Dave Matthews Band Alpine Valley 7/5-7/6....Plus Chicago and Milwaukee

Its been a busy summer so I am again way behind on updates to this blog.  Much more to follow, but first we had the huge privilege to travel to one of the best venues to see our favorite band as well as one of our favorite cities and a surprise city as well. 
First things first and we got to Chicago on the 4th of July and got a great deal on a hotel right on the river and a few blocks from Navy Pier.  Chicago is one of my top three cities that I have ever visited and on any day it could be in the 1, 2, or 3 spot depending on my mood.  Next to NY, it is the only what I would call, metropolis, in the USA and it is also one of the cleanest.  There are so many things to love about Chicago, the food, architechture, people, but my favorite is it being on Lake Michigan.  It gives the city a unique outdoorsy laid back feel that only few other cities can rival.  We got to eat at Lou's, get to the top of a skyscraper, watch the firework's off Navy Pier, and the next morning eat at one of the few restaurants that my wife dream's about, Yolk (if you havent been, best breakfast anywhere). 

That day we took off for what many DMB fans argue as the best place to see DMB, Alpine Valley Music Theatre.  DMB fans argue SPAC and Alpine with the Gorge being the best venue hands down, but for the rest of the venues not located on Red Rocks or a beautiful river gorge, its Alpine or SPAC.  Growing up with SPAC as our hometown venue, we were very curious to see what the hype was about and man does the midwest deliver.  The place is HUGE!!! biggest pavillion I can say I ever saw and easily the biggest lawn.  The weather was phenomonal, the view is beautiful and for our experience the people were great!  Wisconsin people really have a great attitude and were so relaxed and fun.  People seem very happy out there.  No place I have ever been to does tailgating like what we saw at Alpine.  This is BIG10 country, they invented it, they do it right, I could go on and on about the amount of skill, effort, and great food that we witnessed all around us each night.  It was more than some college football games that I have been to and I have never seen that level of tailgating at any concert, especially not Dave Matthews.  Awesome!
Night one we were lucky enough to have PIT tickets and were directly in front of Dave, about 6 rows of people back, not bad.  Grace Potter opened and absolutely crushed it.  From my hometown of Burlington, Grace has gotten much better over the years and much more reognition for her style of blues-rock, and much better since we last saw her in 2011.  There was nothing like hearing the 40,000 people behind you screaming and singing the songs along with you.  The place was loud! The sound it crystal clear with the great wooden acoustics that make this venue one of the best in America.  Night one opened with a high energy Lousiana Bayou and by the time Warehouse was played a few songs later the place felt like it was vibrating from the energy.  Other highlights were Captain and a nice smooth twosome of Snow Outside into Fool to Think that featured Stanley Jordan.  The set closer of Ants-O-Ween had the place jumping! Great set, great night, great energy! NIght one set below:

1. Louisiana Bayou
2. Belly Belly Nice
3. So Right
4. Spaceman
5. Warehouse
6. Dancing Nancies
7. Save Me
8. Captain
9. (Kill The Preacher)
10. Don’t Drink the Water
11. Snow Outside *
12. Fool To Think *
13. Granny
14. What Would You Say
15. The Space Between
16. You Might Die Trying
17. Everyday
18. Ants Marching
19. Halloween

-------- ENCORE --------

20. Some Devil +
21. Drunken Soldier
22. Pantala Naga Pampa
23. Rapunzel

 

The next day we ventured into Milwaukee, not expecting it to be as awesome as it was.  Right on Lake Michigan and beautiful! People again awesome! Food (cheese) again awesome! and clean, architecture unique, awesome, awesome, awesome.  We spent the majority of the day on ther river walk, just very baffled that these wintery type cities, do summers better than warm weather cities.

Night Two we were again fortunate enough to have PIT tickets and were even closer than we were the night before! Grace was again awesome! DMB started off with a great run of Squirm, One Sweet World, When the World Ends, Take Me to Tomorrow, Rooftop, and then the loudest #41! When everyone screams "Yeah"!!! with Dave at Alpine, it is truely one of those unique moments.  Other highlights were Running Down a Dream, Jimi Thing, Grace is Gone with Stanley Jordan and the whole ending run, including another Halloween set closer!  NIght 2 set below:

1. Squirm
2. One Sweet World
3. When The World Ends
4. Take Me To Tomorrow
5. Rooftop
6. #41
7. Gravedigger
8. (Kill The Preacher)
9. Why I Am
10. Runnin Down a Dream
11. Jimi Thing
12. Corn Bread
13. Tim And Stanley Jam *
14. Grace Is Gone *
15. Grey Street
16. Recently
17. The Song That Jane Likes
18. You and Me
19. All Along The Watchtower
20. Halloween

-------- ENCORE --------

21. Dream Girl
22. Time Bomb
23. Two Step

 

The next day we took in the first place Pirates (yes that is true) at Wrigley Field before departing that night.  There will be another post on ballparks, but all I can say is that Wrigley is the shit! The fans are amazing and outside of the Old Yankee Stadium, I have never been in a better environment for a baseball game and mind you the Cubs are in last place.  Every other teams fans should be embarrassed, the Cubs do it better than all of them!