This is the song that I started Megatrip with.
Schedule for the week:
MONDAY:Arrive in Atlanta
TUESDAY:Concert at Phillips Arena
Wednesday:Drive to North Charleston/Concert at the North Charleston Colosseum
Thursday:Drive to Charlottesville, Va./See the Night Life/Get settled
Friday:Get in Line/Night 1 show at John Paul Jones Arena
Saturday:Explore the town/Night 2 show at John Paul Jones Arena
Sunday:17 hour drive home.
I was on the road again. Headed to the ATL. The most exciting solo road trip ever. I had my tunes and they were blasting. BLASTING I TELL YA! For this is tradition of DMB road trips. Ruin your ears BEFORE you get to the venues. I decided to go to Atlanta the night before the concert so I could just simply hang out with everyone. Met up with Chris and Chris and they showed me the life of a Georgia Tech student and “the lack of attractive women”. (Nerd comes at a price.) I went with him to do homework lulz. We had our first $1 menu meal. (Tradition). The next day we woke up Chris went to class, then we went to print out his tickets. To which I explained our devious plan of how I would repay Chris back for buying me a ticket to the concert that night. Now we May or MAY not have done this. I did NOT print out two versions of my Cville pit ticket. I did NOT ask my friends from Tallahassee to come with an extra print out of his club level ticket to the ATL show. It does NOT work to have your ticket to get into the venue then show the usher the other print out of your much nicer ticket. They do NOT not notice that the person before you had the exact same seat. This does NOT work 🙂
We printed out our tickets then we got dressed. In plaid. In all plaid.
We were the sexiest men in Atlanta. Notice the beard is not a mustache yet. I was waiting for Will to get to ATL from Columbia. Chris and I walked to the venue. It’s inside the CNN center so that was fun to see. We got a few honks and a few “Hey babies” from some ghetto ladies. It was a nice two-three mile walk to the venue. Right when I got there Will called to say he was almost on Georgia Techs campus. So I walked back. We met up then it was time to say goodbye to No Shave November. We both got out our beard trimmers and went to town on our facial hair.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
The proper attire for the shows was: Plaid sports coat,LoVE shirt, Mustaches. Chris failed at growing one…but we forgave him.
Will and I walked to the venue. Getting a few more “Hey Babies” this time from a homeless man. I had one truck full of workers drive by to which one guy replied “What the F*ck is wrong with you!?” Ohhhhhh Atlanta. We went into the CNN center got lunch at Chick-Fil-A (Spicy Chicken..duh) and met up with some of Chris’ friend from Ashville. They met online (how cute!). Jason and company instantly became part of the group. I then met up with my friends Alex,James, and Logan. Alex did NOT bring me a copy of his club level ticket. It was getting about that time so we all went and got in line. I attached my camera to my leg using a rubber band. Sneaky sneaky. And we all got in. Alex did NOT give all of us a copy of the club level tickets. And we all were NOT able to get into the club. We went to our seat(s) and prepared for the show. All trying to guess what song would be played first. Chris and Chris got front row seats. We all slid into our seat(s).
Before the show started I saw a guy in front of me watching a video of The Last Stop liberation from West Palm Beach. I knew the video very very well having watched Twenty-gagillion times. I leaned over and asked “Hey man were you at that show?” He said yeah I filmed this…..I looked at him in awe. “You’re ChesterCopperpot?!?” He stood up with a big grin on his face stook his hand out to shake and said “haha yeah names Jason.” The guy who’s videos had provided me with hours of entertainment was sitting right in front of me. We told him about the thing we did NOT do. And wanted to have our ticket that was NOT on the upper level higher up. This gave him a better angle to film the show. He left us and Logan took his seat making our seating situation much easier.
Trombone Shorty came out and they tore that stage up. Best opening act I’ve seen. They showed us all kinds of Something Beautiful.
In between set’s we all started debating what would open. I said I was feeling Pig. Some said Minarets, some said Stone. People’s hopes were clearly high. The Band came out on stage and then Guh Dun nun DUH. SPACEMAN!?!?!?
What the junk!? That was the weirdest most interesting choice of an opener ever. And the first time it has ever opened a show which was pretty cool. Simply put not a soul could have called that one. Next followed… PIG! I was close haha! This was the first time I ever heard Pig live and it is by far one of my favorite songs. Having heard Pig I had only one more song to see live until I finished the entire album of Before These Crowded Streets. That song was Spoon. At this show (my 10th!) I got my first Say Goodbye, What You Are (with awesome jazz intro), and christmas song! I never in my life thought I’d be able to hear that gem. My hopes were definitely high though knowing it was a fall tour. It was Beautiful. I also got to hear for the first time the “For What It’s Worth” outro to Jimi Thing. The show ended with The Last Stop, perfect start to the week. To make things better Chris got a drumstick from Carter…we hated him. He bragged. A lot…..jerk.
After the show I bought a shirt from an outside vendor that was a burger and the topping spelled out Dave Matthews Band. I thought it was awesome! I then after walking a mile noticed the back design.
Anyone wanna see the Dave Mat-thews Band!?!? It provided a good laugh and an ongoing joke. Outside of campus I noticed my leg was kinda hurting so I lifted up my pantleg and noticed I had left THE FRIGGIN RUBBER BAND around my leg. I’m an idiot. We all walked back to the dorms and got our little amount of rest. We woke up got outta there about noon and headed for North Charleston. Chris was able to get a pit ticket so we all were able to buddy up! The drive over was one of the most fun of the trip. We stopped at a gas station that had Cheerwine for 20 cents a can!!!! Needless to say we bought about 40. The ride consisted of many things. one being this:
What the !?!?Another great moment that happened was that Chris and I were talking about how much we wanted to be front row for the return of Spoon. The very MOMENT we started talking about Spoon…
The song came on shuffle. We were so freaked out we took a photo ! We had this gut feeling we would get something Spoony in North Charleston. We arrived to the venue (with our plaid! ) and approached what was already a fairly decent line. We met a few people who went “Hey you’re the plaid guys!” hahaha. Christiana and Nikki who were both repping LoVE shirts became our first friends at the venue. All of us sharing our DMB stories. The best part of Dave shows…the community.
Before the show we met some great folks. I handed out the fiftyish plastic spoons I had to all those people waiting patiently in line. They finally clarified the Warehouse line (which Will and I had) and the general line which Chris had. We all were strategizing the quickest route to getting front row. Time came for us to get inside annnd we soon realized this venue was not prepared for what they had coming. This was THE MOST unorganized venue I’ve ever been too. They almost let the regular lines in before The Warehouse (who get in early). We all started whining and they let us in first. Will and I blitzed up the stairs then down to the floor. I was able to get a row back in front of the mic. The people in front of us made it very quickly clear they did not wanna share any bar space with anyone so I contently stood second row. The three now known as “plaid guys” were born here. People left and right were calling us that. We accepted it.
We made friends with the coolest mother ever and her daughter. Laura and Ruthie. Our introduction to them was (She will hate me for writing this) the mother saying “I would absolutely let my daughter flash Dave for backstage passes.” We were like WHO IS THIS LADY!?!?!? They became our bff’s. This was Ruthie’s FIRST show. Her first show was in the pit front stage. NOT FAIR AT ALL.
We all became the fun group that was surrounded by not so fun people. Probably THE WORST pit I have ever been in. People were violent and drunker than a skunk. This one couple had snuck in an ENTIRE bottle of Southern Comfort. By the end of the show the bottle was almost finished. TWO PEOPLE. Before the show the guy in front of us decided to mess with these two. He told the girl “Aw man I can’t wait for John Mayer to come out!” The girl replied “John Mayer is here?” He goes “Yeah this is a John Mayer show!”
The boyfriend being belligerent slurs out “Hey man don’t mess with my girlfriend! Don’t treat her like she’s some kind of idiot!” This guy being twice his size looks at him and goes “Ohhhhhh big tough boy” then walks up to him and brushes the side of his cheek. I backed to the side quickly thinking there was about to be a brawl. Fortunately there wasn’t. That dude put frat bro in his place! The chick continued to try and use Will and I as handlebars to keep her upright. ( I think she peed herself at one point )
Dave came out to introduce Trombone Shorty got a text haha and we got this photo:
The “Spoon Crew” was into full effect. Trombone Shorty then came out and we got him to put on my shades! He played another great set then the band came out and opened with Squirm. I heard my first I’ll Back You Up at this show! Such a pretty pretty song. A guy had a sign for the song which is why they played it. They then played what I believe to be the best version of Lie In Our Graves that I have seen live. The Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” interpolation was so cool!
After that before Cornbread Dave came up to the mic and saw our Spoons, turned around and played the first few notes of Spoon. I felt like I was the only one who heard it because I was bouncing and nobody knew why hahaha. The whole night we were communicating with Stefan ( the bassist ). He was our buddy. Will and I spent several songs stroking our mustaches and pointing at Dave. He saw us during Lying In The Hands of God smiled and rolled his eyes. Success.
Then came time for the Encore Dave came out for a solo and played Dive In. Dive In was the only song off of Big Whiskey that I had not seen live. So I was very happy to have completed Big Whiskey. After that they teased the last verse of Spoon. I nearly cried. Everyone up front was cheering all screaming CVILLE BABY! We were now “The Plaid Guys who got them to tease Spoon.” Someone had thrown a plastic spoon on stage and stefan had picked it up. After the show I asked a crew member if I could get that spoon back. He then kinda angrily threw a setlist at me. Shocked I was like THANKS! But I wanted the spoon. He looking confused tossed me the spoon and I left with my trophies!
We left the venue more excited than we’d ever been. We knew it was coming. We went to the parking lot and blasted Companion to Central Park’s Spoon. We then left the venue and went to the condo.
At the condo we learned the lovely story of how Will pooped himself while trying to fart and tried to keep it a secret from the people he was talking to. We learned which step we weren’t supposed to step on. We swapped stories and passed gas. The essential man night. We would then wake up our sleepy heads at the crack of dawn and travel to the town where it all began.
****TO BE CONTINUED IN OPERATION:MEGATRIP PART III: CHARLOTTESVILLE****
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