Rams's Head - Baltimore! 7/16

[drumbum1988]

sorry for posting that twice.. im new..

[steve]

I was there too - great show last night! Best I've EVER heard Roth's voice (and I've now seen him 6 times since 99').
I'll do more of a review later...

[steve]

BALTIMORE SHOW REVIEW:

Let me preface this review by saying that I saw DLR play in 99 at MCI Center, 2000 at Nissan Pavillion, 2001 in Philly, 2003 at 9:30 club in DC and Richmond, and on the Sam and Dave Tour (6 times). All those shows were great, and I think a lot of that was due to the fact that, after the whole Cherone debacle, DLR was out to prove himself. He really worked his voice back into shape and played off the resentment to put on really great performances.

Before the Baltimore show I was a bit worried. Having heard a few mp3 snippets from 2005, I thought Dave might come out a bit lazy without resting his voice or really trying to sing. Furthermore, it seemed like Dave was trying to sing in his head voice (instead of from his chest) again based on what I heard on Strummin W/ The Devil – and I’m honest enough to say that when Dave sings like that it doesn’t sound good. The NYC review in the New York Times the day before sounded promising, but I still wasn’t sure.

I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only did Dave sing great, he was moving around more than any time I saw him since the 2001 Philly show. He did an assortment of spin kicks, linear-type kicks, and punches. I believe he has stopped doing the toe-touch off the drum risers – after all, the landing is hard on the knees and at 51(52?) you’ve got to conserve the cartilage. (Heck, I’m 30 and I can start to feel the ole’ joints aching when I don’t stretch before some pickup basketball!) Dave gave the people what they came for:
-A filling of classic VH
-Athletics to match the music
-The shit-eating grin & maniacal facial expressions
-Fake arguments with the lighting crew (“these people paid good money for this show, fuckhead – don’t turn off the lights!” (crowd cheers)).
-Tight, professional, fun band (Jimmy De Grosi isn’t as impressive as Luzier, but he’s still a great drummer and looked like he was having a ton of fun. Brian Young played well as usual in addition to stealing swigs of DLR’s jack daniels.
-A random comment about the Israel-Hezbolla War while he had a young woman’s hand on his spandex enclosed, circumcised crotch (“that’s why we’re gonna win this war, honey”(crowd cheers))

The audience (a good amount of people in their 20s there mixed in with mostly 30 and 40 somethings) ate it up. In fact, I think the fun yet professional level of the show surprised a vast majority of them who (perhaps) thought would be down and out after the whole failed radio show detour.

Which leads me to the “DLR’s backseat therapist” portion of this review. Bottom line: after the radio show falling out Dave is obviously out to prove that when he’s in his domain (singing classic VH) no one can top him. His voice sounded smooth from the beginning, he sang in full chest voice and he pulled off a ton of “real” screams (even a one that lasted a good 5 seconds or so) (aka: using the harmonic pitch he has left instead of breathing in air like the fake “Filthy Little Mouth” album screams). On Dance the Night Away he sang the high parts on the harmonies, and on Panama he did the octave up screams on “I’ll get her—aa!”).
Like I said above, I’ve been to some DLR shows - this was the best I’ve heard him sing.

A few supplementary notes:
I proposed to my girlfriend earlier in the day while we were out in Baltimore Harbor – so I’m getting hitched in about a year.
MOST importantly though, after the DLR show she said she was “shocked” at how much she liked it – even going to far as to say she enjoyed the DLR concert more than her favorite band we saw a month ago – DMB (lest I soil these forums by actually typing the name). Mission double accomplished. The difference? Dave Mathews decided all the folks who had paid hundreds of dollars for his sold out show should hear a bunch of crap he had (in his words as he mumbled into the microphone) “wri(tt)en on (the (r)oad”. Dave actually played what the audience paid good money to see.

-Steve

[guwapo_rocker]

Excellent review Steve, thanks!!

And congratulations!!!