I have been a bit of fan of the Dave Matthews Band for some time now. Originally introduced to me by my good buddies Simon & Tom. I quickly became a convert after (some jammy phone work by Tom) managing to get some band management tickets for when they played Madison Square Garden a few years ago. We were sat very close to the stage in a completely packed MSG. The New York crowd went absolutely NUTS when DMB hit the stage and just didn’t let up the entire time they played. I was impressed and completely blown away. To top it all off, the late great James Brown appeared on stage to do a 15 minute rendition of his iconic tune ‘Sex Machine’ together with the band which made the noise from the crowd even higher much to my amazement. Anyway, since then I have seen them play a few times in London and also Dave by himself when he came out and did a little solo tour after the release of his album ‘Some Devil’.
So Sime managed to get some tickets for a bunch of us to go see DMB at o2’s Brixton Academy and I was expecting big things as they had never disappointed. However, I gotta say I was REALLY disappointed. The sound was terrible. It was about a million degrees inside the venue with a bottle of water costing more than a bar of gold. They have a new album out called ‘Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King’ and for a vast majority of the gig, DMB seemed content to pretty much fill the entire set with their new material. I wasn’t massively familiar with the new album and so with the sound and the heat, decided to make a premature exit. For memory, I cant recall ever doing that in a concert before and I kinda felt bad and thought maybe I was just getting old!
The next day I was pondering on the night before and I get a call from Sime (who is a superstar music photographer and shoots the most amazing acts – Check him out here) saying he has accreditation to photograph DMB that night and that he had a pass for me if I fancied it. Ok, it sounded terrible the night before (the audio guys were surely smoking crack – no mid range AT ALL) and all very unfamiliar songs, but who cares when you have a camera at your face with the guys within touching distance from the front of your lens. The usual rules applied, no flash and only allowed to shoot in the first 3 songs. The first 3 songs were total DMB classics and contrary to the relatively subdued crowd the night before, the London crowd on this night were going OFF like a frog in a sock.
Anyway, 3 songs came and went in a blink of an eye, but I managed to reel of a few snaps.
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