DAVE!

Last night was our trip to Tampa to see Dave Matthews Band ("DAVE!") in concert.


Allow me to start with a disclaimer or ten:

• I'm still sick. At this point, I may as well be on a continuous IV drip of ibuprofen to keep the swelling in my left tonsil down.
  
• DAVE! is Scott's favorite band, not mine. I like them just fine, and even own a CD or two (purchased in college, and let's not discuss just how many years ago that was!).
  
• I don't like loud noises. When we saw The Lion King at Bob Carr, we were on the right side of the auditorium and I literally had to hold my hand over my right ear during the songs because the sound level was painful.
  
• I don't like crowds, and lawn seating doesn't do much to protect my personal space bubble.
  
• I don't do drugs or drink beer.

I was prepared to go into last night and grin and bear it for the sake of Scott. I was going to be on my best behavior, since we were going with his friends. And I was going to get just as wild and crazy as he did.


We got rooms at the hotel across the street from the fairgrounds. We got to the hotel around 2:30, and our room was oppressively smoky. We knew they were sold out, and the odds of getting another king room were slim to none, and we figured we were going to come back with lungs full of a variety of second-hand smoke anyway and probably wouldn't notice.

We hung out for a little while, and then drove across the street to tailgate in the parking lot. We got there early enough to claim a spot in the shade of a big tree that even had a picnic table. We were front-row for drunken football and frisbee antics, a dramatic vomit incident and I was happy to see volunteers walking around collecting recyclables and registering people to vote (the latter, no surprise, were all Obama volunteers). After our "linner" of grilled stuff and cookies and watermelon, we headed up towards the amphitheater and spread our blankets out in a pretty decent spot. I stretched out on my back and listened to the warm-up band and watched the clouds go by overhead and marveled at the overall pleasantness of the evening.


And then the rain started.


We knew it was coming. There was pretty spectacular lightning in the distance that was most definitely getting closer. The temperature was no longer sweltering, and there was a lovely breeze. The clouds I had been watching were darkening shades of gray. And then we started to hear the thunder.


About the time the opening act left the stage, the sprinkling rain turned into a deluge. This was your typical Florida 3:00 thunderstorm... 4 hours late. All of a sudden, my jeans and white t-shirt were a horrible error in judgement (not my first of the day - see smoky hotel room above). I wrapped my fleece blanket around my shoulders, more for modesty than to actually keep me dry, and hunkered down into the grass. The drunken morons sitting in their metal lawn chairs cheered every time a lightning bolt hit close by.

The worst of the storm let up about the time DAVE! took the stage. So we all got up and stood for the show. I have to say, I was impressed. There wasn't one person up on stage that I wasn't really blown away by. Of course, I knew a total of 4 songs played, including a cover of Sledge Hammer. That was a bit of a bummer for me. But I s'pose I could have done some homework in advance of the show. I got the impression that Scott didn't know much of the new stuff either, but he was in his zen-like DAVE! state. They could have played Happy Birthday for 2 hours straight and he would have probably been thrilled.

I never did dry out, and my jeans added a ton of weight to my bottom half. Standing on a hill proved to be incredibly uncomfortable for my feet, knees, hips and lower back, so I sat down for a while. Unfortunately, sitting compressed my bladder. I could see the bathrooms from where we were sitting, but I knew if I got up and left my group that I would never find my way back. At one point, I started having these crazy "I could just sit down and pee in my pants and no one would even notice" thoughts. But I talked myself out of that!

The full bladder definitely detracted from the show. During one song, I turned around and asked Scott if they had to have every single band member do their own little jam session in every single song. OMG - I honestly don't think they played more than 10 songs total. The songs. lasted. forever.

(sort of like this entry! yes, I'm aware)

That's really my only complaint about the show itself. It was great. And I probably would have even enjoyed the jamming if not for my intense desire for the show to be over. Of course, I would have been happier had I not been sick and wet, and had I not been surrounded by a whole lot of pot-smoking drunk people more concerned with taking funny pictures of each other than with the actual show. But you can't control the people.

All told, I had a better time at the concert than I expected to. In fact, I had fun. Scott did too. Though I think the rain dampened his spirits more than he would admit to me.

And I think it took less than an hour to get from our seats back to the hotel (with stops at the bathroom - yeah, I caved - and merchandise area so Scott could get a hat). Our room was still stinky, but we were so grateful to get out of our wet clothes that we didn't care. We each took hot showers and then climbed into bed. I think I passed out around 12:30. Sadly, the smoke smell was worse than either of us wanted to admit and we were both awake by 6:30 this morning trying not to breathe.

We decided to just get up and hit the road. When the girl at the front desk asked about our stay, Scott mentioned the smoke and the roaches (two of them... but I only saw one) and she handed him a voucher for a free future night. Yay, La Quinta! Congratulations on your excellent customer service!

Of course, the second we got home, we threw everything we had with us (even the clean clothes) straight into the washer. I jumped in the shower to de-funk, and then went to bed. We got home around 9:30, and I was asleep by 10:30. I slept until 1:30, which almost catches me up for the day.

So DAVE! turned out to be a fun little day trip. I'm really glad that we went. Really really glad.

Up next on the Scott & Jamie Concert Tour: Idina Menzel at HOB on 7/26. That one is definitely my summer concert selection. Of course, I just love her. I don't know any of her music. I'm thinking I should probably start studying up now!