Dave Matthews Tribute Band crashes Bluebird Friday night

Real fans of Dave Matthews Band understand what their concerts are like. \nIt usually entails a weekend of camping out, no bathing, little sleep, endless games of cornhole, constant debates with neighbors on the best Dave song and an ever-fresh can (or bottle, if you prefer) of your favorite cheap college beer. Then the concert starts, usually after many fresh bottles or cans, and the night becomes an almost religious experience as one of the world’s most popular jam bands takes the stage.\nSo I knew going into the Bluebird on Friday night that the Dave Matthews Tribute Band was not going to be the same. Apparently, everyone else in Bloomington knew it too and decided to sit this one out.\nWhen I arrived, people around me were debating whether the band was actually going to play. Part of me was almost hoping they wouldn’t. For starters, I’ve always wondered how any band can play to an empty room. Secondly, after battling the stomach flu, I’ve never felt closer to my death bed than I did that night, and it’s a miracle I managed to make it to the show in the first place. All for you and the love of journalism, folks.\nWhen the band took the stage around 11:30 p.m., a few more stragglers had managed to take a seat in the club, but still nothing near the kind of crowd I was expecting in a college town. Regardless, DMTB plowed on with its opening number, “Don’t Drink the Water.”\nFrom the instant the first chord blasted through the venue, I knew something was off. Granted, they had a high standard to live up to for me. “Live at Folsom Field” is my favorite live Dave disc of all time, and the rendition of this song that opens the CD is \ntruly powerful. Seeing Dave perform it live is also powerful. It’s just an intense song (Anything with the subject matter of early American \nsettlers forcing American \nIndians off of their property for the settlers’ selfish \ndesires is bound to move \nyou somehow). \nIt was not powerful Friday night. Maybe it was the crowd, maybe it was the fact that the lead singer was not popping veins in his forehead the way Dave does when he screams into the mic, maybe it was images of the grim reaper standing in my peripheral vision while I clutched what felt like a small animal trying to claw its way out of my stomach. In any case, I was not blown away. \n“Grace is Gone” came next, followed by an intense breakdown by violinist Nate DeMaria. This was impressive.\n“Part of me wonders if they made this band just so he could play,” said my “date” for the evening, senior Alicia Christie, while DeMaria pounded away on stage. “Because he’s really, really good.”\nThe concert continued with a variety of tracks from all of the band’s more popular CDs, and as the night went on I did start to warm up to the band a bit. The band members were very talented and knew what goes into a real Dave show. The lead singer, Ryan Clifford, even had his guitar strap at the same height and had the same stance, pressing his feet together and frantically pounding the stage when the music got more intense. \nMore people started to filter in as well, improving the atmosphere. Senior Melissa Johnson has seen Dave “five or six” times and understands that seeing a cover band in a club is not going to be anywhere near the real thing.\n“It was kind of dead (tonight),” Johnson said. “It’s hard comparing it to 50,000 people at a Dave Matthews Band concert, though.”\nBy the time the show was wrapping up, I was ready to crawl into a coffin just to put myself out of my misery (from my ailment, that is, not from the concert). Because of that, I stayed just long enough to hear their last song, “All Along the Watchtower,” before ducking out to the nearest drug store to procure a hefty supply of pain meds. \nI was disappointed that they didn’t play more songs off “Before These Crowded Streets,” one of DMB’s earlier and more diverse albums, or the song “Two Step,” probably my favorite of all time. Despite this and their somewhat rocky start (at least in my judgmental eyes), the band still managed to pull off a decent set, even if it was nothing to write home about.\n“It’s hard to compare Dave to someone else,” said senior Josh Cooper. “Overall they did pretty good. As good as it should have been.”