(Note: We’ve dated this post June 18. We are actually writing in August)
Found the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s review of the DMB show and remembered that we were there. Yea, laughing to myself on that because I remember Tracey and I thinking and discussing that the show had to be one of the best we had heard, counting all the Live Trax albums we own. Even Panovec sent a little note after seeing the set list mentioning it appeared to have been good. It was!
You can read the STL paper’s review. Know going in it is a lame write up as it appears the writer left before the show ended. It does feature a link to a good photo slide show however. So worth checking out.
I flew in from Richmond in the afternoon. The flight had been delayed coming out of RIC and the tailgate started a little early in the airport. Tracey had packed up the Element with all the essential tailgating gear just in case we needed to make a b-line to the venue but it turned out not to be necessary.
I’ve never really liked the Amphitheater in St. Louis. This is mostly because there is an interstate or some kind of elevated highway that runs behind the stage area. It isn’t like the out-in-nature like venues of Virginia. Never the less we have had some good times there, particularly the last Rush show.
The reason this was probably one if not the best DMB shows we’ve seen up to this date is: 1) we haven’t seen that many, 2) Tracey got her wish with the opening song, and 3) we had good beer for the tailgate.
Yes, the beer makes it and in the Mid-West this time of year is the Oberon mini-keg. Tracey had it ice cold for the afternoon. So it was nice to go through it before the show and to make all the Bud drinkers around us envious (or maybe they like their Bud). At any rate, it sure did go down easy with the temperature around 90 and high humidity in a parking lot with no shade what so ever.
Tracey has been dying to hear Pantala Naga Pampa/Rapunzel ever since the 2006 show at John Paul Jones. It’s one of her favorites. So the show opening with that song set the night on fire. Trust me, it wasn’t the brew. Tracey really likes that song.
I’m a big fan of Dreaming Tree. So I was happy to hear that in addition to Best of What’s Around, Grey Street, and Typical Situation. For the summer tour to-date in June these were fairly unplayed at previous shows. The Too Much tease into Lie In Our Graves was nice a pace changer too.
We knew we would hear a strong dose of the new album. I was amazed at You and Me. The entire crowd belted out the chorus and it appears that this song will have a long shelf life in the band’s set lists. Time Bomb and Squirm are quickly becoming favorites.
Looking back at some of the message boards, it would seem we missed the Stairway to Heaven interpolation in All Along the Watchtower. Tracey and I remember going nuts along with the rest of the crowd hearing the song in the encore. We don’t remember the chorus being sung although we do remember an awesome Tim Reynolds solo that was different. We will submit that we drank many bottles of water before, during, and after the encore. The memory isn’t as clear in August as it was in June.
In retrospect, I’m not certain if this show was better than the Charlottesville show from April. The spring show was older music, maybe even a hold over from the 2008 summer tour in terms of set list. Yet the St. Louis show stands on its own given all the new material and the energy the band demonstrated going between older and new. Certainly unique in terms of shows being played in the second half of the summer from what we’ve heard.
Random photos from the night are below. The video embedded above is the actual opener from the show. What would we do without YouTube?
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