Alright, for the last couple of years, I’ve always heard awesome stuff about the Dave Matthews concert at the Gorge from the people I worked with. I never went with them (either out of stupidity or having to work, I can’t remember) but finally decided it was time to head down and check it out. I met up with my friends Tom, Toby, Michelle and Steve and we packed up my truck and Toby’s rental HHR (Tom and Toby had flown up from California to meet up with us and drive back down) and headed off relatively early on the Friday.

We hit border traffic and everyone seemed wise to the “go into duty-free to skip some of the line” trick I’ve used before. It took us an hour to get to the customs officer, but this was made better by the fact that he was actually nice! He asked where we were going and we said “Dave Matthews at the Gorge” and he replied “Dave….. his songs are really long live” and told us to be on our way! That was pretty sweet, we met up in Bellingham at the Fred Meyer to stock up on lots of food and beer for the weekend. I love shopping in the states, it’s cheaper and you can still find some really good stuff. Filled up with gas as well.

The start of the drive was kind of weird as I had driven the same road 5 months earlier on the start of my big road trip. We soon peeled off the interstate before Seattle and headed inland towards the Gorge. Once we hit the windfarms I knew we were close! They were pretty cool to see, especially when they are in action.

We arrived at the Gorge and unsurprisingly ended up in the line up to get into the campsites, this was expected. What followed was not. There were three lines to get into the campsite, you would be randomly put into one of these lines by an attendant at the entrance. What you didn’t know was that the line on the left was glacially slow, the middle line was slow and the right hand lane was magically quick. I don’t mind long lines when I’m with friends, AS LONG AS THEY ARE FAIR. When they aren’t fair, that’s when the burning rage comes out. Dear LiveNation, if you’re listening, fix that! Eventually after 45 minutes or so we made it (after letting some of Michelle’s friends in front of us, as they were in the slow left lane) and set up camp. Michelle’s brother arrived about 10 minutes behind us but ended up in an extra-slow variant of the left lane and took OVER two hours to reach us.

We set up our tents as the sun went down and then headed in to watch Dave Matthews take the stage! Michelle was excited to see Steve and my face as we first glanced upon the stage, as we had never been there before. It was a sight to see for sure, a huge natural amphitheater with a big stage in front of a beautiful sunset and the Columbia river flowing down the Gorge. Now I’m not as big of a Dave nerd as the others who I went with so I won’t be able to recount in detail what songs were played and the stats on them, but I can say it was a great show and I really enjoyed it. (the $8 beers were a bit much though)

The next day we woke up, made a delicous breakfast and then headed off to the Wanapum recreation area on the Columbia river. We spent the day playing Bocce, swimming, slacklining and generally enjoying ourselves.

One thing I forgot to mention is that came down this weekend without any tickets for the shows, so I had to figure it out once I got there. I managed to get tickets to friday night from a scalper for only $5 over face value, picked up sunday tickets from the box office. Saturday I planned to just chill out at the campsite if I wasn’t able to get a ticket, but Steve managed to be the last person at the box office on Saturday to get tickets! Not only that but he got us tickets in the 100 section on the floor!

That night we went a little earlier to watch Ben Harper and the Renlentless 7, then just before Dave Matthews came on Steve and I made our way down to our seats on the floor. They were to the left of the stage, and technically my chair didn’t exist, but there were enough empty seats that we made it work and we had an amazing view of the stage and the show! The highlight of the night came with Ben Harper came back on and helped out with a rendition of “All Along the Watchtower” with the Dave Matthews Band. It was awesome.

Sunday was spent relaxing and trying to finish the beer that we had brought. We had some fun games, including one I’d never played before called “Lasso Golf” where you throw some balls that are attached by a string across some suspended bars. It’s hard to describe, but was a lot of fun.

I missed some of the Sunday show to help out a friend in need, but the weekend was a huge success and so much fun! (Well except for the speeding ticket on the way home, but I know I wasn’t the only one who was caught in the sneaky 70 -> 60 zone).

Related Links

Masey’s epic Dave Matthews Band at The Gorge 2010 blog post