Dave squee!
Saturday night at SPAC was the weirdest Dave concert I've ever been to. It's been 2 years since I've been to a show, which is weird in itself since last year I was unemployed and had absolutely nothing better to do, but anyway...I wasn't overly keen on going to the shows at SPAC 'cause we had lawn tickets for both nights. I've never enjoyed the intense lack of personal space that occurs in the middle of the lawn during a Dave show, especially when others nearby occasionally take advantage of the lack of personal space if you know what I mean. Anyway, I was resigned to picking a tree at the back of the lawn and hanging out with the tree, but not really excited about it.
I want to hug them.
So at the beginning of Friday's show, I was kinda meh on the whole thing, and as Dave and the guys got into it, I got into it, too. And Friday was when the weirdness was seeded. Dave was overly chatty all night - talking about a particularly devious mosquito that was attempting to get him to smack himself in the head repeatedly. When he got to the encore, he started mumbling something about getting old and his brain doesn't work anymore and he wasn't sure if he could remember the words to the next song. The guys started playing #40 (Always), and the crowd went berserk. Dave sang the first two lines and stopped. He then apologized for not doing his homework, and promised to "bring it to school tomorrow." Then they quickly switched over to Gravedigger and finished the show.
On Saturday night, Dave was overly chatty again. My theory on that, by the way, is that Tim turns Dave into a teenage girl when he's around. It's so cute. Anyway, they start playing #40 again, and the crowd goes even more berserk than before, and Dave remembers all the words this time. Of the song he wrote. Himself. Dork. A couple songs later, the guys are feeling all proud of themselves for doing awesome covers of Pink Floyd and others, and they play Lie In Our Graves. Usually, they'll play about 3/4 of the song, do some jamming (no offense Butch, but we don't miss you...well, maybe a little offense - I seriously don't miss you), ramp the song down, fake an ending, then suddenly jump back into the song and play the last 1/4. So they fake the ending, the lights go down, and I'm bouncing - anticipating the moment they suddenly burst back into "I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondrin' if we had spent our living days well...," but Dave starts playing Jimi Thing. The rest of the guys slowly come in to back him up. He walks to the mic, and just as he's about to sing the first verse, he gets this look on his face like he's left the oven on. He turns to Carter, who appears to have taken up golfing while drumming in addition to chewing gum and making lattes, and they start a discussion I'm thinking went something like this:
Carter: "Did you want to finish that song there, Fruitcake?"
Dave: "Shit. Why don't any of the parts of my brain communicate with each other ever? Ooh! Is that hazelnut?"
Carter: "Yes, it is. But you can't have any because in case you didn't notice, that crowd out there is currently singing the first verse of Jimi Thing for you. You might want to join them on the chorus before we replace you with a hamster."
Dave: "I like hamsters."
Boyd fiddles menacingly.
Dave: "I'll go sing the chorus now."
Yes, that's right. The crowd sang the first verse of Jimi Thing for Dave. We alternated between shouting the lyrics and meekly mumbling them because we all worship at the foot of The Dave, and we did not want to make him unhappy with us. Did he want to sing Jimi Thing? Did he want to go back and finish Lie In Our Graves? Did he want to take me backstage and have his way with me? (Unlikely, but I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility. Dave. Anytime, baby.) As we finished the last line of the first verse, we were questioning every choice we had made in this life until Dave came in and sang the chorus with us and made it all better. But then the bottom dropped out again when he backed off the mic for the second verse and left us singing alone. The self-doubt and paranoia crept in again, but we still fought it out, finished the verse and joined Dave on the chorus. Carter was vastly amused by this. Of course, when isn't Carter amused?
Anyway, the strangeness wasn't over yet. We finished Jimi Thing with Dave just singing the chorus, and he actually bothered to sing the rest of the songs in the set. For an encore, they decided to fuck with our heads by finishing the last 1/4 of Lie In Our Graves, like, an hour later. It was silly and brilliant.
Finally, for the final song of the encore, they played a cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You." I had seen Dave play this song before with Tim and a bunch of guys from Emmylou Harris' band, so I knew he was going to turn into a spaz this time around. And he did. Total spaz. I think he flashed the crowd at one point. Pretty sure he flashed Carter, anyway. And I have nothing to show for it but a video I took with my cell with crappy audio and tiny, flashing lights where the stage should be. Dammit. There better be a DVD or I'm gonna...whine...or something...
This is what the video looks like except darker and more bouncy.
While Dave was the reason for the season, there wasn't anything saying Captain Jack couldn't play, too, so he got to wander around Lake George a little.
Who outside of a Looney Tunes cartoon names a lake "George"?
I want to hug them.
So at the beginning of Friday's show, I was kinda meh on the whole thing, and as Dave and the guys got into it, I got into it, too. And Friday was when the weirdness was seeded. Dave was overly chatty all night - talking about a particularly devious mosquito that was attempting to get him to smack himself in the head repeatedly. When he got to the encore, he started mumbling something about getting old and his brain doesn't work anymore and he wasn't sure if he could remember the words to the next song. The guys started playing #40 (Always), and the crowd went berserk. Dave sang the first two lines and stopped. He then apologized for not doing his homework, and promised to "bring it to school tomorrow." Then they quickly switched over to Gravedigger and finished the show.
On Saturday night, Dave was overly chatty again. My theory on that, by the way, is that Tim turns Dave into a teenage girl when he's around. It's so cute. Anyway, they start playing #40 again, and the crowd goes even more berserk than before, and Dave remembers all the words this time. Of the song he wrote. Himself. Dork. A couple songs later, the guys are feeling all proud of themselves for doing awesome covers of Pink Floyd and others, and they play Lie In Our Graves. Usually, they'll play about 3/4 of the song, do some jamming (no offense Butch, but we don't miss you...well, maybe a little offense - I seriously don't miss you), ramp the song down, fake an ending, then suddenly jump back into the song and play the last 1/4. So they fake the ending, the lights go down, and I'm bouncing - anticipating the moment they suddenly burst back into "I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondrin' if we had spent our living days well...," but Dave starts playing Jimi Thing. The rest of the guys slowly come in to back him up. He walks to the mic, and just as he's about to sing the first verse, he gets this look on his face like he's left the oven on. He turns to Carter, who appears to have taken up golfing while drumming in addition to chewing gum and making lattes, and they start a discussion I'm thinking went something like this:
Carter: "Did you want to finish that song there, Fruitcake?"
Dave: "Shit. Why don't any of the parts of my brain communicate with each other ever? Ooh! Is that hazelnut?"
Carter: "Yes, it is. But you can't have any because in case you didn't notice, that crowd out there is currently singing the first verse of Jimi Thing for you. You might want to join them on the chorus before we replace you with a hamster."
Dave: "I like hamsters."
Boyd fiddles menacingly.
Dave: "I'll go sing the chorus now."
Yes, that's right. The crowd sang the first verse of Jimi Thing for Dave. We alternated between shouting the lyrics and meekly mumbling them because we all worship at the foot of The Dave, and we did not want to make him unhappy with us. Did he want to sing Jimi Thing? Did he want to go back and finish Lie In Our Graves? Did he want to take me backstage and have his way with me? (Unlikely, but I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility. Dave. Anytime, baby.) As we finished the last line of the first verse, we were questioning every choice we had made in this life until Dave came in and sang the chorus with us and made it all better. But then the bottom dropped out again when he backed off the mic for the second verse and left us singing alone. The self-doubt and paranoia crept in again, but we still fought it out, finished the verse and joined Dave on the chorus. Carter was vastly amused by this. Of course, when isn't Carter amused?
Anyway, the strangeness wasn't over yet. We finished Jimi Thing with Dave just singing the chorus, and he actually bothered to sing the rest of the songs in the set. For an encore, they decided to fuck with our heads by finishing the last 1/4 of Lie In Our Graves, like, an hour later. It was silly and brilliant.
Finally, for the final song of the encore, they played a cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You." I had seen Dave play this song before with Tim and a bunch of guys from Emmylou Harris' band, so I knew he was going to turn into a spaz this time around. And he did. Total spaz. I think he flashed the crowd at one point. Pretty sure he flashed Carter, anyway. And I have nothing to show for it but a video I took with my cell with crappy audio and tiny, flashing lights where the stage should be. Dammit. There better be a DVD or I'm gonna...whine...or something...
This is what the video looks like except darker and more bouncy.
While Dave was the reason for the season, there wasn't anything saying Captain Jack couldn't play, too, so he got to wander around Lake George a little.
Who outside of a Looney Tunes cartoon names a lake "George"?