This past weekend I saw my 17th Dave Matthews Band show and my first at Madison Square Garden…. in one word, it was: amazing.

First of all, Madison Square Garden is a very iconic venue, so I was very excited about just seeing a show there.  As a whole, the place was fine.  It is sort of a dump and some pretty bad acoustics, but overall, still a decent place to see a show (for an arena).

DMB is doing their last tour before taking all of 2011 off, so expectations have been high and they certainly surpassed them.

The show opened with #41 and it was pretty clear that Dave had no voice whatsoever.  By the end of the second song, he was asking the audience to sing loud to help cover his lost voice.  This added a great and fun dynamic to the show.  I might have been disappointed if it was my first show or something, but I’ve seen/heard him sing enough that it was a lot of fun to be part of a giant sing-a-long.

As the show progressed, though, his voice came back and came back pretty damn strongly.

It was easily the best show I’ve ever seen them play.  I think because Dave was so down on his voice that the rest of the band majorly stepped up their energy to help carry him (us) through the show.

Highlights include: Say Goodbye, Christmas Song, Crush, You & Me and of course, my first Last Stop.

There was a great moment where they brought out a South African singer, Vuse, who tore up Everyday along with Dave.  He started dancing all over the place - clearly a special moment for everyone there … 

Till 2012!!!