Wednesday 10 March 2010

The Dave Matthews Band at the 02

The Dave Matthews Band
02 Arena
6.3.2010


I've enjoyed numerous trips to London over the last couple of years and I was pleased to be given the opportunity for another quick visit at the start of March.

St. Paul's Cathedral, red buses and the Thames
Unmistakably London!

The point of the trip was to see The Dave Matthews Band in concert. There was just enough time to fit in a couple of other things, starting with a trip to Tate Britain.

Tate Britain






Tate Britain is an impressive place. British art is represented by various galleries. My favourites were the works by Hogarth, Turner and Gilbert & George. A lot of the works of art can be seen on the Tate Britain website: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/

From there, we made our way down to catch the Thames Clipper, taking in a few sights along the way.



Some of the sights were classics...

...Some were more unusual than others

Waiting to board the Thames Clipper

The Clipper is an excellent way to travel. It takes about 40 minutes to reach the 02 from the pier at Embankment. Plenty of time to relax and snap away at more sights.

St. Paul's - a truly magnificent building



It is possible to have trees in your apartment





The 02 comes into view


I've seen the Dave Matthews Band once before. It was in the Summer of 2009, in Brixton:

Nicely advertised

People take their places, slowly but surely


Alberta Cross at the height of the support set

The support act was 'Alberta Cross'. They were fast and grungy but their music didn't appeal to me very much. After a short break, it was time for the main event. As the arena was set out 'football' style, with the stage at one end, it meant sitting with a half-turned stance. Indeed, the stage was some distance away, as this non-zoomed picture shows...


Luckily, I have recently upgraded my camera and was able to put the powerful zoom to good use. The following photos are the pick of the bunch and give a reasonable impression of how the evening progressed.

Dave Matthews (centre) on acoustic guitar and vocals

One of several violin solos by Boyd Tinsley
Unusual and entertaining

Tim Reynolds (left) on lead guitar



Dave digging the start of another violin solo




Carter Beauford on the drums



Full flow - full power


Rashawn Ross and Jeff Coffin fill out the sound with the horns



Stefan Lessard on the Bass












Carter Beauford throwing his drum sticks into the crowd

It was a loud show, combining several genres: rock, jazz, blues...you name it. As a live band they are hard to beat in terms of energy.

As far as I can ascertain, this was the set list:

Still Water

Don't Drink The Water

Lying In The Hands Of God

Shake Me Like A Monkey

Sugar Will

You Might Die Trying

Funny The Way It Is

Seven

Crush

So Much To Say

Ants Marching

Spaceman

Cornbread

You and Me

Timebomb

Stay (Wasting Time)

Baby Blue

Sledgehammer

Jimi Thing

It was a very impressive show. I'm hoping to return to London in the not too distant future.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah, the embarrassment of realising you left home in your tutu instead of your trousers...I hate it when that happens...