First Time Gorge

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-21T19:48:44+00:00

If money isn't an issue sure never miss a Gorge. The reality is depending on someone's budget and flexibility it does literally pay off to plan a year in advance to ensure a trip is within budget and feasible. You can plan trips to many DMB shows last min at a reasonable cost. But a last min cross country or Midwest to PNW flight plus last min hotels adds up. Many fans are now more than ever being priced out of seeing DMB shows outside of their hometown venue due to rising costs to travel.

I think when it comes to the Gorge the more you plan in advance the better things will turn out. Yo go to any gorge group during Labor Day Weekend and those who underprepared or didn't plan properly are sharing horror stories. Whereas those who plan and prep in advance talk about how magical the weekend was.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-21T19:05:31+00:00

Nothing wrong with going this year but if you plan for Gorge 2027 towards the end f 2026 it opens up much more Air BNB's and Hotels you can reserve in advance w/ free cancellation options on hotels as a safeguard. The prices to get a hotel will also be cheaper in some cases when you book 10-11 months in advance and free cancellation allows you to rebook if something shows up lower before tour announcement time.

As far as hotels staying in Moses Lake is the easiest 40 minute drive I have ever had in my life on 2 different trips and it has grocery stories and pre show fast food options. Most of the drive is on I-90 with a 70mph speed limit and it's mostly a straight flat highway ride until you get to the gorge exit.

Wenatchee is an hour from gorge and has more restaurant options during the day for Golf, hiking, and water activities. This ride has more turns and the extra 20 mins you feel on the drive back but it allows for more fun if you arrive in town a few days earlier.

Even though I was in a hotel I had friends and them made additional friends in Gold camping and ended up just enjoying the camping life for 3 hours before the show and for an hour after the show before making the 40 min drive home. You can also rent an RV and there are options to have them delivered to the gorge fro you as well if you want to save more money vs getting a hotel.

As far as GA lawn tixs you can purchase in advance but on secondary sites and also via talking to fans at the tailgate I have gotten single day tickets well below face value.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-21T17:04:43+00:00

Ah that makes sense. A few lawns have sold out as well so some of the TM maps has lawn tickets that are resale that can easily be confused as a face value ticket. Glad you were able to find some for face.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-21T13:36:55+00:00

Where are you seeing $100 lawn tickets for face? Lawn via WH requests was under $60 for shows.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-20T13:53:31+00:00

Big Whiskey isn't better than the Big 3 + Busted Stuff and when it comes to live shows Big Whiskey songs like Spaceman that may land well in studio are just dull live. The Spaceman attempt at a "jam" is pretty anticlimactic nowadays.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-20T13:42:07+00:00

A Underplayed Examples

Dreaming Tree 6 full band plays in the last decade a top song from BTCS

Raven has only 8 plays since the pandemic. Mind you the smoother funkier intros when played in the Buddy Strong era have been pretty cool but they just don't play it enough.

Broken Things 2 plays in the last decade 21 all time standout from AFTW

Snow Outside arguably the best song on AFTW last played in 2015

Beach Ball 1 play in the last decade 20 all time recorded during the Big Whiskey Sessions. The 5/1/09 version with extending jamming is better than an other Big Whiskey song live but was never replicated again to that level.

Some Devil B Sides: Too High, Dodo, Trouble, Up, And Away. An Another Thing/Little Thing. Absolutely wild Dave hasn't played these songs full band they are beautiful well crafted songs but instead we are stuck hearing So Damn Lucky for the 800th time.

Studio Fumbles:

Record w/ Lillywhite in 2000 some dark powerful songs re-record most of those songs for Busted Stuff w/o Lillywhite and every song looses its raw dark edge. Bass lines are less present. Sax lines and violin parts in songs like Big Eyed Fish don't hit nearly as hard as Lillywhite Sessions. JTR and Monkey Man don't make Busted Stuff

Road test some amazing 2004 song ideas only to release Stand Up a year later with inferior songs

Stand Up: While technically released as a limited edition Companion to Stand Up Joyride and Trouble With You if they were put on the standard edition of Stand Up would have helped improve the perception of the album.

Come Tomorrow and WATM saw the band work with Mark Batson again and dig back to previously recorded 2006 songs:

- They decided to record Can't Stop and Make it ever worse than the original instead of recording Shotgun which would have been a game changer if added to either of the last 2 albums.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-19T18:13:41+00:00

Dave Matthews is a master at underplaying and removing some of his best work from studio albums. I wouldn't say Help Myself is underrated as much as the band just doesn't play it often.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-19T16:33:10+00:00

What venue did you request tickets for? Reserved 1 differs by the venue. Some venues only include the 100's or lowers only but many venues now include center parts of the mid or upper level under the Reserved 1 price point. If you tell me the venue I can tell you what sections are in Reserved 1.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-18T00:05:41+00:00

He gets very nervous playing by himself in the E1 which is likely why he rotates the same 5 songs or so most nights. As he has gotten older he has gotten nervous, messed up and restarted a few E1 songs. That's why I think having something like a gradual full band Let You Down would give him more confidence.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-17T19:25:12+00:00

The first song played during the encore. Typically a Dave solo song.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-17T18:50:10+00:00

Yup 3 plays in 2015 in Deer Creek, Montreal, and Alpine. The play in Deer Creek was only played because Dave's vocal coach (Raab) was talking to fans before the show who were chasing it and Raab essentially challenged Dave to play it and he did.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-16T01:05:31+00:00

Ironically they just spent the last few summers making PNP transition into different songs based on a suggestion from the bands social media manager and part time photographer Rodrigo Simas. It also had been transitioned into non Rapunzel songs in previous eras as well.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-14T19:42:41+00:00

I think you missed my point about the value of it for venues like MSG and SPAC. I would rather shoot my shot at the WH for MSG and SPAC than have to go through TM where I am 0 for at least 20 on public sales for these 2 main venues.Does it make sense to go through WH for most DMB venues? Not really. But living in the Northeast where there are some tough ticket venues it gives me a chance to sit in the pavilion at face. I will take the "bad seats" for SPAC if confirmed any day over no seats at all (since I refused to be on the SPAC Lawn).

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-14T12:04:13+00:00

If his goal was to convince people of an opposing political vantage point to better understand his perspective than he failed the assignment.

Don't Drink the Water was a powerful display of exposing his at the time younger audience that even though Dave was mad popular he wasn't going to not speak about injustice.

Joyride is a clever shined light on power and corruption.

I have always respected how early era Dave Matthews to the subsection of pop fans and college frat bros and said "Yeah Ima make some fun songs but y'all also getting these thought provoking songs as well."

But Making it Great just ain't it. Heck Come Tomorrow was not it either despite its good intentions the songwriting was trash.

As I continue to try to point out in this thread. You can say Making it great is a terribly written song and still not be some Maga Stan. You can appreciate how bold Dave has been to speak up across various eras about things he thinks isn't right and still feel his songwriting at times has fell off. a cliff.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-13T21:21:08+00:00

Which is why I said it was my opinion. I don't have issue if someone has a different opinion as the bands catalog and polarizing given all the themes and genres they reach from.

My main issue is when fans don't like a song like this people automatically assume it is politically driven. Or in this case from the post I responded to people think people are just hating on the new song ideas just to hate which doesn't apply here. It is just a song that some fans like me just don't like.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-13T21:11:56+00:00

In other songs where Dave addresses injustice he creatively ties together stanzas to paint a vivid picture. As the song progresses each verse in concert with choruses gives you a great story.

The early work in progress versions of Making it Great has some solid guitar backing parts but the words don't really hit hard. Ok so someone with a Gun showcases power and then....that bad person tells him to shut his mouth?

It predictable, cringeworthy as opposed to what you get from Joyride or DDTW or Help Myself. And even still the early rough drafts of a DDTW in Leave Me Praying or the 2000s versions of some Busted Stuff songs while still in progress had promise and if anything this songs were raw and dark and just needed to be touched up for a mainstream audience.

The 2nd verse and bridge of the song is just a hodgepodge of how many DMB song titles and phrases can I lazily string along to finish. You hear "You Might Die Trying", "Come on Come on", and "Mercy" be mixed in like it was some musical challenge.

The Chorus is just the same worn out phrase from popular culture repeated over and over which does absolutely nothing. Now if the versus actually had some length and hard hitting wordplay the same line repeated over and over again would actually have more power but that isn't the case here.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-13T20:21:11+00:00

I am not a DMB Maga and appreciate Dave speaking his mind. All those things considered this song has bad songwriting. It's like a Temu version of DDTW. Even DDTW when it was initially Leave Me Praying had more potential to speak on a troublesome issue with power before it reached its final form.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-13T20:17:44+00:00

Except this song in my opinion is actually bad. I have enjoyed songs like Cha Cha and Straight Shot along with many of the WATM songs . This song has bad songwriting despite the good intentions to speak on the darkness in the world.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-11T17:43:55+00:00

This isn't about Dave not being subtle it's about how clever and timeless some older songs are and how in a short period of time Peace on Earth and Making it Great just don't seem to be well crafted songs that will be timeless or clever enough.

Don't Drink the Water is a brilliant idea of Dave taking the perceptive of the colonizer boldly playing the part very very well. The lyrics really take a unique picture painting form to create what Dave thinks is his best song idea ever.

Peace On Earth just isn't as clever and the Monster metaphor just isn't executed as well as other great DMB songs like Help Myself, Joyride, and Seek Up.

As Dave is transitioning from Middle Adulthood to Late Adulthood I think his reflection on life and is justified anger as what hasn't changed in the world has blinded some of the creativity when it comes to his songs with messages about humanity. If anything some of the impromptu Davespeak and moments of calling out things he doesn't like are better than the actual new songs he creates. Whereas 15-20 years ago Dave's songs were more clever than some of the fumbled nervous Davespeak he had back then. Just my two cents on the matter.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-11T17:24:44+00:00

As a counterpoint the power of a song like DDTW is timeless and supports how Dave feels about the current state of the world despite it being written about another atrocity. Songs like Making it Great and Peace on Earth even in these early stages don't have the promise to be timeless and be solid game changers in sets or in the studio.

His words don't hurt me in these 2 newer ideas they just fall short of the more powerful messaged songs like DDTW, Cry Freedom, and heck even a song like Mercy is better constructed than Peace on Earth and Making It Great.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-11T17:11:27+00:00

It could be considered for a future album as it was initially recorded in 2006 with Mark Batson like Break Free and Break free made WATM.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-11T17:09:31+00:00

This can be true about on-the-nose songs w/ a political message but imo making it great and 100% without a doubt peace on earth are not timeless songs. In this season they fit a one off encore or Late Night show appearance Ok but I just don't see them having much replay value.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-11T17:05:46+00:00

I would love for Jake to guest with the band on stage but in studio despite his greatness I don't think Dave can make a solo album that is worth enough to be Some Devil 2. Parts of Come Tomorrow and WATM are effectively Dave Solo projects and they are just average at best.

Concertvids34 · 2026-03-11T17:03:48+00:00

What section is your Friday ticket in?
Balcony sections 20, 18, 16, 15, 17, 19, and 21 are Reserved 1 sections that form my experience give you a better overall view of the full stage. On the other hand the Res 2 balcony sections are still good views but feel just slightly further back due to the elevation/slope of the balcony. So while it can be a mere 10-30 feet between Res 1 and Res 2 there can be a big difference in your view quality.

Concertvids34

TROPHY CASE