DMB Caravan: A Beer Drinking Event Where Music Also Happened

 

The Dave Matthews Band has indeed amassed a following over the years. This year, instead of a tour, they organized 4 weekend festivals around the country.  Fellow YourPopFilter writer Mike Gravagno and I decided to make the trek up to the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington for a Labor Day weekend camping and music trip.

While Mr Gravagno has no experienced with the band, I used to be a huge follower and have seen them over 20 times, the majority of which were over a decade ago.  I’ve not kept up with them much, but I know they put on a good show.

The real draw for both of us was the other bands playing.  Dispatch just recently came out of a hiatus and I really dig those guys.  I am also a huge fan of both Brett Dennen and Warren Haynes.

We arrived on Thursday in the late afternoon and set up camp surrounded by Dave Matthews flags, shirts, and decorated cars.  A bit excessive by my taste, but I can appreciate the enthusiasm everyone brought.

 

There was no music until the following day, so we wandered around and met some folks. I felt like I was doing ethnographic research, studying the native DMB fan in their native recreational habitat.  Beer pong tables popped up before the tents did and pretty soon it was an extremely festive atmosphere (somewhere a bunch of Anheuser-Busch executives were cackling with glee).

I met people from ALL OVER the country (plus a bunch of Canadians), and most were eager to offer you a beer, or point you in the way of whatever other party favors you might be seeking.  The real fun was in wandering around and seeing how insanely prepared some people were.  Some folks brought a huge pavilion tent, others had one of those trucks that folds out into a stage. Later, a dub-step tent emerged and it kept awake everyone who wasn’t drunk enough to pass out until at least 4am.

Friday morning saw long lines for coffee and breakfast burritos, with yoga pants as far as the eye could see.  A morning ritual was created, wherein people in adjacent campsites sat around, cracking their first beer, smoking their first joint, and attempting to get a handle on the chain of events from the night before (with the requisite 4 million The Hangover references).

Music didn’t start until 2pm each day so it gave people plenty of time to get trashed before making the mile-plus walk into the venue. If you ever go to the Gorge, make it a point to NEVER be sober when making that walk. It is brutal if you’re aware that it is happening.

Music: Day 1 “Wake me up before you Gogol”

Kopecky Family Band
Lemolo
Brett Dennen
Jenny O
SOJA
Blind Pilot
Gogol Bordello
John Butler Trio
Dave Matthews Band

I walked in, mostly looking forward to seeing Brett Dennen, since he is one of my favorite modern songwriters, but he was on the Main Stage, which just dwarfed him and his audience.  He did rather well, but I would much rather see him in smaller venue.

After Brett played I laid on the grass and soaked up some sun until John Butler came on.  I have heard a couple of John Butler’s songs over the years, but nothing has stood out.  He came on the mainstage with good energy and a tight band, but all I could think was “wow this guy has written some decent Dave Matthews songs.”  Inasmuch as it is not a cover band, that is not a ringing endorsement.

I decided to walk around and found Mike laying in the grass near the smallest stage.

It turns out he was napping through the performance of a band called Blind Pilot, which was really good.  I sat down and in between making fun of Mike, I got to hear some really good cohesion from a really good 6-piece Americana band.  Plus, the girl was playing a banjo.  Be still my beating heart.  Here’s one of their music vids:

After Blind Pilot, while the masses were streaming into the Main Stage so as not to miss any bit of the 10+ hours of Dave Matthews’ weekend performances, we walked over to the middle-size stage where Gogol Bordello was starting.

I don’t know where to begin to describe these guys. Gypsy punk music, with hip-hop style Hype-people is a good start.  Whatever they sound like, their energy onstage was contagious and impressive.  I originally told Mike I would chill back and enjoy them from the growing shade around the perimeter, but with each song I was drawn in another 10-20 feet, until I ended up just outside the mosh pit by the end of the set, jumping up and down and dancing like a hooligan.
If you can’t tell, this is a recommendation. Go see them.

After that we caught some of the Dave Matthews Band set and took off to hang out at the campsite. As you can see I’ve been focusing on lesser known amazing bands, and therefore I’ve decided not to review any portion of Dave Matthews music from the weekend.  I’m sure there are dozens of sites that will tell you all about it.

Music: Day 2 “Getting back to my Roots”
or “more bands need a tuba player”

The Silent Comedy
TR3
The Belle Brigade
The Cave Singers
Lindsay Fuller
Fruit Bats
Devotchka
Warren Haynes Band
The Roots
Dave Matthews Band

This was a really fun (and exhausting) day of music.

 

The Silent Comedy are a band from San Diego that dresses in old-timey clothes and and plays incredibly dynamic music.  Imagine if Mumford & Sons rocked out with some electric guitar and a full drum kit once in awhile.  I will be following these guys for sure.  They were also the most adamant about people sticking around by the side of the stage so they could meet all the fans and walk over to see The Belle Brigade together.

The Belle Brigade were good, but I didn’t stick around for their whole set. I really wanted to go see Warren Haynes Band on the main stage.  Actually I didn’t want to see them on the main stage…
I would’ve much preferred to see them on the 2nd stage, but it wasn’t really up to me.

Warren Haynes is one of my musical idols, so I am going to say this with all the love in the world: they were only “pretty good”.  I suppose I can chalk my bias up to a bunch of newer material and an arrangement heavy on horns.  Mr Haynes has a reputation for being able to bring some depth and darkness to his jamband music, but this was a bit heavier on Jazz and, to a slightly lesser degree Funk, and I wasn’t that into it.  There were, however, a few great moments, such as the guest trumpet playing of DMB’s Rashawn Ross, the set-closing rendition of one of my favorite songs, Soulshine, and this one:

After that I went back over to the 2 side stages and caught The Cave Singers, who seem to be from the RL Burnside school of blues, which I enjoy.  I think I might’ve REALLY enjoyed seeing them at some 500 person club somewhere.

 

Next was the 2nd highlight of the day: Devotchka. You might recognize these guys from their work on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack. Their driven music was always switching up, which provided a good balance against a lot of the faux-reggae sound that so many of the other bands had. They also get extra points for this mesmerizing video:

The Roots were a fun addition to the festival. I plead ignorance to the majority of their catalog, but they kick some serious ass on Jimmy Fallon’s show. Basically, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it. I’ve seen a lot of versatile bands, but it kinda blew me away to see this Hip-Hop band be able to switch to Rock or Funk on a dime. And I can never get enough of the tuba, barreling its way through the bass parts.

And again, I skipped DMB and headed back to the campsite to chillax.

Music: Day 3 “Edwarde Sharpe and my musical heroes”

Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band
Infantree
The Moondoggies
The Low Anthem
Antibalas
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Dispatch
Dave Matthews Band

This was the day that many people in the campground were looking forward to.  Many of the hardcore Dave Matthews fans love his acoustic shows with Tim Reynolds. I used to be one of those people. I still greatly appreciate the difference in arrangement that the duo acoustic thing creates, but I do not have the fervor for it that I once did.

The other band that brought a lot of fans to the mix was Dispatch.  This 3-piece band had the talent of a super-group, the energy of teenagers, and the songwriting skill of much older men. They disbanded 7 or 8 years ago and have only recently re-banded after their respective solo efforts. I have said before and I will say again that they are the most exciting trio I have ever seen.

It amazed me how many people I met around the campground had been wishy-washy about coming until they found out that Dispatch would be performing.  It gave me hope about the collective fan-base of the Dave Matthews Band.

Due to the drinking enthusiasm of our camping neighbors, I engaged in some spirited gaming activities and got so “distracted” that I missed Josh Ritter, who I was hoping to see.  Eventually we all somehow collected ourselves and headed into the venue.

I made it into the Gorge in plenty of time to see Dispatch parade out some classic tunes for their fans.  They also played a couple new tunes off of the Dispatch EP (which I reviewed 2 weeks ago) that held up against the tried and true classics.  The highlight was the one-two-punch of The General and Elias to close out their set. This vid shows how awesome Elias can be live.

I’ve seen Dispatch in a few smaller venues, but to see them get over 10,000 people sing along with them made me feel like I had just discovered my inner child…and that kid was HAPPY. Even Mike, who definitely sorta liked them, seemed to be pretty impressed with their performance and crowd involvement.  He mighta been drunk though, I’m not really sure.

After Dispatch played, everything else just felt like icing on the cake.  And Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (ES&tMZ for short) was like that super amazing cream cheese icing with crazy colors, designs, and sprinkles.  Honestly, a couple days earlier I had forgotten they were playing, but during the intense imbibing engagements of earlier in the day, a neighboring campground played the ES&tMZ song Home and I am pretty sure I danced around like a 12 year old girl.

So when they came on the side stage and brought some serious A+ energy, I was again dancing around in that way (don’t ask what that looks like).  They brought the energy and awesomeness so hard that it made me stick around for my first DMB set of the weekend.  I said I wouldn’t talk about it though.  I am a man of my word.

 

 

I think every band that played this weekend has some kind of song with sentiments that ring true with the feelings associated with the end of a festival.  Some are sad, lamenting “End Of The Road”-style songs, while others give off the “until we meet again” kinda vibe.  But this aforementioned ES&tMZ song really hit home for me and sent me home with a smile on my face.

All in all, I had a lot of fun, even amongst the potential d-baggery of a Dave Matthews crowd. I met some great people (big shout out to my new peeps from South Dakota!), heard some awesome music, and soaked in a bit too much sun. Can I do this every weekend? Next time I will be sure to RE-apply sunscreen. My mom made me promise.

In the mean time I will be collecting the videos that Mike & I took and putting them on Youtube. Stay tuned.