Kristin
We had our best seats for this, my 27th DMB show (and 33rd time seeing Dave perform). We were in section B, row 7. As it turned out, our seats were almost right in the middle in front of Dave. We got there early enough to see Dave introduced Jem again, around 6pm. He was really funny. He rambled about eating jelly beans. He said that he likes the basic, non-fancy ones, like “red flavored” or “yellow flavored,” not “popcorn” and “cinnamon.” (I agree with that! Jelly Belly has some strange flavors.) He said that he doesn’t eat them too often though. Then he said that he had a conversation with God, while drinking tea and smoking cigarettes. He said that God told him that He had the foresight to name Sunday, Sunday, after the sunny weather we had today. Jem’s set was great again. Daryl (DMB bodyguard) came out and filmed part of Jem’s set. Between Jem and Mraz, the house music was The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. Nice choice. Dave came out at 7pm to introduce Jason Mraz. There was a sign at the back of the reserved seats, in front of the lawn, that Dave read: “Yes to Gorge, no to George.” (As in George W Bush.) He didn’t say much else. It’s weird, I swear that there were at least three different versions of “Dave” at the shows: the talkative one who introduced Jem, the usual nervous one who introduces the main opener (in this case, Mraz), and then “stage Dave,” who this weekend seemed worn out, tired, and depressed. During Mraz, I saw Carter on the side of the stage watching the set. Mraz threw out a guitar pick in the middle of his set. I got it. It's bright orange and says “Jason Mraz” on one side, and has a rooster on the other side. Pretty cool. DMB came out at 8:15pm. There were lyrics on the stage. I was hoping they would open with RAPUNZEL so it would be triple BTCS openers (Pig on Friday, The Stone on Saturday, and Rapunzel on Sunday). That was cool. RECENTLY is one of my favorites. I was amazed that they did the “pretty girl” outro because it was the first time they did a Recently outro at the Gorge. When GRACE IS GONE started, I was happy for my friend Heather who was at her first DMB show tonight, because it is her favorite song. It was my 20th time hearing it live- it’s the song I’ve heard the most. It was beautiful as always with Stefan's intro. JOY RIDE was energetic and had the “bobblehead Jesus” line in it as usual. I noticed that Carter didn’t have his wrist wrapped up. IF I HAD IT ALL is underrated, in my opinion, maybe for the fact that it’s on Everyday. I like the song. But during this song the people behind me almost got into a fight with some others because they had pushed the chairs back. It made me wish that DMB had better audiences. CRUSH is always nice to hear. Dave did an intro to HELLO AGAIN as he has for a while now. Carter’s solo was “short but sweet.” I was happily surprised to hear LOVER LAY DOWN for the third time ever for me. (It’s always cut from my shows! Twice, at least.) It pretty much segued right into SUGAR WILL. Groan. I had hoped to only hear this song twice at the Gorge. But tonight’s version seemed shorter, as it should be. Roi saves songs like Sugar Will. I could listen to Roi’s solos all day. The mid-set ANTS MARCHING with the snare intro was nice. I’m sure some people thought it was the closer, but I knew that they had only done 10 songs. Dave reluctantly let us sing the “people in every direction” part. And I do mean reluctant. I was telling my friends before the show that Dave doesn’t trust the Gorge to sing that part, not even in 2002 when it was filmed. Maybe now that he knows that we can, he will again. Next was CRAZY-EASY, finally. I was starting to wonder what happened to it. It was a very depressing version. The lyrics were basically about saying goodbye to someone. Dave had his eyes closed the whole time (as he did a lot this weekend). DANCING NANCIES was next. Dave messed up the beginning, and the band played some stuff to cover it up and then Dave caught up. CRY FREEDOM was interesting because Dave’s voice was giving out (he made a comment at one point that his voice was scratchy because of the three nights). People chanted for TWO STEP, and the band went into it. It’ll be interesting to see what song was cut between Cry Freedom and Two Step. I’m sure Two Step was the planned set closer though. It was a middle-length version and the jam was actually not too bad this time. The band left the stage at 10:35pm for the encore break. They came back at 10:45pm (10 minutes again). They did some sort of tease that almost sounded like #40 but a little faster and it wasn’t just Dave. Then they went into RHYME & REASON, which I had almost forgotten that they hadn’t done all weekend. It was obvious that they would close with WATCHTOWER, but I was glad, because it’s one of my favorite closers. They played a lot of good songs this weekend, but there really wasn’t as much overall energy onstage as on other tours. Sure, there would be peaks here and there. But, for example, Boyd didn’t come out and jam to the audience as much as other times. And during some songs when Dave and Boyd did their “face off,” I could see that Dave looked really worn out. He didn’t say much throughout the show, or any of the three shows (although he was talkative before Jem’s set). He didn’t dance much. I don’t think it’s just because it’s the end of the tour, because I’ve seen shows at the end of a tour before (namely Gorge 2002). Oh well. We heard 46 different songs, and the only repeats were new songs (Joy Ride and Sugar Will three times and Hello Again twice). It was a fun weekend overall.

Kitch
great weekend - 3 nights is the way to go - last years 2 niter was ok - but labour day weekend - ohh ya ! - we party a little extra long with our crew this nite, so miss out on mraz. But with 7th row cetre tonite you can be sure were there in time for another kick in head opener - wow - 3 nights open with a beauty. pig then stone and how about a Rapunzal = 3 great openers , into a recently then a grace - we are so jazzed - gonna be a great final night. big sunset - big vibe - sittin beside awsome people on both sides of us. we havent gotten crush in ahwhile, lovin daves guitar on this new ending that he sometimes does...but just the usual version 2nite, but its gravy just the same. Big plus = We were close enough to see that daves whole family was stage left side - babysitter, wife and the twins with ear muffs all were rocking away. It was so fun to see that - dave went over a few times and gave some funny face's - damn i love sittin in the action - you dont see that from the lawn. First crazy eazy of the weekend - love it = 4 new tunes..interesting = 3 nite 1, 2 nite 2 & 4 nite 3. awsome 3 song set closer of a nancies, cry freedom was awsome into a ball bustin two step - which had to be 13-15 minutes long...maybe..? this was a great one for him & family you could tell - he went right over and did a move or 2 for the girls..this looks like his girls favourite - they were going crazy. Feelin the love fest for sure - so after break they bust into somethin...what is it...we dont know but its brand spanking new people - ive heard some sites call it butterfly - not sure how they know or where they get that from - cause its never been heard, but it definitly was the first time any of us have heard it - so thats awsome !!! rhyme & reason into the classic watchtower - ohhh dave left his voice on stage for that one - they left it all on that one for sure, not the best version but in the top 3 no doubt. Im thinkin were gonna get a real memorable watchtower at GG w/ a special guest were bettin ! No one left dissapointed - if you did - you got issue's ;) Seriously awsome weekend - with a final nite that just made it feel right ! Cant wait for golden gate - love the day shows! thanx again gorge - you prove once again that no venue in the world can touch you and were allready counting down to 05 ! cheers