Don't Drink the Water

When they say "for better or for worse," that includes sometimes humoring Maria's love of the Dave Matthews Band. (Kidding! Kind of.)

She's attended several Dave shows through the years -- not nearly as many as my sis Melanie (hey Mel!) -- but quite a few. Wanting to see what it was all about, I came along with Maria Sunday night to see the DMB perform (along with Ben Harper) at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Once I got the lame jokes out of my system (hey! Maybe I can pick up some plywood and anchors at the show!) we made it down to the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills, where the arena is based. Plopped down $20 for parking. Gotta hand it to the Cal State system, they make some coin off this place.

The seats were excellent -- just four rows back from the stage. Besides Ben Harper, the pre-show entertainment included a teenybopper couple mauling each other two rows in front of us. Ahh, kids. After throwing down another $20 for a stadium food dinner (chicken tenders, fries, burger for Maria), we came back to our seats (the mauling couple had finally found a bathroom stall or something to take it private) in time to catch Dave and his pals hit the stage.

Hey, the show was fine. I was familiar with most of the songs, and the jams -- I can't stand jams -- were kept to a minimum. Good energy, even if I could tell it was somewhat of an off night for the band: This was the second of two shows for them at the Home Depot Center, and Matthews' voice was pretty hoarse.

Alas, no mention of the recent incident in Chicago, where the group's tour bus dumped 800 pounds of Dave Matthews Band Poop in the Chicago River.

But that lent itself to my favorite sighting of the night: Two girls were wearing specially made powder blue T-shirts. The front said, "Dave." The back? "You Can Dump Shit On Me Anytime."