The Dave Matthews Band has worked hard to cultivate a reputation that they are a band who cares about their fans. Unsurprisingly, the DMB used their popularity to turn the New York leg of their summer tour into a weekend festival that would present established acts like the Barenaked Ladies and the Black Eyed Peas and give exposure to wonderful new burgeoning superstars like Ray Lamontagne and Robert Randolph & The Family Band. While the DMB should be commended for putting together a terrific slate of performers, their choice of venue was horrific. On this last weekend in July, the Dave Matthews Band showed not love and respect for their fans but rather complete and utter disdain for their audience’s concert-going experience.
DMB billed their weekend shows at New York City’s Randall's Island, an inconvenient and relatively inaccessible venue, as an Island Getaway. Although they created a viable festival atmosphere, complete with a wide variety of food and beverages, the resemblance to any proper lawn concert ended there. Notably, there was no lawn! Concert-goers with general admission lawn seats, who were forbidden from bringing beach chairs and the like, were offered a large expanse of dirt for their blankets. Within moments of claiming a patch of dusty earth, each blanket and its occupants were immediately covered with the dirt kicked up by the breeze or tramped onto them by other people ambling through the grounds. Those who seated themselves to the rear of the lawn were forced to watch the bands through a Pig-Pen like quarter mile dust cloud that defiantly hovered over the crowd. This weekend's badge of courage is surely a hacking case of "brown-lung."
Inversely proportional to the excessive number of food and drink vendors were the number of garbage cans. Those that did exist quickly overflowed and were rendered useless by 3:00 in the afternoon. Rather than create garbage mounds in the vicinity of the cans, fans simply dropped their refuse at their feet. If your ideal concert experience involves sitting and standing amongst garbage, this weekend was made just for you.
For the right to sit in dirt and garbage to catch the faintest sight of the bands onstage, Dave Matthews charged his beloved and adored fans $54.50 apiece - with an additional $9.60 if you purchased them through Ticketmaster. Anyone who still believes that Dave Matthews and his band love their New York fans deserves a punch in their nose, a kick in the stomach and the most egregious of atomic wedgies.
The Dave Matthews Band does attract a mighty crowd, and deservedly so. I am sure the majority of the thousands of fans that were drawn to the shows mistakenly imagine themselves as children of the Deadheads. With exceptions, this scene falls far short of embodying the camaraderie and compassion of the Dead crowds. A Dave Matthews fan will just as soon stomp you into the ground as share his joint with you. Scratch that, DMB fans don’t share their weed with anyone. The Daveheads are also well equipped and proficient with their cell phones. While useful for finding your friends if you get separated, the mobiles have led to a disconcerting proliferation of phone calls to friends to tell them what they’re missing at the show.
Article comments
1 - Mike
On Randall's DMB,
I agree that the venue sucked but I have to say as a vet of 16 shows I had a blast. Most DMB fans, your right, are asshole little long island girls that would soon trample you and talk over the music. Even the hardcore among us agree that the fanbase has changed around alot but there is still a general "chill" vibe around the shows. You just have to get down to it by being nice. For instance one girl knocked into me after her friends foot had been stepped on. I genuinely felt bad about stepping on her, so I offered some weed (obviously) and a potentially shitty situation turned awesome when she pulled out a packed bowl as well. The show wore on and her friends and our friends were dancing around and enjoying ourselves instead of throwing angry glances. I had a great time at Randall's, even though the set wasnt that great and it was dusty.
2 - Jenna-Marie
You forgot to mention that while there were a lot of port-a-potties, they were all empty of toilet paper before 8:00 p.m.
Ugh!
3 - Kevin
And the fact that I had black boogers for the next 2 days. Oh and the 2+ hour wait for a boat.
4 - dan
but it was such a great set!!!
5 - Bob A. Booey
Barenaked Ladies and DMB?
Everyone at that show should have been sterilized. Hell on Earth.
That is all.
6 - ash
yes.. to the black boogers for two days..-so oddly gross.
yes.. to the nasty ass porta pottys and the 20 min. line to get in those raunchy things..
yes.. if you drove you had a nice hot, long walk to the dirt with no shade field.
yes..some off those long island chicks were ridiculous with there tudes... i don't even think most of them could have named 5 songs from DMB but just went b/c it was a cool thing do..
however, once dmb came on all that just left my mind and for the rest of the night i was dancing and singing w. my fav. band..
and kudos for dmb's over TWO HOUR performance.. very nice..
would i do it all over again?? you betcha..
7 - Dee
I will be going to the Aug. 6th concert in Randall's Island. Are any beverages of any kind allowed in? Did any tailgating take place at all? Is there anything I should bring that will be alloed in?
8 - Liz
I'm going to the August 5th concert and I was at their July Randall's concert last year. Definitly bring a beach blanket- one that you dont mind leaving on the island. There is plenty of tailgating because you can't bring your own beer into the venue. I would recommend getting there early, grilling drinking and smoking in the parking lot and then heading in around our about when dave comes on. Obviously smoking is allowed, but be careful- cops search your bags before your allowed in
9 - JDfromEarvolution
Dee - You should not wait until Dave goes on. There is a great opening band called Teal Leaf Green that you'll miss if you do.
10 - Emma
At least dave has better openers this year. Bela should be rediculous, as should Yonder Mountain. Its nice to see more of a jamband set than last year.
11 - Jillian
The accomodations were horrific. DMB should be ashamed of themselves. It was deplorable but what was Dave really trying to say about his NY fans that we live like shit or in shit and therefore should be treated as so, kiss my ass Dave but I still love him and the music. But never again would I go to Randall's goodness gracious.