Hello Again Back Home in St. Louis
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 3:00AM 
It is off to the city of the Arch and the Dirty Birds for the St. Louis Dave Matthews Band stop on the 2010 summer tour. My first ever show here was on 6.17.04 which was the birth place of the four awesome 2004 new tunes. Overall, it is my sixth show here in St. Louis including the 2008 show at Busch Stadium.
SHOW #98 Maryland Heights, MO 6.16.10
This place is a nightmare getting out of after the show. The parking lot is horribly congested. I have even bought the VIP parking and it still took an hour or more to get out. So we tried something new. We had our annual meet up at Dave and Busters and just parked there and walked to the show. It was a long walk, but the plan worked perfectly. After the show it only took us 7 minutes to get out of lot and onto the interstate once we walked to our car!
Last year we had awesome seats up front, but we were standing on a sewer drain that was flowing in reverse! It was awful, so tonight it was pleasant not to be standing in poo! We were on the left in the front row behind the PIT. We had the rail in front of us so we had a lot of room to ourselves. There were four of us including Ryan, Kyle, and Minime. Thanks to Jeff for the awesome tickets again!
Before I get too far I want to point something out about the PIT. Obviously, I hate the idea. I hate GA, and I never want to sit in the “mosh pit”! The spin by the band is they want this energetic group of young fans up front. However, what they’ve done is replaced the older diehard fans that have great accounts an actually bring energy with their knowledge of the band with lame fans that don’t even know a lot of the songs and just stand there. At both Cincy and St. Louis the PIT was pretty laid back.
OK…on to the show. Mini 12 on stage so that pretty much narrowed it to a Squirm opener just like SPAC. It’s a great song and fits well in the top spot. I was hoping to get Big Eyed Fish -> Bartender opener….and to my surprise that is what followed it up.
I am so happy they have brought back so many Busted Stuff/LWS songs this tour. BEF was spot on and the outro was better and longer than it was at SPAC. Bartender was outstanding, and Dave’s wails were powerful. The fans were really into it.
You Might Die Trying is next. During the winter I listened to the Lucca, Italy release a lot. YMDT is one of favorite tracks off that live CD. I had a little more appreciation for it tonight. Dave did something different in the outro. He actually made up some lyrics. My memory isn’t good enough to remember them, but I look forward to listening on a tape.
Dave was in a great mood. He was much livelier tonight than last night. He starts trying to explain why he is sweating so much. He says “According to the National Medical Institute, humans sweat because they are full of heavy metal. That makes sense to me because I suck on big lead balls!” Carter Beauford starts dying laughing uncontrollably. Everyone was laughing. What in the world is Dave talking about? Dave then makes the motion of swinging his big lead balls. It was hysterical.
Dave then says “This song is about lead balls” They play Seven. I love this song too, and it keeps up the awesome opening run of rocking songs.
After Seven, Dave starts strumming the high strings on his guitar and I knew it had to be Hello Again. Several people around us also yelled Hello Again. As I mentioned earlier, Hello Again’s debut was performed at this venue nearly six years ago to the day. This song is a freaking beast. Once again it was so tight. It just rocks out so hard. This song has to be added to the closer rotation. I was jumping up and down at the ending jam. Carter is so effortless in owning this song. He’s my favorite band member and he just drives this song to another level. It’s such a treat to have it back. I hope I get it again at Deer Creek.
After a nice Why I Am, they played #41. I then realized I forgot to floss my teeth, so I drove home really quick and cleaned up my choppers very well. Hey good dental hygiene is important. I then came back in the venue, showed my ticket to all of the ushers and found my seat in time for Tim Reynolds jam and the final 17 minutes of #41.
Out comes Danny Barnes again. I hope someone tells him the directions for the next stop, and his bus accidently goes to Utah instead of Deer Creek Friday. He is a set killer. Please no more corn bread, and no more of Danny Barnes singing his own songs. No one was happy around us. I’m really trying not to mean, just being honest. Dave should come and play in the opening act and back them up on their songs. Danny Barnes guested at the 2007 Hollywood Bowl and was great, and he didn’t play the same songs every time. He is a talented banjo player. Put him on Last Stop, or Lie in Our Graves, or anything else!
Unlike in Cincy, the setlist immediately bounced back. Nancies is always a welcome song. Boyd and Dave got up in each other’s face like the old days at the end. Of course we were all hoping for Warehouse, but no chance.
Cry Freedom is such a beautiful song. The horns came in on the end of it. The crowd sang this pretty loudly. It’s so great this has been liberated.
I really enjoyed DMB’s performance of You and Me at the Grammys. By no means do I want to hear this song that often, but I enjoyed it tonight. Clearly the females love this song. So Damn Lucky followed and it was well done. Dave started it almost immediately after You and Me ended.
That is pretty much it for me. I have gotten Jimi Thing so much. It was the first time I’ve got it as a closer. Hopefully the last, but I doubt it. Dave was funny in his scat while doing different laugh noises prior to starting his full on scat.
The encore was very weak with Rye Whiskey and Shake Me Like a Monkey. I said it after SPAC, Shake Me is not strong enough to close. Prior to Shake Me Dave mentioned that Tim is from St. Louis. He joked that Tim did got through a lot of trouble making and bad decisions right here in St. Louis. Then he ended by saying Thank You St. Louis for giving us Tim Reynolds. Tim bowed and the whole band cheered for him. Carter stood up and clapped with his sticks.
The medicore encore was quickly made up by catching a stick from Carter! My buddy Minime also got one. Woo! Thank you Carter!!!
The lights are again pretty awesome this year. Fenton and his people always do a great job. This was the first stage large enough to put the big video screens above them. That was really cool. Loved that. I also really dig the rock pattern in the background.
I had an awesome time tonight, and I was with some great seat partners that made the show even better.
Now a day off and then off to Deer Creek and my home venue! Shows number 99 & 100 next! Thank You DMB for rocking my rear end again tonight! Still chasing Busted Stuff!
Reader Comments (5)
Nicely written. . . the next best thing to being at the show is reading your review the following morning. Well almost! I passed the buses on my way to work this morning (I work downtown a block away) and I am very excited to see what happens this weekend.
Always a good read, thanks for the review
love the comments on #41
I didn't realize Danny Barnes guested on so many different songs at those Hollywood Bowl 2007 shows. I agree I'd love to see him being used on LIOG, Bartender, The Stone, Don't Drink the Water.
I loved Barnes after having him guest at my 07 shows, Woodlands, Dallas, HBowl n1 and n2...now I hope he breaks his hands.
I wouldn't even really care if having him there meant Cornbread every time...just playing his own songs is awful.