My friend Luke and I went to see the Dave Matthews Band last night at Crew Stadium. The evening was interesting to say the least. First, Luke and I had major conversation on the ride up and back. It is great to have diverse friends, both young and old. Luke is about 15 years my junior, but we have many things in common. We are different in the same respect. He is much smarter than I, so it makes for enjoyable conversation. I received a really cool text from Jen giving me a hard time for going to see DMB without her, it made my day. We grabbed a bite to eat and then enjoyed a few minutes of one of our shared favorite past times.... Guitar Center! We played a few guitars we could not afford and then it was off to the concert.
Next we arrived at Crew Stadium to find it to be lacking air conditioning, ok.. I am just admitting it was hot! We walked into the Stadium to immediately find our good friend Devon and his girlfriend. We took a moment to talk about how much better our seats were and then it was off to A2, 17, seat 23 and 24. The stage production looked amazing! I could not wait until the sun went down to check out the lighting. I giant video wall was the back drop. There were 2 tall thin side stage LED video screens and 3 large LED screens that could be raised and lowered to variable heights depending on what look they were going after. Dave walked out to introduce the opening act about an hour before he took the stage. The opener was good. Very talented vocalist.
I started my barrage of DMB tweets on Twitter just before the show started. I received an array of harassing tweets, emails and phone calls from friends who were all very jealous of me at that moment in time :) Some to say..."you are a jerk!" others to say, "dang you are lucky" and even a " I can't believe YOU are at a DMB concert!" The three large LED Video wall was lowered to create a screen for the band to come out and the crowd starting going crazy. The lights came on and with a bang, the screen started raising up over Crew Stadium and the Dave Matthews Band kicked the show off with "Don't drink the water"!
I was impressed with just how little Dave interacts with words with the crowd, but his songs are highly interactive. There were people dancing, jumping, raising hands, pumping fists and singing at the top of their lungs. Most everyone around me knew every word to every song. The band is pretty impressive. It is a great mix of flat out jamming and amazing musicianship. This band is tight.
The concert sort of went like this... Dave sang, band jammed, Dave danced, band jammed some more. Luke is a Dave Matthews Band historian. He spent most of the show shouting the words to ever song, trying to guess which song Dave was going to play next, and letting me know we were witnessing Dave Matthews Band history when Dave decided to play the outro to "so damn lucky" different or share a rare "Water and Wine" moment. DMB covered Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". WOW! Great cover!
As I stood there singing "Everyday" with the thousands of people, I realized something. Dave is an amazing worship leader. He was leading this giant choir of souls. There were people who were messed up (in more ways than one), broken, beat-down, oppressed, depressed, rejected, confused, hurting and sad. Dave has this ability to help these people forget about the craziness of life for a few hours and just let go. It was a very spiritual event for me. I remember telling Luke, "I am not sure I can continue to lead worship the same way anymore." I think I need to take more risks in worship. I am finding myself in a comfort zone. Not pressing. Not moving forward. Not taking chances. Not writing. Not growing. Not changing. I hate change and at the same time I love it. I am called to change. "Take these chances, Place them in a box until a quieter time, Lights down, you up and die". That is not what I want to do with my chances. Thanks Dave.
Last, Luke and I grabbed a soda at Buckeye Donuts and then went home to crash. Luke knew I needed a little shove and realized Dave was just the guy to do it. God knows I am getting stagnant in worship and He realizes Luke is just the right guy to give me a shove. Thanks Luke.
