Antsmarching.org Forums - Dave Matthews Band Discussion - View Single Post - From "DMB who?" to sitting next to Dave in a club booth @ TR3 in FIVE SHOWS
View Single Post
Old 02-25-2021, 11:58 AM   #3
HonestDenver1
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 693

Shows Seen: 0

DMB Hub Stubs: 0

My Tour Central Stats

Re: From "DMB who?" to sitting next to Dave in a club booth @ TR3 in FIVE SHOWS

Quote:
Originally Posted by GraceBuckley View Post
I was just reading a post on the "Road Trip" discussion and someone raved about their 2005 DMB show at Roseland Ballroom in NYC. This reminded me that 10 yrs before their show, I saw DMB at Roseland, which then reminded me that the anniversary of that 2nd show is TODAY. TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO TODAY! I can't believe it!

Sorry, this will be quite long...

Also of note is, it means that it's the 4th show of theirs I ever saw. I didn't know any of DMB's music, had just heard of them but won tix to see Big Head Todd and I'm pretty sure my 1st ever DMB show was Live Trax Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, 1/31/95. When the tour started, Big Head Todd were the headliners. But as it progressed and the bigger and bigger crowds started to leave after DMB's set and before BHT's set, they quietly switched the lineup so BHT was 2nd (there was another support act 1st), then DMB.

So I went on a 2nd date with a guy to Lupo's and we loved BHT, but since it was a weeknight almost left back to Boston. But I figured "Hey, we've heard of this Dave Matthews Band, let's at least watch like 3 songs before we go.

1st 4 songs I ever saw DMB do were:
Seek Up
Minarets
Dancing Nancies -> Warehouse

Lover Lay Down was after that and, don't judge me, it was a weeknight and we left the show. But not before my mind was blown.

I'll paste the rest of the story from one of my 1st threads on this board (because I was out of the DMB loop for 9 yrs until 2017):

"I went to the first Roseland 2/23/95 show, which was only my 4th show ever. So I have gone from "DMB? Heard of them but never heard them." to "That drummer is incredible and that singer - bring me that singer on a platter!" (For the ladies and dudes who love them some Dave, remember this was back when he was almost so shy, if he wasn't singing he mostly had his back to the audience and was nowhere near center stage. I found that WILDLY adorable, and obviously the whole band was super talented, so...)

So then for my next show at Boston's Orpheum which was totally sold out, in the daytime in effort to find a ticket I am standing in the little vestibule where the ticket window is between the outer doors and the inner doors waiting to talk to a ticket person and out walks Dave. Another fan there who I was not with talks to him and he's very nice to them and tells them he's on his way to the hospital to visit his close friend. Damn. So now this guy is not only kinda shy seeming and wildly talented, he's like the kind of guy who, on a day he's got a sold out show to play in Boston, he takes time to go to visit his friend in the hospital. ::swoooooon:: That show was amazing, and I went to enough shows at the Orpheum that the security let me lurk after the show until Dave came out to say hello to the after show people. My 1st words to him were "Wow, your drummer is incredible!" He agreed wholeheartedly.

I had a very funny experience at the Northampton show which was my 3rd show, but that's a story in and of itself. Bottom line, by the end I went backstage and met the entire band, loveliest people ever.

I'm from NYC, and when I saw they were also playing Roseland (long sold out), I had to try. And my birthday is Feb 25, so these Feb 23 and Feb 24th shows seemed like a fitting birthday present.

I went Greyhound bus down to NYC and found a ticket quickly. I'm short, and Roseland is a wonky shape and I know the best place to sit is on a little side stage/ledge thing that is usually VIP, and was band guests for these shows. Saw the tour manager MM who I'd met in Boston and Northampton, so he let me sit in that area. There are no open tables but these 2 super nice women see me searching and invite me to sit with them. They are lovely and tell me they're friends of someone I've never heard of named Coran. I don't know who he is but when I meet him I quickly figure out he's central to the DMB folks, and am super grateful when he sorts me out for night 2 tix at Roseland.

As I write this, I think I have the right order of what happened after the shows but I might be getting the 2 nights mixed up. I think after the 1st show the 2 women invite me out with them and the whole band goes to a tiny Irish bar that they'd become fond of at prior NYC visits. It was super cool to be there with Coran's friends and meet the whole band again.

Night 2 (my 5th show), 2/24/95, I sat on that little side ledge again, absolutely ROCKED OUT to the music because between 1/31/95 and 2/23/95 I'd played UTTAD a zillion times and knew it backwards & forwards (but not Recently or R@T yet). Both shows were great but there was something extra insane about the energy N2. Plus John Popper & Trey Anastasio came out for the last songs and the notes here on Ants say that is still one of the most popular Watchtower's ever. It was my 1st with DMB I think and I was totally blown away.

Now somewhere late in this show, Dave mentions Tim Reynolds, longtime friend & partner in crime & collaborator, and that Tim's band TR3 is playing at a club called Fez, and they're all going over after the show. And I remember thinking "No way in HELL did they just tell 3,000 manic fans where they're going to hang after the show" so I didn't believe they were really going. But Coran's nice 2 friends invited me to share a cab with them and, well first after the theater was emptied, the band and guests gathered around one of the bars in Roseland to watch David Letterman. The notes here say it was their first appearance on national t.v., and needless to say looking back it was crazy to watch it air WITH the band righht there (and a lot of their friends). It was also the 1st time I met some of the band's girlfriends.

So then the 2 women and I go to Fez, and I figure hey, why not go even if the band won't be there, I'll get to see a musician the band thinks highly of. Walk into Fez, first I see Carter and he's super nice and talks, then Stefan who I talk to, and then Roi. All super friendly and sweet and surrounded by friends.

We go sit in a big booth, those big red Prohibition era booths, cuz Fez is like a speakeasy club. I end up in the middle of the booth, so good thing I have a strong bladder LOL! Soon after we sit down, Dave walks up, and everyone to my right gets out of the booth to let him in. Which means... he slides in and is now sitting next to me. 5th show in and I'm sitting in a booth, NEXT to Dave Matthews. No easy exit for either of us. He knows I'm a new fan so he probably was a bit "Erm, not my 1st choice of seatmate" in his head, but I knew the drill, stayed very calm, didn't fangirl out at all, and tried really hard not to bump elbows or knees. Only talked to him about Tim & TR3 which he was happy to talk about. A few times his girlfriend (now wife) came up to the table and they spoke their own sign language across the table, but she had her own table full of friends so she sat there. So I sat next to Dave for an entire set of TR3! When they went for a break, everyone got up and Dave left (was it something I said?? ). He made the rounds and that was the end of our quality time in the booth with 8 other people. But the whole Roseland experience... what an entree to DMB live, DMB's music, and the amazing people that make up the band, crew, management and fans! <3

And how crazy was that luck!?! Still shake my head even today, TWENTY-SIX damn years later. Several of the things that happened those first few shows were mostly because I was used to just walking up to random people and asking questions to start conversations. But the Fez thing was an extra dose of pure absurd fangirl luck to end up seated RIGHT.NEXT.TODAVE. for a whole TR3 set.
Super cool! I also sat next to Dave at a show back in 1994. I was in Boulder after they played at the Fox Theater and he came next door to Tulagis where a member of the Samples was playing with a different act.. I really didn't even know that DMB was going to be a big thing, but we chatted for awhile about the Samples and Red Rocks and South Africa. He said if they were ever were to release a big live album they'd do it at Red Rocks. He was very grateful to Colorado and the music scene here inviting the band out for there first big trip away from the east coast.
HonestDenver1 is offline   Reply With Quote