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Rating: The adventure begins on a warm spring night when Zampa and I race in my car towards Milan's Central Station. "Jimi Thing" by Golden Gate twists our guts and carries us away. In the literal sense of the word: I miss the right turn and we find ourselves aimlessly wandering in the pedestrian area of Corso Garibaldi... eventually, we arrive and reach the shuttle that at 4 am will take us to Orio al Serio. We fly to Munich in a small propeller twin-engine where there are only 6 passengers. I am dazed from sleep and excitement, I still can't believe it, so as soon as I sit somewhere, I fall asleep. Am I dreaming?
We arrive in Birmingham's full winter at 10:30. We head to the Carling Academy, the box office is open, no one is there, and they give me the tickets. When, after a stop at the hotel, we return to the Carling, there's an astonishing queue. We already have the tickets, but they explain that to get in and "skip the line" we need to buy a drink at the academy's bar. The aspiring "K Jumpers" with a ticket crowd this bar, obviously no one drinks, you buy the drink, get your ticket stamped, and rush inside.
We are a step away from the stage. Zampa notes that from up there (because there is an upper floor) it's easier to film, but I shoot her a glance. I can't believe it!! We are in a sort of small intimate pub dance club, it feels like being in a venue on the Navigli and there, soon, just a few centimeters from me will be Mr. Dave Matthews himself. While a guy equipped with an acoustic guitar serves us a kind of dirge (boy, I think, to play before Dave you must have some nerve...), we meet Ciro and Valentina from Rome, and then Federico and his girlfriend from Milan will arrive. All the Italians we've encountered (at their thrilled first time, like us) kept repeating "Italians too? We thought we were the only crazy ones..."
There are people from all over the world and of all ages. The crowd's roar explodes inside me even before I see him and there he is finally!! Just two steps away from us!!! He smiles, adjusts his guitar, thanks us. His voice's timbre strikes me, it's deep, harmonious. The range of facial mimic expressions, his typical eye-raising of the right eyebrow, his gestures captivate me. He's a great communicator, a stage animal. Alone there, with his guitar, his thousand fingers, and stories, he fills the scene, fills the universe all around and inside us. "Bartender" begins and I die. It's one of my favorites. I don't know if it's because I'm hearing it live, but it seems the intensity and the drama of the version are akin to the Live at Folsom Field. Even a dead man would cry, my legs shake, and I'm happily about to cry. "Grey Street" starts and Zampa faints. It's one of her favorites and it's performed for the first time in an acoustic Dave solo concert. The audience sings, shouts, whistles (the Americans...) we talk to him and he responds. He says he's back in Europe because when he came a few months ago to London, "he liked it," he says he'll be back, he'll be back (he repeats it several times), that he'll come back also with the band. He tells funny stories, repeats several times "you don't have to thank me, I have to thank you". Roar, cries, delirium. His voice is still very beautiful, deeper, at times more dramatic. No off-notes, but in some places, it breathes. At the end of the first piece, he's already sweaty, by the end of the second, his shirt is to be wrung. He uses a blue towel, Valentina shouts "I want that towel!!" and Zampa shouts "I want to BE that towel!!!" He drinks who knows what from a blue mug. He's in great physical shape, more toned and lean, you can tell that last year he prepared himself physically and drinks less.
I really liked the Birmingham set list, a great selection from "Some Devil", staples like "Lie In Our Graves" and "Dancing Nancies", very few and superb concessions to "Stand Up". He's very intense in "Some Devil", desperately dramatic in "Gravedigger", sweet in the splendid "Sister" Quiet Song, for which he asks for some silence, captivating in "Smooth Rider". The performance of "Watchtower" impressed me greatly. The choice disappointed me because I would have preferred at that point "Warehouse" or "Jimi Thing" but the animalistic power with which he sang it literally paralyzed me... Before the performance, he tells that once, when he wasn't that famous yet, he was at a festival. He met Bob Dylan who goes "of course you will play Watchtower..." and he modestly responds "well no... uhm... you're here... ehm..." and Bob Dylan answered "but it's precisely because I'm here that you have to play it".
A great, unforgettable concert.
Set list:
Bartender
Grey Street
So Much To Say
Where are you going
Smooth Rider
Stay Or Leave
Save Me
Old Dirt Hill
Dancing Nancies
Some Devil
Gravedigger
Crush
Lie in our graves
So Damn Lucky
Encore
Sister
All along the Watchtower
Encore
Too Much
Crash into me
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