Last night Beth and I made what's become an annual pilgrimage to see the Dave Matthews Band. We last saw DMB at Hollywood Bowl, which was astonishing. It has become my favorite venue, hands down. The acoustics are incomparable. And we are planning to head north to see him perform at the Gorge and do a little camping as well.
Last night, however, we saw them perform at Staples Center. It was a great show, despite the sad overtones as the group's sax player passed away yesterday. But as always, it was an amazing performance.
That said, here's the setlist from last night:
Bartender
Proudest Monkey (YAY!!!)
Satellite
So Damn Lucky
Eh Hee
Water Into Wine
Burning Down The House
Dancing Nancies
Loving Wings
The Maker
Sledgehammer
Grey Street
Dreaming Tree
Crash Into Me
Everyday
Anyone Seen The Bridge
Too Much Intro
Ants Marching
Encore:
Sister
Corn Bread
Two Step
I was a little bummed they didn't play Crush which is my favorite DMB song and has special meaning to me. But they played some great cover songs including Burning Down the House and Sledgehammer. I've been a long time Peter Gabriel fan and have probably seen him in concert more than any other artist. And who doesn't love Talking Heads??
I must say though that despite a fantastic show, I was unimpressed with the acoustics at Staples. I was surprised at how inadequate it seemed. I dont think the venue was a particularly good location for DMB, as they are astonishing live and should really be eard outdoors. The inside of SC was beautiful, though - very trendy. (Makes MSG look like a shit heap. :)
Ah, life in LA...
That said, this actually was my first time at an event at Staples Center. So perhaps last night's acoustics was merely a fluke and not truly representative of how concerts sound there generally.
It seems odd that I have never been there before since I've been living in LA for 3 years now and do get to go out and explore the cultural/sports/music scene fairly often. I've been to Angels stadium many times for baseball games, Disney a gazillion times (we have annual passes), Hollywood Bowl 3 or 4 times. And I've been to most of the major "hip" or formerly hip clubs and restaurants (we blew off hard-to-get 11pm rez at Pizzeria Mozza last night out of sheer exhaustion). I've done the whole gay pride thing here as well. Yes, my social life is alive and well, despite the being a lowly, sleep deprived med student.
This Friday the fun continues -- we are going to see Tom Petty at Irvine Meadows -- my first time there as well.
Good thing my days of studying 10-15 hours a day are behind me!
Posted by LA at August 20, 2008 10:58 AM