Show Reviews |
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Dave Matthews Band July 20, 2012 Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL Ants Rating: |
Show Reviews
User: AbSoLuT DMB
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WPB Night One was intense...A few too many Tampa repeats but still great energy and awesome crowd. Night 2 should bring some variety to the weekend. Highlights were SDL and Seek Up...Ants never gets old. See everyone tomorrow....Celebrate we will
User: abstracthought
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Overall a really interesting set list. The first two intro tracks kind of threw me for a loop. But the four songs after with teases were great. How could they cut Watchtower for Ants?! We need WATCHTOWER in WPB!!!! Hopefully the slow lower energy show will allow them to really unleash everything tonight before their series break! Give us Big Eyed Fish also! And what ever happened to American Baby Intro like on the extended Weekend On The Rocks!??!!!!! One of their best jams and WPB deserves it. Blow our mInds tonight guys and hopefully the energy stays up the whole set and extended encore!!! See you there !
User: anton13
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Nice show but not worthy of more than 3. Mellow. It was fuckin hot out!
User: betelste
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Great show! Lots of energy and good mix of songs. Very hot.
User: bethany78
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Someone was sitting in my seat (they had a fake live nation ticket i think) but guys next to me let me hang with them and I ended up having an incredible show with them.
User: bhicks99
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Great first hour, nice mix and played till 11:15.
User: bknapp4dave
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Good set
User: Bourbon & Blue
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First night of a great two night stand me and Brannon went down to. Highlights were Beach Ball and Shotgun.
User: brettlackey
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The show started out on fire! The energy died a lot during Mercy/OOMH but DDTW, Ants, and Rapunzel were highlights towards the end.
User: Bwshere
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Good Show, really enjoyed Mercy!
User: carter41dmb
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17 minute so damn lucky almost ruined this show! Terrible. A solid set up to that point, but even ants couldn't bring the crowd fully back from that. New songs sounded great, especially Belly Belly Nice and Mercy. Seven is a mediocre opener.
User: chriswalton2
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Great seats and a good show!
User: CrabbyD
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I agree with most everything that DrewD55 wrote above. It was a solid show, not spectacular, but good. We watched the show from far back in the lawn, a much more mellow experience than our normal front-lawn routine. Liked hearing the new songs, but the segway from Mercy to Out of My Hands is a complete and utter buzzkill. Loved hearing Seek Up, Shotgun, Blue Water, Typical, and especially Whiter Shade - one of my favorite cover songs. Rapunzel as a closer works for me. Going again tonight and looking forward to a powerhouse set!
User: defrasier
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Yawn
User: dianefldmb
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First time in the Pit. Amazing.
Met Boyd as a bonus.
User: DisturbedSaxGuy
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Great show. Pretty mellow night one, which I loved. Seep up was amazing! Highlight had to be blue water->typical. Finally got typical situation!!!! Can't wait for night two.
User: dmbfancrush
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Good show, good set list
User: dmbobby
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Awesome friday west palm show
User: drew1186
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Pretty sweet show, nice and mellow
User: DrewD55
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Hot during tailgating (what little I had of it--had to work the whole day), but pretty beautiful weather by showtime--not too hot or humid--you really couldn't have asked for better.
The show just about matched up to its surroundings as well. Seven opener caught me off guard with how much I dug it, and I'm someone who's spent the last three years HATING that tune. The break from the band did me as much good as it did them, is the best I can come up with. Killer Seek Up, with one of the best horn intros I've heard in a long time.
Really loved Mercy, like, a lot, but the segue into OOMH is far rougher in person than it is hearing it on tape. It just sucks the life out of the place. Florida crowds are tough groups to keep focused anyways, but with that combo, there was an awful lot of chatter, and I'm only glad that at least 2 of the tapers' stands I saw were well above crowd level, so the chit-chat won't drown out too much of the music.
Blue Water>Typical. What can I say? It was a treat to hear Blue Water, even for just a couple of minutes. That one was a long-time grower on me before I really loved it, but I do love it now, so even a minute or two of it was a great treat. To top it off with one of my favorite old school tunes was a well-played bit of setlisting.
Shotgun was a pleasant surprise. Dave and his tech went back and forth a couple of times about which guitar he wanted until he threw up his hands, went to the mic, and said, "I can't make up my mind." He eventually went with the Veillette, and it was nice to hear it again. Given how rarely it's played, I consider myself lucky to have heard it 3 times. I do wonder what the other option was, though. Fonz was noodling around before Dave switched guitars, and I was leaning towards Crush, but I guess we'll see what the setlist has to say.
Tail-end of the main set, though, got on my nerves. I'd only heard "The Riff" on tapes maybe once or twice, and while I'm a sucker for the major chord progression the chorus uses, the rest of the tune really rubbed me the wrong way. It's everything about the band over the last 4 years or so that I don't like: bland lyrics, and waaay too much of TIm and the horns in the mix.
While I'm on the subject, did Boyd do something that personally insulted Bagby? 'Cause save for his two solos, I couldn't hear him at all. Seek Up and Ants were the only times I could hear him, even though I saw him doing a lot more playing than the standing around that he'd been stuck with the last few years.
Then came So Damn Lucky, and while I've never disliked the song, it's not one that I think has ever been primed for "epic jam" treatment, but the band tried it out just the same, which it really didn't deserve. Around the 10-minute mark is where I lost interest, and it kept going for close to another 10, which really wasn't necessary. Considering how close it was to the curfew, I just kept looking at the clock on my phone, wondering what awesome tune was going to get cut from the encore.
Colour me surprised, then, that they gave us a full two songs. Whiter Shade of Pale was a first for me, and it was pretty sweet. Called Rapunzel to close, and it was a satisfying way to finish the evening.
All in all, a pretty good start to the weekend. They left a lot of room for a really stellar show going into the break but didn't shortchange us tonight. Really enjoyed Fenton's lighting scheme this year, which is a lot more simplistic and relies way less on video than years past. It reminded me of older shows I've seen, which left a much bigger focus on the music, and I dug it.
Pretty good crowd, too, and I was around some really great folks. I'll probably never see them again, but it was good to share the evening with people who were really great fans. Hope to meet more of the same tomorrow and get in some worthwhile tailgating this time, too. Cheers.
User: Drummer58
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They were on! Dave put it out there with shot gun and then the way he vocally jammed at the end of SDL! Wowsa!
They have been in rare form this tour?, love seeing it!
User: fishguts621
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good good times.
User: FlaFan09
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Great show! Love WPB. Blue Water>Typical was very nice.
Loved Shotgun also.
User: Fritter
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Could have been a better show. Must have been ballad night. Dave drinking too much before the show I guess. The next night was much better.
User: fsuwharf
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10 year anniversary show and the guys had me jamming all night! Great energy !
User: Gator4dmb
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Great show, too damn hot!
User: greenebt12
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Another good show. Whiter Shade of Pale for the E1 was most memorable song.
User: griffd2004
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Wow a,axing show - my first in the pit ! Loved the crash stuff, surprise 7 opener, loved how they went with the crowd and extended sdl, shotgun was unexpected and great, Dave was pouring sweat literally and ran into some trouble with his monitor because of it, so cool to watch the stage crew this closely. I got a look at the actual set list at the end, they cut So Right and skipped right to Shotgun, and also replaced watchtower for Ants. Didn't love Rif but maybe it will grow on me - Mercy was wonderful! Awesome show!
User: GruGrux420
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2nd row CENTER!
User: illiswillis
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sister
User: irishicon24
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Awesome show until Encore!
User: jammon11
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Good show! not up to normal par of WPB weekends but still not a bad show for a 2 night weekend.
User: jennjami
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Awesome show!!!
User: JohnDMB
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Guy in front of me called Shotgun right before Dave called the switch. Pretty awesome.
User: JPatrickRader
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Definitely a rocking show. One of the more uptempo show I've seen in WPB...They're usually more jazzy.
User: jxm99
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Pretty good setas pretty damn hot and sticky. Cut a few songs from the list but the SDL was on point. Mercy gets better every time they play it.
User: k.jr289
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my best dave show yet!
User: katiewright
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I loved the set list and atmosphere!
User: krispy1970
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Great set! Loved Seven as an opener
User: Lilmalanga
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My first show on five years, first w/o leroi. Solid show, new songs.
User: made2heal
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Beach Ball is enough to make me Happy!
User: marieli
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I can't believe the overall rating for this show is a 4 at this point (Sunday afternoon). No way. I might be harsh giving it a 2, but that's more the truth than 4. I couldn't decide between a 2 or 3 so settled on 2 because of the nine times DMB has played Beachball, I have heard it three times. Still sucks. There was no consistent energy from the band and the setlist had no direction. Came to West Palm Beach based on its growing reputation and was disappointed with this show. There were a few highlights: Seek Up, Typical Situation and Whiter Shade of Pale. But, Rapunzel as a closer, considering he just played it Tampa as the closer, is unforgivable. Thank goodness he rescued himself the following night.
User: mike54704
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Best version of so damn lucky that I have ever heard. Typical situation was badass
User: mthawk07
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Seek Up, partial Blue Water, and Typical Situation were worth the price of admission alone!
User: navyitc
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Excellent set
User: NewPants
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What. A. Show. That So Damn Lucky into Thank You outro ruled so hard. Can't wait for tomorrow!!!
User: patentgator
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Give it a C+, which is unusual for a WPB show. Band lacked energy and seemed to be going through the motions at times.
User: Riley420
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Really strong opening. Seven, Seek Up and Typical were pretty epic. Everything was great until the piano came out and trainwrecked the crowd. IMHO, you can't sing 2 slow songs and 2 new songs in a stretch. By the time the longest version of SDL of all time came around, it was too late.
Ants was great. The encore was too slow, too. Whiter Shade of Pale is a great ensemble piece, and I was expecting more Joe Cocker than Paul Simon. PNP>Rapunzel was nice, but too little, too late.
The guys always play 1 slow set and 1 crazy set here in WPB, so tonight should be out of control. I hope.
User: sbouzianis
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Incredible show, crowd was really into it, killed it.
User: seekup2step
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WENT BALLS TO THE WALL!!! Had all of my best friends in the world with me. Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die is all I have to say about this show!!!
User: shaggydog
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Eclectic mix. Somewhat on the rare side.
User: slappyjam
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Lots of new stuff; decent playlist. Was a good precursor for the Saturday show (next night)
User: sonicdmb41
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Solid Show...Blue Water tease nice how I wish they played the whole thing but still nice.... Seek Up makes the show for me. Any inclusion of LIOG, BOWA,and/or 41 would have been awesome.
User: SunDevil1
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Terrific show. Great treat to hear Typical Situation, especially the way they have been playing it live the last few tours. They need to trot that tune out more often. Glad they swapped Ants for Watchtower. Beach Ball was a fantastic surprise as well. Hoping to hear Write A Song tonight, as well as Tripping Billies. Great crowd karma in the pit last night.
User: TheAssistant
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First half blew me away! Beach Ball, Blue Water tease -> Typical were amazing! Loving the new AFTW songs live (Especially Mercy and Belly Belly!) This was the best of the Florida run in my opinion!
User: thelarry
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5 rows behind the pit...awesome!
User: TOASTERPEACH
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VErrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry chill show... VERY CHILL.....
User: Toojagged
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I had a great time and still can't get over the fact that he ended with my all time favorite song!!!!
!
User: WDBBall50
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Crowd seemed kind of out of it.
User: YDTHF76
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After the run of seek up, SMTS, ASTB, too much, blue water, typical, and you & me I thought the show was going to be insane. OOMH really hurts any show for me simply because it is slow to build and even slower to finish. Pretty disappointed So Right was cut, think that could have revived the show and maybe made SDL a little shorter. My first Shotgun was worth the wait, I think the ending has vastly improved from it's beginning. Very pleasantly surprised by whiter shade of pale, even though it is a cover, it seemed to be well received by the crowd. Show was almost ruined by the drunk couple next to us asking to switch seats to sit next to their friends multiple times during the show.
Overall, it was a good show to hear some rare songs but definitely think the flow was a little slower and could have used a Hallobillie finish instead of PNP/Rapunzel.
User: Ziggy8342
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Besides the humidity decent show by DMB.