I had the great pleasure of once again seeing my favorite band – The Dave Matthews Band – perform this past Saturday, December 10th, 2005 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden (MSG). Undoubtedly, the best show I was ever at, both for seats and quality of the show.
The best part about where I live compared to where MSG is located, is that I drive 5 minutes to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), get on a 46 minute train ride, and I’m at Penn Station, which is located directly below MSG.
The show was awesome. Played for 3+ hours, great songs, a great sound, and a great crowd. The crowd – especially the peeps around us – were really into it. They were probably on mind-altering substances, but none the less, they were very respectful and very into the show, which made it for a great experience for me, and I’m sure for them.
I’ve seen probably 14 or 15 DMB shows over almost as many years (1993-present): Philadelphia, PA in 1994 (first show at the Mann Music Center), New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia thru the 1990s and early 2000’s, and my two most recent shows – Hershey PA in June 2005 and Saragota Springs, NY in July of 2005. All have been great shows, but my choice of seats has gotten steadily worse over the years, like a cruel joke. My first show, I was almost dead center 16th row or so. Perfect seats. Since then, Dave has moved to venues with larger capacities and with my luck and my “quick fingers” with www.ticketmaster.com has not proven to be that great. 🙂
Anyway, I had ordered these tickets for the 12/10/05 show in NYC for me and my girlfriend. I was up early that initial day, and of course the show was sold out after about 5 minutes, but I managed to snag our two tickets. We were able to get two seats “behind the stage”. I though “gee, that’s gonna suck, but at least we can hear him and see him on the video”. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be a total loss.
As it turns out, these were the best seats I ever had. Our seats were indeed behind the stage, but there wasn’t much to the stage. I was within spitting distance of Carter’s drumset, and I was about 5 rows too far away to shake Dave’s hand as he left the stage at the end of the concert.
And on top of that, we had “Row A” in our section, so I was able to snag (if I wanted) every beer guy that walked by. However, 3 hours worth of $6.75 Bud bottles sort of puts a damper on the buzz, but who cares. I think I spent close to $40 on five 12-oz Bud bottles that night. Gotta love it.
If you ever looking for a concert to see and you don’t know these guys, give them a listen.