Monday, June 21, 2010

D. M. B.

Every single summer, the Dave Matthews Band concerts are some of the biggest events. Drew is literally obsessed with Dave (He will have seen him 5 times by the end of the summer) so I always end up at one or more of his concerts. Dave won't be touring next summer so it's time to take it all in now!
For my birthday in February, I got a ticket to the Dave concert in Cincinnati and they were Pavilion seats instead of Lawn like we always get. I think that Drew thought that the tickets were a great way for him to celebrate my birthday ... in June ... too :) ha! I can't complain though. On June 15, last Tuesday, four of us piled into the car and headed to Cincinnati. Since my birthday is February 12th, two days before Valentines day, Drew and our friend Austin schemed for Drew to get the tickets for me for my birthday and for Austin to get them for Kreigha for Valentines Day. Perfect group! I was so grateful for being in the Pavilion at this concert because it stormed like crazy. We made it though and Dave did a great job. He played a lot of old stuff that I wasn't familiar with but he also snuck in some new stuff which I loved.

I did not however, appreciate the 1 a.m. visit to the waffle house. YUCK! I felt disgusting for the entire next day.

Now I'm not sure if any of you have ever been to a DMB concert but if you have, you know that it is INSANE and if you haven't, you should go! If you're a rookie you're in for a real treat. This weekend, Dave had two concerts in Indianapolis; the one everyone goes to. Of course, all of my friends had tickets but also of course, they were lawn seats. I really just wasn't interested. I like to have fun but man, it can get scary in there! Like I said though, Everyone was going (except for one friend who works at night). So anyway, when I found out that my mom was making the emergency trip to get my grandpa in South Carolina I was really sad because I knew I would be alone at night. Naturally, I decided then that I wanted to go to the concerts but when I called and asked, mom said no. She didn't want me to go up alone, didn't want me driving back alone, couldn't help me if I needed it, didn't have a safe place to park my car, no, no and no.
::pissed::
On Friday, I headed to my job at the daycare down the street and the owner's son and daughter-in-law were there who always have tickets. They said they were going and had two extra tickets for Friday night. My wheels started turnin'! I called my mom and asked if I found a friend to go up with me and leave that night, could I go? She agreed and so quickly I began trying to find people and remembered my old friend Vince who was home from prep school for the summer. He wanted to go! Together, we headed up to Indy in the 100 degree weather and carried our swasses to the lawn. We sat down with all of our friends, listened to the terrible opener and waited for Dave to come out. When the opener ended though, a man came out and said that, "due to severe weather warnings, the start of the concert would be postponed but Dave would play a full set." GREAT!
In typical Drew fashion, he decided to go to the bathroom because there was definitely no way in the world it was going to storm even though the sky was black as black could be. So, he and Vince headed off to the bathroom while I waited in the lawn with everyone else. Just as they left, it started blowing super hard and I knew I had to do something so I picked up all of the blanket, Drew's poster, my water bottles and purse and started walking. Talk about scary!! People were running everywhere and screaming that they had shut the gates. I felt like the world was ending. For real. I was one of the lucky ones though, because I made it into the cement bathroom and stayed there for the 2 hours that it stormed like crazy. I had no idea where Drew, Vince or any of my friends were but I knew that I was safe and if they wouldn't listen, that's all I could do. I found out later that somehow, Drew and Vince had gotten split up and Vince ended up standing in the rain outside throughout the whole storm. Poor wet kid! Eventually it stopped storming, not raining but storming and Dave came back out. Vince and I tried to brave it but we were both freezing in the rain and uncomfortable so after about 2 songs we left.
The ride home was super fun & the conversation was fabulous but I'm thinking that we probably could've driven up to Indy and back and probably even had fun, great conversation for less than 70 bucks. Oh well, what's a girl to do?
I can honestly say that I will never do lawn seating again. For thirty dollars more, it's so worth not losing all of your money because of weather and escaping the terror that is blacked out, puking drunk people. Dave in Cincy was awesome, Dave in Indy ... Not so much. Life is an adventure though, right?

I can say, since my mom doesn't read this blog, that once again I was wondering at the second concert ... why didn't I listen to my mom?? Live and learn.


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