campfire anthems

so as you all read yesterday, i went over to tampa’s ford amphitheatre after work to see dave matthews band live.  i couldn’t believe how many people were there.  the parking lot appeared as those people had been there tail gating for hours, eating their hot dogs, drinking their beer and getting high as all get out.  we went up to the box office to get our reserved tickets and entered the venue.  it was pretty funny.  i love watching people, especially drunk ones.  rob and i were also accosted several times with people giving away free stuff junk.  my favorite was this girl trying to sell us $3 stickers to help save the environment from vehicle emissions.  there was also a booth that was trading used crocs footwear in for brand new pairs.  they were just giving them to you if you’d give them your old one.  they would take the old ones and recycle them into new shoes and send them to people in africa.  i think that’s awesome.

close to show time we made our way into the “stadium” area and found our seats.  the first band, gomez, came out and did their thing.  they were from the british isles.  they were really good but i couldn’t get into the music on a regular basis.  once they were finished the clear skies turned ominous.  i seriously thought i was going to get struck by lightning.  it was so close and so loud.  i really feel bad for the people who had lawn seats and got absolutely drenched.  the storm finally passed about 30 minutes later and dave came out.

dave was good.  tim reynolds was playing lead guitar and the dude could rip.  the fiddle player you ask?  amazing.  they had a couple guys on a sax and trumpet who could wail as well.  the drummer brought it and the bass player was top notch.  this is seriously just a talent filled group of musicians playing together.  the only thing was they only played about 4 or 5 hits.  the rest of the music was just this obscure stuff that i had never heard, along with a peter gabriel song.

all in all it was a good night last night.  i had a lot of fun, listened to some really good music, and probably got a second hand high (i did get home and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich).  i only joke about the second hand high thing, but seriously, dave has got some druggy fans.  now i have to figure out who i’ll go see next.  hopefully it will be stone temple pilots in the fall.  we’ll see.