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Entry 12 - Friends With Superstars VOTE
It has been years since I met Dave Matthews and Carter Beauford.
I can
remember that whole weekend like it was yesterday.
It was the summer of 2001. Both Dave and Carter were
expecting children
then, so they were not expected to play at Alpine Valley which was
back
where I lived at the time in Wisconsin. Although my friends
and I were
disappointed, we were impressed with their decision to be there
for their
children. We had seen several other shows that summer, but
it just didn't
seem right without an appearance at good old Alpine. We were
all expecting
2 shows at Alpine because the dates were printed on the official
tour
shirts, but they were never announced because of the infants to
come. Two
weeks before the rumored dates, our prayers were answered!
Alpine was
officially announced because Dave's wife found out that she would
not be
having the baby for another 4 weeks at least. Immediately we
began planning
our weekend. My friend Bill lives only a few miles from the
venue so the
plan was to have few close friends stay there for the weekend.
We were able
to get excellent seats with our seniority with the Warehouse, the
Dave
Matthews Band fan association. We made some flyers to throw
up on stage in
hopes that the band would grace us with an appearance at our
little
shin-dig. We invited the band to come and enjoy some tasty
Wisconsin
Bratwurst, to sample some local brews, and to relax with the
closest friends
they never met. We didn't expect much to happen, if anything
at all. At
best, we were hoping to get some backstage passes from the band or
the crew
for our offer. We had no idea what lied ahead for us.
The afternoon of the first night's show was a hot one. Our
friends began
showing up at Bill's and we were showing off our flyers destined
for the
stage. Everyone thought that we were crazy and that we
wouldn't even be
able to get them on stage. We had tried to explain to them
that it is not
very difficult to make a paper airplane and toss it on stage from
the third
row, but they still thought that we needed to see a shrink.
We celebrated
much of the afternoon before we ventured to the amphitheatre.
Our first
priority was to pick our tickets up at the will call window.
With such
short notice, the Warehouse was unable to send the tickets in the
mail so we
had to wait in the will call line for over an hour to finally get
our
tickets. With tickets in hand we made way to our seats.
There was always
something about Alpine Valley that just gave me the chills when I
entered
the gates. It seemed as though we floated to our seats,
which were located
between Dave and Boyd. Once we were in out seats, we noticed
that there was
nothing set up for an opening band. Shortly thereafter, Dave
and the boys
came out to a less than full Alpine Valley and began to play.
What a
surprise! People began rushing in from the parking lot once
they heard the
band playing. Not one person in attendance that day had any
idea that this
was going to happen, the band had surprised us all. They
played two magical
sets with a two song encore. It was by far the best show
that I had ever
seen at the time. We threw six flyers on stage that night.
Boyd was the
only one cool enough to pick one up and read it. He passed
it over to Dave,
and it was then passed to each member of the band. We didn't
have any more
flyers, and it seemed as though the band didn't know where the
flyer had
come from. If it wasn't such a great performance, we may
have been saddened
by not getting the attention from the band, or any passes for that
matter.
We were thankful for the evening that the DMB had just given us.
After the epic concert, we proceeded to out little after show
celebration.
As the night progressed, more and more people began showing up, it
was
almost getting too big for us to handle. With the bon fire
getting out of
control, and parking space running low, having the band show up
was the
farthest thing from our mind. We were in the middle of
apologizing to
Bill's neighbor for all of the noise when we saw a bus slowly
making its way
down the street lined with cars on both sides. I just stared
at the bus, I
knew who's bus it was, but I really didn't think that I was seeing
what my
eyes were telling me. The three of us who were talking to
the neighbor were
the only ones to see the bus so far because everyone at the party
was
gathered in the back yard. We tried to appear calm, cool,
and collective
and when the bus stopped in the middle of the road with no where
to go, we
walked over to introduce ourselves as the hosts of the party and
authors of
the flyers. The tour manager greeted us at the door and
asked where the bus
could be parked. We directed them to a grocery store that
was just down the
road, it was the only close place that could house such a big rig.
We told
them that we would meet them there with our cars and give them a
ride back.
Our hearts were beating out of our chests the whole time. We
couldn't
believe that this was happening and we still had no idea what to
expect.
When we got to the parking lot, we were then invited onto the bus.
Once
aboard, we were introduced to Carter and Dave. We were
pretty cool about it
all, considering. We hung out for a bit on the bus, but then we
escorted
Dave and Carter back to Bill's. There were many of our close
friends that
had no idea of where we were or what we were up to, it all
happened so quick
and so quiet. When we got to the house, there were a couple
of people
leaving and they saw us walking up to the door. The came
running over for
autographs and photos, and its needless to say but they didn't
leave after
that. We snuck our new found friends into Bill's basement
relatively
unnoticed. No one knew what was going on, even Dave and
Carter. We were
all just having a good time sneaking around and trying to surprise
everyone
as the band had done by playing solo for us earlier in the
evening. In
talking with Dave and Carter, I had mentioned that I too played
the acoustic
guitar and that I could play nearly every tune that Dave wrote.
Dave took
this as a challenge and sent his tour managed back to the bus for
his
guitar. By the time he got back, Dave and I were already
playing with
instruments available from the party. My friend Dan also
managed to find
some hand drums from a couple of hippie friends of his and offered
them to
Carter. We played a couple of songs together and I was able
to stay right
with them both. Even my friends were impressed with how well
I played. I
also played a couple of my own songs for the two legends that sat
before me.
As nervous as I was at the time, I played well. We
had decided that it
was time for Dave and Carter to meet the rest of the party.
So we just got
up and went out to the backyard. We were no longer sneaking
around and once
we made it outside everyone just stopped! They all stared in
amazement.
All you could here was the sound of the crickets. Dave
screamed out a big
yaaauuupp and everyone just went nuts! Dave and Carter sat
down and the two
of them began to play for us all. As great as the concert
was earlier that
night, this was much more special. They played three songs
for us and then
had to leave because our guests couldn't just stay cool and enjoy
the
moment. Everyone started getting pushy, they all wanted
photos and
autographs. I felt bad for Dave and Carter, they were really
enjoying
themselves until everyone was disrespectfully in their face.
We were able
to get them in our vehicles and away from the party without any
serious
conflict. We dropped them off at their bus and they invited
us to stay with
them for a bit. We respectfully declined in hopes that they
could escape
the madness that was surely rushing to find them. They were
thankful and
then they left. Just like that they were gone and we never
even asked for
passes for the following night's show. We headed back to
Bill's only to
find that the place was deserted. We were right in thinking
that everyone
would be out looking for them.
We awoke the following morning to find that Bill's humble abode
had been
trashed. It took us hours to clean up the garbage and mend
the lawn as best
we could. We were hoping to make it to the parking lot at
Alpine for round
two of our adventure, after all, we had more flyers to toss for the
second
night. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that a van
pulled up, it was
the tour manager. He said how happy he was that we were
still there, Dave
and Carter were asking about us. We were given the cherished
backstage
passes that we had been after. After meeting and getting to
know Dave and
Carter, the backstage passes didn't seem like a big deal. We
went to show
with the tour manager in the van. We got to Alpine and drove
directly
backstage. We were able to meet the rest of the band and
exchange more
stories. Once it was time for the show, we were escorted to
the first row,
directly in front of Dave. We were treated real well by
everyone involved
with the band. There was an opening for the second night so
the set list was
shorter. They played the typical length set, but they didn't
repeat one
song. The most amazing part of the night was when Dave and
Carter came out
for their traditional encore together. Dave started playing
one of my
songs, Carter to follow. The audience was silent, they had
no idea what
they were hearing. Bill and I were freaking out and Dave
just laughed at
us. He played the song well but he messed up the words.
It didn't matter
one bit to me at the time, I was completely speechless and in awe.
I was
crying by the end of the song because the emotions were far too
much for me
to handle. When he finished my song, Dave said that it was a
song written
by a new friend of his. With the audience in attendance that
night at
Alpine as my witness, Dave called me a friend. To this day I
cannot
remember what song they finished the show with. We
celebrated with the band
for a while after the show. I couldn't express my gratitude
enough for what
they had done for me. They also said that they were thankful
to of had a
good time with someone who appreciated them and not their stardom.
We
couldn't stay with them for very long, they were leaving shortly
to return
to their home in Charlottesville. They were all excited to
be going home
after a long and arduous road trip. We wished them the best
and the best of
luck with the newborns. We also thanked them on behalf of
every fan for not
giving up on Alpine, they also commented that the summer
wouldn't be
complete without a stop at Alpine Valley.
In the years that have gone by since that fortunate weekend, I
have often
wondered if Dave and Carter ever think of me or the time we all
spent
together. I think about it often, in this old man's eyes
that was most
incredible thing they had ever seen. I still get chills when
I hear my
bootleg of that show and listening to Dave mess up my song.
I never met the
band after that even though I had seen numerous shows. We
flew flyers up at
a couple of shows, but many others had picked up on the idea so
the band no
longer bothered to look at them. I don't know exactly what
we did, or how
we did, but we did something right that glorious weekend. I
made friends
with a couple of superstars, even though they were just good guys
that
played instruments.
VOTE
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