More Fearing and Loathing……of AC

Haven’t blogged for awhile.  It’s been due to this dark, twilight-ish weather than has set upon New England in place of spring.  Usually this time of the year, I start to break out my summer tunes: lots of DMB, Grateful Dead, Marley.  The good stuff.  The sun has gone on a long vacation.  It left its sadistic cousin, rainy/cold/windy thing, to watch over us.  So I find myself wanting to permanently cocoon in my comforter, inhaling the sweet sounds of The Cure’s “Disintegration” (best album ever) or anything Radiohead.  Oh, it’s the spring of my discontent.

For inspiration and hope,  I’ve started to think up the upcoming DMB caravan tour.  I told my brother yesterday that I must be a super dedicated fan to commit to going into New Jersey and then Atlantic City on top of that.  There’s a yoga festival in Vermont that same weekend.  Nature, yoga, meditation, great teachers and some great music.  Instead, I chose loyalty to DMB.  Don’t get me wrong, I am psyched to do a festival and over the moon to see DMB.  I am having some fear around going to Atlantic City.  No, I’m not afraid because of all the stereotypes out there of this place.  My fear is more of an energetic one and one based stories of those who have caravaned to AC in ye olde past. 

So, I think to release this fear, I’ll just need to explore and write more about my feelings on this lovely blog site.  I will overcome this fear with frantic typing, run on sentences, made up words and the hope that I can only be as witty as Dave’s comments in the middle of a set.  Joy!

 

August and Everything After……..

Baffled.  Mystified.  There must have been another plan and it didn’t work out so this was plan b.  Plan baffled.  One summer.  Four festival shows.  And you put two of them near each other location wise?  And another two near each other date wise?  Hmmmmm……….I think I will mail DMB management a calendar (I think I have an extra DMB one around here somewhere) and a map.  See kids what happens when you smoke a some mj (side effect-disorientation to time) and eat the kind of mushrooms that you can’t buy in the produce section (side effect-disorientation to what planet you are on).  Just sayin……..

 

Remember When…………

Do you remember when anticipation was a sweet experience?  Maybe almost mundane as year after year it was a one shot deal.  The dates arrived neatly tucked into one email.   The schedule was more or less predictable as were the venues.  On occasion there would something unusual: a new place or maybe a show would shift to a different month.  Or maybe we’d change it up a little by turning our tailgating to a gourmet grilling experience.  Or the year we went to Saratoga a day early to spend the day chasing band members with some success.  Remember when you didn’t lose your mind planning for the summer shows?  Ah, those were the days…….

 

All I Have to Say

All I have to say is that I would like to vote for the August caravan festival to be at the Meadows or whatever that place is in Hartford.  That’s all I have to say.

 

DMB, Modern Day Gypsies

Have you heard about these band of gypsies called DMB?  Their caravan of modern-day merry pranksters are heading to where all modern-day american gypsies want to go: Atlantic City. Hmmmm, where to start with this one.  First, here is a definition of  ”caravan”: a group of travelers, as merchants or pilgrims, journeying together for safety in passing through deserts, hostile territory, etc.  Well, AC could be considered hostile territory if you are not from NJ.  My fear of NJ has only grown with due to viewing of a documentary of tribe of people who live near the shore.   I am thinking I need to assemble my own caravan before traveling down to ye olde casinoland, just to be safe.  Back to the definition, are the boys merchants?  Pilgrims?  Well, they sell some lovely live music sets. And Dave most certainly seems to be on some sort of magical pilgrimage.  Dude, just where are you going?

When I think of the word caravan, I think of gypsies.  I think of hippies and/or deadheads.  I think of the word bohemian, which makes me think about my other blog, the bohemian yogini.   I feel an early to mid 90′s post modern hippie-boho-gypsy kind of event coming our way in…..Atlantic City.  WTF?!  I am confused.  Camping?  Sure there is, down the road at some local trailer parks.  Tailgating?  No days/nights of grilled goodies and long line for scary portable  blue plastic peeboxes.  Casinos frown upon open flames and games that don’t cost you anything but your sobriety.   I am always open to new experiences, this should be an interesting one……..

 

FINALLY

Yes, yes, we got some news and got a “save the date” email, just like you get for weddings.  So at least I know to clear up a weekend for the Northeast/Mid Atlantic show.   We still don’t have much info, but it’s a start.  I have a magic 8 ball app on my phone so I decided to use it to figure out some additional details of the four mini-festival dates.  Here is what I got:

Question: Will there be a show at SPAC?     Answer: Outlook not so good

Question: Will there be a show at Gorge?   Answer: Ask Again Later

Question: Should I pull out my camping gear?   Answer: Without a Doubt

Question: Is this going to be one of the old school festivals where people set things on fire like Woodstock 99?   Answer:  Without a Doubt

Question: Will Halloween become an opener?   Answer:  Concentrate and Ask Again 

So I shake and ask again…………Answer: Without a Doubt

Question:  Will drunk people try to punch me again?   Answer:  Outlook good

Question: Will there be a show at the Gorge?   Answer:  Concentrate and Ask Again Later

Question: Am I getting too old to do all this?   Answer: Most Likely

Question: But, the band members are all older than me, so how come it’s okay for them to do this and not me?   Answer:  Outlook Good

Question: So, are you saying that it’s okay for me to do this?   Answer:  My Sources Say No

Question:  Well, I am not trusting your sources since you are holding out on my about the Gorge    Answer:  Don’t Count on It

Question: Well, maybe I’ll just pull out my Ouija Board and get some real answers on this……   Answer: Yes

See what happens when you have to wait?  You start consulting the underworld via a droid app.  Yup, still young enough to do all this…….

 

The Campaign

First of all, thanks to Antsmarching for pointing out that Dave and Eddie Vedder have played together before.  The thought of the two of them together on stage is like….heavenly.   Eddie nutty?  Really?  Where does that come from….is it from what he says at shows?  That’s the red wine talking.  Have you heard what Dave says at shows?  That’s,  well, many natural things talking at once.   Goodness, I can only imagine what the hell I would say or do if I was in the public eye.  Let’s all be happy I’m not.  But I am not here to debate, I want to campaign!

 Since both DMB and Pearl Jam are celebrating their 20 year anniversaries, shouldn’t they do something together?  There are many of DMB fans who also love PJ.   Deep dark secret-I was in love with PJ before DMB.  In high school I had quite a crush on Mr. Vedder.  My first PJ show was in 1994 out in Springfield, MA.  Mudhoney (love them!) opened and it was a couple of days before Kurt Cobain died.  My friend and I had a plan to kidnap Eddie and bring him back home.  We were hoping he would just sing for us.   Ten was one of those albums that defined my youth.  The lyrics and music were just the perfect blend for teen angst.   Oh the nostalgia……no wonder I bought some Doc Martens and flannel shirts recently. 

I didn’t see my next PJ show till 2003 but I always see those guys when they come around.   A couple of summers ago, I saw two PJ shows and two DMB shows in the same week….hardcore!   Thankfully they were shows down in Mansfield.  If they were Hartford shows, I would still be recovering.  So the campaign is to have both bands play something together, just a song will do.  I know that one band has traditionally fallen more under the “jam” genre and one is more “post modern punk” but DMB have been really rockin it lately and PJ have explored a mellower side.  Maybe they are ready to meet somewhere in the middle.

I can picture both bands on stage, Carter and Matt banging away;  Stefan and Jeff grooving ; a sick sonic guitar trio of Tim, Stone and  Mike; Boyd, Jeff, Rashawn and Boom weaving it all together and then those two other dudes strumming their acoustics and mumbling something into their mikes.  Let it be a festival where I can camp and continue to develop my hacky sack skills.   I can yell “yellow ledbetter” and the band that actual plays that song will be there to play it (though I enjoyed yelling it at the summer DMB shows).  Common ground? Neil Young, just cover some Young songs, it will all be good.  So let the campaign begin: DMBPJ 2011!!!!!!

 

Back To Where it All Began……

Best news ever yesterday-DMB playing four festival type events this summer, more info to come.   Whew, the stress just dissolved.  I was trying to figure out what to do with myself this summer, no more worries on that.  I’m thinking Bonnaroo?  Some sort of Gorge event?  All this talk of festivals takes me back, back to where it all began…….with the live shows.

The first time I saw DMB was at a festival.  A big, scary anti-love festival called Woodstock 99.  I had missed the opportunity to attend Woodstock 94, the mud filled event for Gen X.  So when 99 came around, I was determined to go.   I convinced my then-boyfriend, now-husband to attend, promising it would be greatest time ever.  Ever!  I also took along my brother, who was 20 at the time and loved music and concerts.  This was the official start of our shared obsession of going to DMB shows.   As kids my brother and I had gone to a ton of shows, it first started with my parents taking us to Hall and Oates (they have seen them a zillion time).  We also started to go to shows with some of our cousins, saw many “classic” 80′s musicians: Richard Marx, the Jets, the MTV tour with Paula Abdul AND Milli Vanilli!  Yeah, you know it’s true.  So back to Woodstock 99…….

We roll into Rome, NY early, because I always want to be the first person in line, no matter what the event.  Everything was good at first.  The festival was held on a large defunct military base, there were camping areas with trees, clusters of portable restrooms, two stages and a ton of open space.  We camped right next to an Ace hardware tent, which had anything we forgot.  This was Thursday.  Friday was the official start of the festival.   Lots more people showed up.  Everytime we left our tent, we would come back and find someone moved it slightly to squish in another tent.  By the end, it was tent wall to tent wall.  So you literally were separated by two thin tent walls at night, nestled among strange people.  Then we realized how much everything cost; a gallon of water was six dollars!  There were only two places in the whole event that had free running water and one of them broke, though by brother had his hero moment when he fixed one of them.  Did I mention it a hot and humid 90 degrees? I became somewhat comatose with the intense heat and sun.   Since we were closer to the smaller stage, I saw more acts there than the main one.  Great sets from moe, Chemical Brothers and George Clinton.   To me, this was better than many of the angry rock type bands that were on the main stage.   Between the heat, high prices, lack of resources, portable bathrooms that were never cleaned and flooded tent sites and then add in some angry rock music, it truly was formula for disaster.

The DMB set was a beautiful and peaceful moment in this jungle.  I vaguely remember the set list, really what I remember was that it was positive, upbeat and about the love.   A lot of other acts were yelling and screaming about something.  I didn’t want to hear bands singing about a sandman entering my dreams or that you have to do “it” for the nookie, whatever the hell that was.  DMB was one of few acts I saw on the main stage who had music that was grounding versus enraging.  Don’t get me wrong, I love punk and some other types of dark, angry music.  Yes, I think Disintigration by The Cure is a true masterpiece.  But the positive energy of DMB really stood out for me when they played on Saturday. 

It was all downhill from there, you could feel it coming.  By Saturday night, I knew it was going to turn ugly  We we walking over toward the rave and someone had set fire to the Haagan Daz ice cream cart.  Ice cream!  People were complaining that the  ATM’s were out of money and they didn’t have money to buy any water or food.   A good recipe for a looting.  There were scary rumors floating around that females were being attacked and raped in the pit close to the main stage.      The event got very dark very quick.  We became concerned enough that by Sunday afternoon we decided to bail.  I missed the crowning event of blazing fire set by the crowd during the Red Hot Chili Peppers set.  There was a long line of cars trying to drive away as fast as they could, probably also sensing the impending feeling of doom that had settled into the event.  

So in the darkness there was a light called the Dave Matthews Band.  I saw them again that summer in Hartford.  It was the night of the big riot down there, when they flipped cars and set them on fire.  People started to ask me why there were riots wherever I went.  That kind of blew my theory that dark angry music=rioting.   I guess it was all the pre-millennium angst that caused people to be unhappy.    Who wasn’t scared about Y2K?  Maybe the world was going to end, or at least the computers might think it would.  I don’t know if this is what Prince was visioning when he sang about partying like it was 1999.  Partying is not equal to rioting.

So, as we wait to hear what festivals DMB will appear at, I am sending out positive thoughts, hoping that the only fire I see will be the one at my campsite………

 

Oh the Snow

As the post holiday blues (or bliss) set in, my attention is drawn one important task: obsessively tracking the weather, watching those beautifully churning blobs of color migrate up the TV or computer screen and then taking decisive action to plan for the snow event (or sometimes lack of).  This is normal behavior if you live in New England. 

So as another storm paralyzes me in my abode, I shift my thoughts to happier and warmer events: summer and shows!  But there aren’t any shows to think about.  Every summer is always planned around seeing DMB shows to the best of my ability.  What the hell am I going to do this summer? So I have been brainstorming ideas of things to do to fill my time (when I am not working, that is.  I do have to work to support my addictions of DMB and yoga):

Find Another Band to Follow: I really love PJ and I hear they are doing a festival to celebrate 20 years (oh my I am getting older).  How about a tour guys?  This is the band I have seen the second greatest number of shows, though nowhere near as many as DMB, but they tour a lot less.  One of my dreams is for Dave and Eddie to do some sort of acoustic song together, just once.  That would make my summer.  Phish?  Eh, I like them, but I don’t see myself following them.  All those crazy superfans who know all the words and can tell you the last time a song was played……oh.  MMJ?  That could work.  There are many great bands, but for me there just isn’t a replacement for the DMB summer concert experience

Follow the Band That’s Not on Tour: This is too creepy, even for me.  I could just “hang out” in the cities where band members live, figuring out their haunts, hoping they don’t actually take a real summer vacation.  I spent a whole day up at SPAC trying to track down band members this year.  We did meet Tim, just walking down the street.   Found Jeff but he was eating lunch with family so we respected that.  We sat next to some roadies at an outdoor café who had nothing but positive things to say about working for the band (not to me, to the person they were with).  So with a little more effort and creativity……..I really could spend the summer with the band, until the police kindly ask me to stop squatting in a tent in front of Dave’s house.

 Follow a Yoga Teacher: This would be great.  I could follow Shiva Rea or John Friend or some other teachers who tend to navigate the globe, bringing love and bliss all wrapped up in a yoga class.  Some teachers have live musicians during class, playing hand drums or a sitar.  There is a teacher down in NYC, Alanna Kaivalya, who posted on Facebook a couple of days ago her three favorite things after family and friends.   DMB was #3… my soul sister!  One big plus: I find that people at yoga events are much mellower and friendly than at shows.  And typically no one vomits during a yoga class. 

Chill: I could do nothing, just relax and enjoy the summer, visit with the husband and family.   Take up a new hobby, do some much needed work around my house, settling down in suburbia.   Yes, this sounds mighty exciting.

 I clearly have some work to do but I have time.  My mind today is just like the weather outside: fluffy, fuzzy and with limited visibility.

 

Today

Drinkers and jokers. all soul searchers
Searching for love love love
Love love love
Love love is all around