Dumbek's Random Stuff

9/5/88 - Grateful Dead - Capital Centre - Landover, MD. My 3rd Dead show. Great seats, just off the floor. I took my friend Rich to this one. I've known Rich since the 2nd grade. We lived together for one semester at PSU. Rich turned me on to so many bands during that one semester. He's the guy that got me hooked on R.E.M., introduced me to The Cramps, Husker Du, The Residents and a slew of others. I figured it was my turn to show him something different.

I was getting into the swing of how things worked now. It was becoming easier to focus on the music. At the time I was pretty amazed they could go 3 shows in a row without repeating any songs. The show did not disappoint. They opened with "Iko Iko" - a song I still can't get enough of. A blazing "Music Never Stopped"...My first "China->Rider" and my only "When Push Comes To Shove." I think Rich was pretty impressed in that "they were really good, but I don't need to see them again" kind of way. This one holds up pretty well on tape. This turned out to be a great run to get my feet wet with the band.




9/5/98 - Allman Brothers - Fox Theater - Atlanta, GA. Dinger had business in Atlanta that happened to coincide with the Allman Bros. run of shows at the Fox. How convenient. :) We managed to score second row in the pit. By the end of the night we were leaning against the stage. The Fox Theater may be the nicest theater I've been to. The ceiling is setup to look like a nighttime sky. It's just beautiful.

We were seeing these guys a lot around this period. Despite all the crap that seemed to be going on behind the scenes, they were fantastic. They were definitely filling the void the recently demised Grateful Dead left behind.




9/5/99 - R.E.M. in Camden. 4th row, off to the left, I think. I love this venue. It's really nothing special, but it's right across the river from Philly. We always stay with Dinger's friend Bob, who may be the most fun person on the planet. We get a day full of Bob, all of Philly at our disposal, then just jump the ferry over to Camden. Excellent.

One of my favorites of the tour. "Pilgrimage", "Half A World Away", "Country Feedback"....very nice. My one mental image of this show is remembering how the lights behind Stipe cast a HUGE shadow on the side walls of the theater. I'm not sure if that was by design, but it was a great effect. Spacehog opened, but we skipped them.



9/5/01 - John Mellencamp @ Nissan Pavilion. As much as I despise Nissan, I can't remember what prompted me to go to this show. I've seen Mellencamp before and he's actually quite good. He's definitely high on my guilty-pleasures list. The Wallflowers opened. I'll bet that's what got us there. Dinger likes them a lot. I guess it was the combo of the two that got us out to bum-f--k Virginia. JM's old stuff sounded great. The newer stuff sucked. Decent show, but not as good as the last time I had seen him. I'll add him to my "glad I went, but I think I'm done now" list.