Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Did I ever tell you about my most favoritest concert experience? It's going to be about Dave Matthews Band, obvs. I haven't seen them since 2003. But before that, I used to go see them every summer, multiple times per summer. Around February of 2000. I met this girl. Her name is Shayna. She and I used to chat daily. At the time, she lived just outside San Francisco, and I was planning a wedding. Shayna came to visit her dad, who lives in one of the satellite cities of Dallas. And when she did, she came to visit me. And we shopped. And laughed. And we had a lot of fun. When she got back to her home, she invited me to attended the Dallas shows with her. The really awesome part is that her seats were front fucking row. I had never sat front row before. We attended both shows, September 15 and 16, 2000. You'd think that's it, right? But that's just the set-up. So you know how awesome she is about sharing her tickets.

Picture it: July 2001. By now, Shayna and I have been planning this road trip for over six months. The Lovely Ladies are on this summer's tour. On July 15th, we attended the show at Texas Stadium. I have never in my life sweat so much. And I do power yoga, y'all! We were on the field at Texas Stadium, and that is still my only experience there. That show was pretty damn good. They played #41, and I adore that song. We had attended the Dallas show (technically the Irving show) with a lot of people, but only Shayna and I planned to go to San Antonio (technically, Selma) We loaded up George the Beetle with all the things two girls might need on a 4-hour road trip. George had a tape player, so we had a Discman, and were listening to a mix cd. I wish I still had that cd. I listened to it for years. To this day, whenever I hear "Back to You" by John Mayer (and I do. A lot. Because John Mayer is one of the three artists we listen to at work), I think of that trip. We stayed in the world's seediest Holiday Inn. We bought poster board and made a sign. One one side, it said "CARTER 4 PREZ!" and on the other it said "TAWATHA = DIVA"

When *the* concert finally arrived, we were seated in the 5th row. Again, sitting so close is a new experience, and without Shayna, I would never have had it. The actual concert opened with Grey Street. Some three songs later, they played my favorite DMB song ever, True Reflections (I hate to keep bringing up these technicalities, but it's technically a Boyd Tinsley song). The next to last song they played that night was "Angel". During part of the song, Tawatha pointed to Shayna and I and sang "I think I see two angels over there", as we held the sign up and screamed! After the encore ended with "John the Revelator", Carter Beauford walked to the end of the stage, pointed his drumstick at Shayna, and tossed it. But it actually landed a row behind us, and slightly to the left. I leaned around Shay, grabbed the poster and said "You know that's not yours" as I held the sign under her nose. I can still smell the Marks-a-Lot. That thing had a lot of marker on it. "Please, it's my 21st birthday!", she pleads. I reach into my purse, and hand this girl a joint. "Happy birthday. Smoke that. Have fun. But that drumstick is not yours" And then she handed it over, and called me a bitch. I may be a bitch, but Shayna still has that drumstick.

It took like two hours to get out of the parking lot. It was a July night in Texas, so it was hot. It was a Dave Matthews Band concert, so we were high. And we had more fun that night than I have ever had at a concert since.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love those kind of stories you know.
Our trip to Houston for the Woodlands show a few years back wasnt bad either.

Shayna said...

another funny part of the story was when we went to get George an oil change and there was a segment on some talk show about psychos who pose as friends on the internet or something like that.

good times. i still have the stick...it's a prized posession - thanks for being a part of that memory!