Dave Matthews Band and Widespread Panic

There's nothing like catching a show at a venue that is unfamiliar to you and nothing like buying tickets online to that unfamiliar venue. Sam Boyd Stadium is UNLV's football stadium, and it is huge. After thinking I was smart and buying seats that weren't on the floor, my Las Vegas friend and I sat in the end zone — of a football stadium — and couldn't see a thing. Thank goodness for video screens.
Widespread Panic opened for Dave Matthews, and if I could think of any word worse than "suck" to describe a band I would use it. Macy Gray also opened and for some reason she played before Widespread Panic (bad decision), so we missed Macy instead of missing Widespread Panic and had to sit through an hour of shite…long, drawn-out jams, barely any vox and just plain boring music. The only thing that kept us entertained through the hour of crap was the hippies on ecstasy.
Then came Dave Matthews Band. Granted, I've seen them more than a few times, but I was still anticipating a new and exciting show due to the new album, Everyday, that came out a few months ago. But, I learned a lesson of how important the venue is to the show. From my vantage point, it was like watching a really big screen, sitting next to a bunch of people I didn't know. I couldn't see anything besides a few inch-tall figures on the stage — but what you see isn't that important, it's the music. They opened with a DMB classic, "Tripping Billies," which got the crowd up and dancing, erasing the horror of Widespread Panic and getting us ready for the rest of the show.
The show went on without a hitch, except that they played basically the whole new album and neglected the older songs that come off a bit better live. One of the things that is great about seeing DMB live is you realize how talented and qualified all of the musicians are…Boyd Tinsely on the electric violin always upstages the rest of the band, but the skill of their talent is extraordinary. Overall they played their show and did it well — to an untrained eye — but it is obvious the road is getting to them. There was less of the socialization between Dave and the audience, just pounding out song after song, but that might have been due to the size of the stadium, when last time they played at places like Shoreline and the Concord Pavilion, although large, you can still see good-sized people on the stage.

– Laney Erokan

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