Thanks for stopping by my humble corner on the www. This blog is about the Dave Matthews Band and my recent trip to Indiana to see them perform at the Ruoff Music Center (formerly Deercreek) in Noblesville, IN. This is not a review. This is a reflection on my experience. I’m a music teacher, and a retired professional, who has been a fan of the band since 1995 when I heard them for the first time. Ever onward….

I’ve seen the Dave Matthews Band in Concert only twice before my trip to Indiana. Once in 2015 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, IA, and once in May 2019 at the same venue. This latter show has been selected for broadcast on Sirius XM. This show was a safety valve of sorts as just one month earlier we lost my stepson Caleb at the age of ten to Budd-Chiari Syndrome. This is a rare liver disease. I vent about this in a previous blog.

Why haven’t I been to more shows? Well life happens. As a professional musician developing his own career in the 90’s, 00’s, and 10’s my work schedule prevented me from enjoying the tours of many artists. I also had to consider finances, raising children, job issues, grad school, and eventually severe health issues. When I should have been going to shows in the 90’s I was playing all over the Midwest as a low brass specialist. In the 2000’s kids arrived. In the 10’s graduate school and health crises raised hell on my life.

I’m an audiophile. I have been collecting music recordings since my early teens. Vinyl, cassettes, and compact discs have been my go to for musical experience. Concerts were always to far away. Chicago, St. Louis, Alpine Valley in Wisconsin, or farther. Tickets were very expensive on my razor thin teacher salary. Buying a recording was more affordable. Buying used was even better. I have a lot of like new (mildly used recordings.) I started collecting the Dave Matthews Band studio and live recording releases and then their Live Trax recordings since they became available. When money was available I would splurge and buy a couple or four. This was my live experience. Then 2015 came along. Hearing them for the first time live was awesome.

My boys saw the 2015 show with me. They were five and seven at the time. My youngest fell asleep and missed his favorite song, Gravedigger, but woke up later in the concert to enjoy it. They opened the acoustic set with Rye Whiskey, and the electric set with Minarets. The show closed with Ants Marching. This is the only show #41 was played at for me so far.

The second time I heard them in 2019. I was a wreck emotionally. I remember hearing them play Crush, The Stone, Crash Into Me and Why I Am. The rest of the show is a blur. I went to work the next day on four hours of sleep. It was worth it to hear one of my favorite songs from Before these Crowded Streets. Two performances separated by four years and whole lot of emotional baggage (divorce, remarry, death of child, financial struggles, etc.) but… I was missing something…

Even though I saw the band twice in Des Moines, IA these performances were lacking something. They were fill in dates on the way to amphitheaters. The band played to a 3/4 filled arena both times. DMB is not a hot item in Iowa sadly. They prefer their politics red and their music country with a pretend Southern drawl… …and they love their fried food at the state fair. I’ll stick to the turkey leg as big as my arm at the fair. There wasn’t a spark in the performance that I heard on the Live Recordings. Those live recordings made me desire to be there in person. To make music with the crowd and the band. Christopher Small called it musicing. It is a community of music when you go to the amphitheater to see DMB.

I hate crowds, but the fifteen thousand or so that were at Ruoff did not make me nervous at all. People talked to one another. Random strangers one minute became song partners the next. Even after the show people talked to me as I walked out of the amphitheater. It was everything I wanted. I yearned for this musicing experience. To sing with the band and the crowd. To hear our exchanges, to see the bands reactions to the crowds engagement. Everyday, Ants Marching, Idea of You, and so much more. We all stood for nearly three hours singing, swaying, and sharing our hearts in music. We all music(ed) pretty damn well. I had never experienced every emotion simultaneously as I did that night. It was a righteous experience. I get why people spend tens of thousands of dollars to go on tour with the band so to speak. I understand why they fly to Mexico in the winter to hear Dave and Tim play.

Musicing is composing, arranging, performing, dancing or listening (singularly and plurally) It can be an individual or community process. The singular performer on stage is not the only one musicing at any given time in the performance. The audience (the listeners) are musicing too. They are processing, experiencing, and participating in the performance in some fashion. The DMB community musics better than anyone I have ever heard. The power of the musicing on both sides of the equation is worth the cost of admission. To hear thousands around you singing with Dave and to some extent you is righteous. The dancing, the swaying, the love that’s shared through this musicing experience is undeniably addictive. I wanted to go back for night two. I now understand what I have been missing. The Jimmy Buffet Parrotheads or the Grateful Dead (heads) had a version of musicing, but the DMB fans!!!! I think we music better than anyone… Sincerely, I think we do. There is something about our shared obsession with this music that fits all of us. For one night or many nights we get to be one with our favorite band and it fills us with unspeakable joy.

I now truly understand why Dave is speechless in between songs. Why he stammers so. How does one react to thousands singing back to you while you deliver your heart to them in songs you co-wrote or wrote. What does one say to that? The giving spirit of music making is on full display at a DMB concert. I know I will have to go at least once a year to some venue to music with them and my DMB community again. I felt ten feet tall after the show. I cried. I laughed. I felt joy. My wife said, “I went to church,” LOL. I did kind of. For nearly three hours I forgot about the troubles of the world and made music with Dave and 15,000 of our friends. It was righteous!!!

Thank you Corn Bread Crew for the Bracelets. My bracelet is around the gear shift of the car. It is a lasting memory while I listen to DMB on Sirius/XM. Enjoy your shows in Richmond. To the couple from NW Ohio we sat next to. I hope your Pit experience during night two was righteous.

There is no dissenting when the spiritual high of musicing lasts for days afterwards. We have one world. We are one species of human. We need to take care of each other. For three hours on Friday-July 11 we all took care of one another in Noblesville, IN. Thanks Dave, Carter, Stefan, Tim, Buddy, Rashawn, and Jeff for a night to remember. Special thanks to the 15,000 other fans for sharing your love for this band and their music with me. This really filled my box with hope… on it goes… like ants marching…