Caught my 10th DMB Show @ Madison Square Garden last night. Quite a crazy milestone, but unfortunately the show totally didn't deliver and in fact really left me quite disappointed.
In a nutshell, Dave's voice was totally shot and by the 2nd song he was asking for help from the audience to sing the chorus and by the 4th song, I was wondering if he was going to be able to actually make it through the show.
All of this is so disspointing, especially since the setlist was fantastic for a 2nd night at the Garden, digging into a bunch of good stuff, a 2 minute lead into 'Say Goodbye' and a bunch of other great things.
But no Dave meant the whole band was off and you could tell. Carter and Dave were doing a fist bump after every song and it clearly was a challenge for him to be out there. Interestingly enough, I had a ticket to the DMB show that got cancelled because of Dave's voice back in 2002 and I'm wondering that if this wasn't the last leg of the tour before they wrap up for the entire 2011 and before Dave & Tim hit the road for some charity shows, if they really should have cancelled this show too.
Boyd, Stephan -- all seemed to be lost on stage and trying to make up for the lack of lyrics by moving around a lot more -- but it just felt forced.
And they had a nice special guest, Vusi Mahlasela, who is on Dave's ATO record label and I saw at the 92nd St Y a while back, but it just wasn't enough. They really needed a super star in for a lot of songs, or they should have turned the show into one big sing along by putting the lyrics up on the big screen.
Oh well, the wosrt part was I brought a friend who was seeing them for the first time. At least it can only get better for her.
Here's the setlist:
#41 *
Say Goodbye *
Funny The Way It Is *
Pig *
Write A Song *
Dancing Nancies *
Still Water 
Don’t Drink the Water *
(Christmas Song) +
Improv +
Christmas Song +
The Song That Jane Likes *
Crush *
Best of Whats Around *
Rhyme And Reason *
Black Jack *
Everyday *~
Time Bomb *
You and Me *
Two Step *
__________________
Sister Ä
Last Stop *
Show Notes:
* Jeff Coffin
+ Dave, Carter and Tim
~ Vusi Mahlasela