Me To The River to make sure the IMAX guys got all the footage they needed. I predict that the second take will be used in the movie because it had way more energy than the first take. Al Green got the crowd into it more this time also. towards the end of the song, he ripped his jacket off, gave a few more good screams into the microphone, and gave a final "I love you, Chicago!!!", and went offstage. The next song was Grace Is Gone. this was the first time I've heard this song, and I must say that it is very good. this is a song that any man who has had his heart broken by a woman can identify with! they closed the night out with Ants, and that really got the crowd roaring for one last time. One thing that I was somewhat disappointed with was that Butch didn't really do much this evening; he just kind of quietly played in the background. Not the best show ever, but all in all, very good. Next show for me, August 19 at Alpine!!

Kevin E.
wow, it has been two years since i posted a review and i see that the site has gotten so popular that there are "rules" now- ok then, no individual song comments. let me just say that i thought the first soldier field show was overall better, but that may just be because my wife and i were so tired- but there were some great highlights, and only a couple lowlights- first the lowlights- did not need to hear stay again, redundant, and, also, why is dave avoiding the rest of BTCS? where is crush, stone, last stop, etc? now the highlights- al green was cool, even twice- hell of a showman, the new songs are truly awesome ( i think napster gets thanks for allowing many people to know the songs already ), i like the "lovely ladies" and we loved LBV- very cool song- was nice to hear recently with pretty pretty girl- and billies was a great opener- still, after 9 shows i still have never heard seek up live- let's hope we hear it in detroit ! see ya there!

Ben R.
This was a pretty good show. It had its highs and lows, and none of the lows were Dave's fault. i would say the biggest low was stepping over vomit on the stairs, seeing people vomiting in the seats, and seeing an obviously intoxicated 14-year old girl walking around- and this was all BEFORE Dave even took the stage. It jsut makes me mad to see the crowd at a Dave concert have the atmosphere of a fraternity party. If you want to hang out with your buds and get plastered, go to the bars and let us enjoy our concert in peace. That said, Dave was so much fun tonight. Tripping Billies was great, with new lyrics in the first verse that i am pretty sure were a mistake. he just got ahead of himself a little bit =) the intro by leroi into one sweet world was amazing, he lost the crowd after a while but like i said it wasnt a great crowd. rhyme and reason was great. my seats were in the top row of the center section, but by the end of jimi thing i had worked my way down to the floor (thanks to some creative flirting with the security by my girl =) , I had never heard the pretty girl outro to recently before, but i love it- i need a tape! Al green was really incredible, stealing the show with take me to the river. that man knows how to work a crowd and get people moving. Dave had some great solos on quite a few songs, i love to hear him play solo. i think that at times leroi and boyd can take too much time up with their stuff, i would like to see dave do more solos. my highlight was grace is gone, it almost brought me to tears. such a beautiful song, and you can feel the heartache flowing in dave's voice. Thank you Dave for a great show, hopefully next time I see you It will be in better circumstances

Marshall S.
Dave's first set of stadium shows definately went off without a hitch. I attended the Friday night show and although personally I would have rather seen Thursday's due to that set, Friday was still amazing. Al Green brought so much energy to the already frenzied levels that the band itself provides on a spirited rendition of 'Take Me To The River', while an Imax crew caught every second of it. It was also a surprise that they chose to open with 'Tripping Billies' and follow with 'One Sweet World' with the Swim Naked Intro that we all love so dearly. I was mesmerized by the fifteen minute version of 'Jimi Thing', Boyd's jamming was stellar. As for the new material, 'Grace Is Gone' is one of the saddest and most bueatiful Dave song's I've ever heard, and 'Grey Street' was undescribable, this song is gonna be BIG.

Jeff N.
All I can say is that out of the three Dave shows I've been to, this is by far the best. Anyone who is heating on this show needs to stop because it was great. All that nonsense about not magical and Boyd being weak is not true. So, that being said, onto the setlist. First of all, I loved Ben Harper. He rocked. I was hoping that Dave might do Watchtower and bring Ben out to jam like the used to do back in 96. Dave came on and I noticed carter wasn't wearing a hat. Also, Leroi had his sunglasses off for like the first 3 songs. Tripping Billies is a great opener. I had never seen it as an opener before but it just hits you hard from the first note and rocks. It was a pretty standard version of the song in the grand scheme of things, but great nonetheless. One Sweet World was unbelievable. I have lots of recordings of this with the instrumental intro, but I had never seen it before live. It jammed out pretty well. So Much to Say was standard and fun to hear. I was almost glad they didn't do ASTB--->Too Much cause I wanted another song rather than the two combined. Turns out he only saved Too Much til the closer. Oh well. Rhyme and Reason was also standard, but it rocked out and it was nice to hear. I had also never seen that live. Crash into me, crowd pleaser. The video the projected on the jumbo tron was cool, though. dixie chicken was nice. I love all the new songs, but especially Grey Street. it seems reminiscent of Tripping Billies, kind of like they slowed it down and reversed the order of the progression, maybe put it in a different key. All in all, it was my favorite song of they night by far. I can't wait to hear it on the album Satellite was standard. Once again, they projected the video. Recently was nice to hear live, they jamed on it just like they did on R2T. Then they did the pretty girl outro which I had never heard before. Carter has a beatiful voice. Then they did the highly anticipated Al Green thing for the IMAX. It was so awesome. Al Green was preaching and rocking and blasting and it was nuts. I loved it. The band sounded really good on it too. Stay was standard. I didn't use to like this song much, but they jam out on it live and the Lovely Ladies sounded spectacular. I really like how they do LBV now. They rock it out more. Carter is useing sticks rather than brushes like he use to. The ladies once again sounded great. I loved JTR. I didn't mind the absence of the original chorus at all. The new parts they added are cool too. Sweet Up & Down is great. I like how it kind of features carter at some points. They jamed out on it. The new album is going to be amazing. Too Much was standard, not the best closer. Dave came back out by himself and asked the audience if they could do Take Me to the River again so they could get a better take. I sure didn't mind. It was even better the second time. Grace is Gone is a beautiful song. It is very reminiscent of a Daniel Lanois tune. Boyd sounded great on it. Ants Marching was awesome. It's the second show I've been to that Dave has closed with it, but I wasn't complaning. All in all, amazing show. The best ever.

Laura C.
The show at Soldier was ok. I'm not saying it was great, and I'm not saying it was horrible. It was fair. I agree with other reviewers that it was basically a rehashing of Listener Supported, sans any songs from Crowded streets well, except for Stay...big surprise, eh? and a little canned for the benefit of film. The highlight of the show for me was Grace is Gone... another shining example of the eloquence with which Dave Matthews expresses himself and makes the feelings universal..in other words..I hear ya Dave. I was thoroughly disappointed to have to sit through a second staging of Take Me to the River. And to crown my disappointment, Ants Marching...(enough already with that song...take a look at the show history of this song and you'll see what I mean.), we sat in the dark for what seemed like five minutes expecting another song to make up for TMTTR, after which time the lights came up, and we all went home. Yay. So, it was ok. Thanks for reading.