07/18/2009
Dave Matthews Band
Alpine Valley Music Theatre
East Troy, WI
Opening Band: Umphrey's McGee
Not the best of setlists, but the show rocked anyway! We love going to Alpine Valley, but it is quite an ordeal. First of all, the venue is out in the middle of NOWHERE! It seemed like most all of the county roads were under construction, and detours were necessary. We had to detour to get to the motel, and then again to get to the show. (Note to self...we NEED a GPS!)
Tailgating was fun, but I wonder if I am getting too darn old for this. Maybe I am just not drunk enough. We set up camp, and cooked our dinner. We had an area corralled off with our chairs, but there were drunk kids continuously wandering barging through with no regard for what was going on. We saw several of them burn themselves on a grill that the people across from us had set between cars to let cool down. Not to mention the drunk dad who was grilling and telling his teenage (drunk) daughters to pee alongside the SUV at 3 in the afternoon.
Once we got into the show, the freak show continued. Baggy-plaid-short-backwards-hat-wearing frat boys were all over the place. They high fived everyone in sight as if they thought everyone else wanted to celebrate their drunkenness. The show was very good, and lasted well over 2 1/2 hours. I would have liked to see Two Step and / or Watchtower, but it was not meant to be. Luckily, we were in the pavillion. Well...we wouldn't be there if we weren't...since we had a very bad experience in the lawn at Jimmy Buffett a few years back. The place is steep, and it is quite a workout to get out of there. Bryon and I were holding hands so we wouldn't lose each other. As we got near the top of the hill, some drunk kid ran into our outstretched hands...and then proceeded to get pissed at us because we wouldn't let go. "Go hold hands somewhere else!" No, dude...go be messed up somewhere else...thank you! Then there was the girl kneeling on the ground right outside the gate. Sure enough, as soon as we were walking by she started spewing red puke out her mouth. Nice.
The fun didn't end there. When we got back to the car, we found that some idiots had dumped all of their garbage on the ground between our car and the one next to us. Never mind that we (everyone in the area) had made a point to pick up all of our crap before that and put it in the dumpsters. Now we had rotten hot dogs, Jack Daniels bottles, beer bottles, and other assorted crap under our tires. Nice again. It always takes a long time to get out of Alpine, but this time it was exceptionally long. We saw at least three crashes in the parking lot because drunk people thought they saw their big break and smashed into another drunken idiot. That just made it even longer. It was after 2 AM before we even were able to move from our spot. More detours on the way back...and it was almost 3 AM before we got back to our crappy motel. I didn't sleep at all that night because it was so uncomfortable. I fell asleep on Sunday night at 6:30 PM and didn't wake up again until 12 hours later! All reports that I read were that the Sunday show was better than Saturday. Doesn't matter...there's no way that I could have done two nights in a row at Alpine!!
Setlist:
Funny The Way It Is *
You Might Die Trying *
Spaceman *
Corn Bread *
Seven *
Dancing Nancies *
Shake Me Like a Monkey *
Smooth Rider *
Lying In the Hands of God *
Crush *
The Stone *
Alligator Pie *
So Damn Lucky *
Why I Am *
Louisiana Bayou *
Grey Street *
__________________
You Never Know (tease)
Pantala Naga Pampa *
Rapunzel *
Ants Marching *
Show Notes:
* Jeff Coffin
