Dave Matthews Band, Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

One more chance to see the world's most successful touring band of the past decade

A half dozen of us headed to the Wells Fargo Center to see the Dave Matthews Band perform a show in Philadelphia for the last leg of their 2010 tour before taking a much deserved year off. It was my 8th Dave show since first attending in the summer 1999. After some finagling and some last minute purchases and sales, we were able to get a few additional GA tickets and divest our extra seats so we were all able to be together during the show. We arrived at the venue early enough to get within about 50 feet from the stage, the closest that I had ever been at a Dave show. The opener for the evening was Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers, a band that I am a fan of and had just seen at Bonnaroo, so seeing an opener that I knew and liked was a treat. The bluegrass troupe played a number of their own songs plus great bluegrass versions of The Band’s “Ophelia” and Radiohead’s “Morning Bell.”

Dave and company hit the stage a little after 8pm, so we knew that it would be a good long set. It ended up being a good mix of old new songs most of which I was happy to hear. However, I never really liked “The Christmas Song” except for during actual Christmastime, of which we’re still a month shy. Wait for December, Dave. Schiz mentioned that it was a first for him seeing two songs, “Gravedigger” and “Last Stop” though he missed some of the latter while grabbing a beer.  Some of my personal favorites were the opener, “The Stone,” as well as “Tripping Billies” and “Best of What’s Around.” I also really like their rendition of Jimi Thing, a song that for whatever reason I never really cared for. Without a doubt though the highlight of the evening was the final song of the encore, “Two Step,” which is probably my favorite Dave song and which is rarely played to close an evening, so it was a great surprise to hear. Carter Beauford’s drum solo made this version particularly incredible and served as further evidence that Beauford is among the best living drummers. After over 3 hours of music, the show finally came to a close.

Setlist:

The Stone

Big Eyed Fish

Bartender

Funny the Way It Is

Why I Am

Gravedigger

Best of What’s Around

Digging a Ditch

Can’t Stop

Tripping Billies

Last Stop

Spaceman

Seven

Pantala Naga Pampa

Rapunzel

You and Me

Corn Bread

Jimi Thing

Shake Me Like a Monkey

Christmas Song

Time Bomb

Two Step