Stand Up!

See, I told you I was gonna run a little wild and maybe even go see some of that rock and roll music.

Last night I went to see The Dave Matthews Band in Manchester. It was an awesome show, and especially fitting that it was an awesome show since it was the first time that the DMB has ever played in New Hamsphire. It was also the largest crowd (11,400) in the short history of the Verizon Wireless Arena. I haven't been to an indoor DMB concert in several years, and I was especially impressed with the crowd's energy. There was a LOT of singing, dancing and general carrying on.

Mrs. Idiot, who has been my trusty concert sidekick lo these many years, decided to sit this one out so I took one of my plethora of nephews, a college kid who had not seen Dave Matthews before. I think he was suitably impressed.

The night started a bit strangely, because it was the first concert to which I've brought an Italian Sandwich. A buddy of mine works with Dave Matthews and since it was an extra special treat to have him come to New Hampshire, I had to hook him up with a Super Original from Moe's Italian Sandwiches. I explained to the security at the door that I was smuggling in food for a guy in the crew and that it would be going straight backstage and then onto the bus, so it's not really a violation of the "no food in the arena" rule.
"An Italian?" the security woman said skeptically.
"Yep," I nodded. She started to shake her head and say no.
"It's from Moe's!" I said, and she let us in with it.
Once in, it took a while to hook up with my chum, so we had to sit in our very nice seats with our Italian, which of course smelled strongly like an Italian sandwich. I was glad when we were finally able to pass it on, I was pretty sure that some of those people would have mugged us when the munchies hit them.

The one sour note of the evening was that during the song Stand Up, someone in our section cut the cheese. I'm talking this was an inhuman smell. Let me assure my readers that this was no garden variety squeaker; this thing probably would have killed someone had the owner loosed it in a small enclosed space. As it was, set free among the 11,400 people of the Verizon Wireless Arena, it literally staggered several people in my row and then hung around a while. Once we recovered, everyone around us laughed, eyes still watering, except for two very rotund men directly in front of me. We're pretty sure that they were ground zero, and they may have worked together on it.

"Other than that, the show was spectacular!" said Mrs. Lincoln.
Here's the setlist.

Don’t Drink the Water
Hunger For The Great Light
Grey Street
Dream Girl
One Sweet World
Granny
Louisiana Bayou
Don’t Burn The Pig
Bartender
Crash
Everybody Wake Up
Stand Up
Jimi Thing *
#36/Everyday
Ants Marching

Christmas Song
Tripping Billies

* For Jimi Thing, opening act Mike Doughty came out and did a fun little scat/rap thing with Dave.

Extra special thanks to my chum for the tickets and the passes. You know who you are and you totally rock. Hope you liked the sandwich!