Hershey 7.13.13

[spoot388]

What a weird fucking show. Not just the set either. Everything about tonight was just

First off, that coors courtyard thing is idiotic. get your ticket scanned so you can go into an "exclusive party" area that is not even connected to the venue itself and that has a merch stand and some food tents? makes no sense to me.

Kool and The Gang was a really fun opener. that was about the only thing that went as expected tonight.

It was still pretty bright out when the "house lights" (stadium lights) went out, so maybe people didn't realize they were on and were then turned off. it seemed like half the crowd didn't react to them going out. most places the crowd goes nuts when the house lights go out. hershey seemed like half the crowd didn't know it even happened. the crowd sounded like it was 200 people, not 20,000. i was in front GA and that area was into the show, but you could tell that the rest of the crowd just was out of it the entire night.

the sound was different too. tim was turned up WAY high, but it seemed like everybody else was up higher than normal. carter's snare was ear piercing. the sounded didn't seem bad to me, just really loud. one of the tapers that was near me commented that his levels were off the charts.

Squirm - standard, nothing special. one of my favorites from BW so i didn't mind.

Alligator Pie - finally returns! my other favorite from BW. disappointed it is still only about 5 minutes long. i don't know why they don't let this song stretch its legs.

Louisiana Bayou - kind of annoyed with this one. i like it in small doses but its getting way too much play lately.

Idea of You - i like it but it was already like the 5th time i saw it this summer. dave fumbles with the lyrics a bit.

Belly Belly Nice - standard, nothing special. weird show so far with so many newer songs.

Kill The Preacher - kind of pointless. it was cool the first couple times but now its just forced. its been getting worse every time i've heard it as dave seems to not know what to say when trying to think up new lines so its just the same stuff he usually says for it.

Don't Drink The Water - finally an old song that rocks.

If Only - mark whitfield guested and added that extra layer that this song lacks live. nice little solo towards the end, although i could have done without the wah effect. a more straight forward blues tone would have worked better. still a bit boring live though. put the crowd back to sleep after DDTW woke them up.

Crash Into Me - mark guested on this as well. didn't really add a whole lot as the song was played how it always is played. no extra solo section or anything.

it was around this time of the night when myself and the people around me noticed the giant black cloud coming towards us from behind. the forecast called for scattered thunderstorms and we thought this was one of them headed straight for us. a breeze picked up blowing towards the stage, so the smoke was just getting blown away. there wasn't much left for the lights and lasers to reflect off of the rest of the night. luckily no rain came though.

Drive In Drive Out - one of the highlights of the night for me. took me forever to finally get DIDO and now i've gotten it a few more times. enjoying it while i can. dave fumbles the lyrics a bit but its still good.

Granny - always fun to hear. nice little old-school run going on here that continued with

#41 - finally a big jam. standard performance for #41 this year with the long boyd solo, tim solo, and extra little boyd bit at the end.

Spaceman - why? had such a nice little run going.

Cornbread - not seeing it every other show has lead me to appreciate cornbread. its a fun song and is great live. they need to keep this on the "occasionally" list so we can enjoy it when we get it.

Love Lay Down - biggest highlight of the night for me. only other time i got LLD was scranton 06, some 50 shows earlier. jeff got a little too hyper at the end but overall was a great performance.

Rooftop - dave waived off the 12 string before the start of rooftop. i really like this song, but if they keep this up its going to get old quickly. its been played at pretty much every venue this year. its not as fun when you know its coming. it feels like how cornbread did back around 2008. same as every other performance this year.


PNP > Rapunzel - surprised to see this tonight as it was just played last night. it could have been played because it was cut last year due to a storm. pig and typical were cut last year too. just saying, dave. good version, thought maybe it was closing, but nope

Jimi Thing - with K&TG opening, i thought this was as good of a lock as there has ever been. i was fully expecting a 23 minute jimi with K&TG guesting and i was looking forward to it. so when jimi started with nobody else coming out, i was really disappointed that just a regular jimi was going to be closing, again. the song had a strange feel to it. crowd seemed pretty bored for most of it, which was odd.

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Runnin Down A Dream - never saw it before it was cool to see, but i don't need to see it again. tim's solo just keep going on. dave looked like he wanted to end the song and tim wasn't paying attention and just kept going.

Two Step - wasn't surprised to hear this start. standard version but had a variation of the overflow outro



overall, i wouldn't say it was a bad show. it wasn't particularly great either though. there were some highlights and a bunch of good songs, but it was just a really weird set.

[smokew11]

sound def seemed like it was turned way up. I really enjoyed If Only, and was surprised that there was absolutely nothing added to Crash. Why have a guest if you're gonna do a standard version? Crowd was off last night, but I think there was a good reason for it: they didnt pull in the casual fans with many radio hits, and they really turned off the diehards with at least 5 or 6 songs

[M. Steng]

I share a lot of the same sentiments as the review posted above, especially in regards to the sound. I thought for a couple songs that the bass was going to tear a hole in my chest. I think with a very echoey venue like that, the sound guys struggle with their mix. I felt like I could barely hear Dave singing on a couple songs but I was getting bombarded with bass and horns, probably because that's the side of the stage I was on for front GA.

You're right, it was a very strange evening. Not a bad show by any means, but I probably won't bother pulling the tape from DT.org. Felt like the crowd had a ton of ups and downs to deal with considering the setlist, just didn't feel like we could really get rocking for any extended period of time.

[pjcurcio83]

GA def more rocking as a cowd than side stands what killed the show for me as a die hard fan was paying money to have a seat on the side but not being able to see anything due to the setup I go to the concert to see the band play the mousic i love. Sound on the side also more muffled and lower due to speaker placement. I blame it more on the Hershey setup, but also every year it seems to be less and less people attending, which i think is due to the hershey setup.

[hailtopitt]

decent review but i actually completely disagree with you on jimi thing...would've been nice for K&TG to come out for it, but i realyl enjoyed it...i thought the crowd was into it too, it was actually one of the better songs of the night, and i'm not a huge jimi fan

[Rorschach]

I've seen a lot of hate for this show and, hey, everyone's entitled to their opinion of course...but me and the people with me? Loved it.

4th show for me (3rd for my wife, 3rd for my friend who came with us) and, really, it was the best experience I've ever had a show minus a couple hiccups (the Courtyard thing is just stupid. That much I think we can all agree on...my friend who was with me was not big on the Two Step closer, but that's just a matter of personal taste - he's not a big fan of the song and never really has been) Had GA Front tickets and got posted up in a great location (reeeeeally don't like the crush in the "middle" closer to the front) about 10/20 yards from stage front on the stage left side of things at one of the little oblong security areas that had a security card/staff member in it (he was a super dude btw.) The people around were all super chill and fun to "hang out" with. At the first 3 show I'd been to (first show I saw them was '99, then '09 and '10) I don't recall even so much as saying a word to anybody around me because everyone was either stupid drunk or just putting off a "don't look at me or talk to me" vibe. Not here though, and it really added to the overall experience.

I had no problems with the sound from where I was at, though Dave's vocals seems a little low in the mix on Squirm, it was quickly fixed by the time Alligator started.

I have seen a LOT of people (on the show reviews through the app) complaining about the set list. Again...everyone's entitled to their opinion, but like I told my wife & friend on our way home the day after the show "if I ever get to the point that I'm so jaded about DMB that I nitpick the setlist like some of those reviews then you have my permission to shoot me in the head." I loved the setlist...yeah, there were a couple songs I'd hoped to hear, just stuff I haven't heard them play yet (Halloween, Captain & Grace Is Gone in particular) but them not playing any of those didn't (and hasn't yet) 'ruined' a show for me or come even remotely close. I guess I just can't get or understand the mentality some people have when it comes to the set list.

I thought the thing that seemed abundantly clear was how into the show the whole band, but particular Dave, was. I know these guys are seasoned vets and know how to give a show and appear to be "into it" and could do this in their sleep at this point...but if that was the case Saturday night it damn sure didn't come across to me that way.


Combine this with the awesome weekend me, my wife & my friend had (chocolate factory tour...hotel hershey...gettysburg...and more) and this weekend will be one the three of us will long remember.

Though, I would point out that it would be nice if the merch table pointed out that tshirts are a slim/athletic fit when such is the case. I bought a shirt (passing on a poster to do so no less) and after being assured it would fit by the pleasant merch guy I came to find out the next day when I went to put the shirt on that...oops...it's a slim fit & it fits about 2 sizes too small. Luckily, the online store customer service is working with me to replace it for a different cut shirt so that massive bummer will be avoided.

All in all nothing happened this weekend to dampen my love for DMB....