Noah M.
Oh my god! What an amazing show. The band was on tonight, really feeling the groove.. and lots of energy. Dave's voice was a little rough, but he gave everything he had.. only missing a few of the high notes in Spoon, So Much to Say and Rapunzel. I was in the 20th row.. closest I've been yet. Anyway, the review... DDTW - Great way to start the show. Included a prelude and extra Dave vocals at the end. Great energy. OSW - With the "instro", LeRoi really shined there, great energy... loudest I've heard it done. OSW itself also seemed to have a lot of energy. At this point, I was keeping a close eye on the band between songs, trying to guess what's next. I saw Roi pick up his bari, and Boyd was in strum position. Stefan played a couple notes and I screamed out "TWO STEP!!!!" A second later. TWO STEP - At last I've heard one of my favorite songs, well worth the wait. I was worried that because it was early in the set that Butch wouldn't get to solo, but Dave said something to Carter, then pointed to Butch. Butch was great, he was really into it. Then Carter took it down.. way down. I thought they were gonna end it that way, but then it came back. Actually, it was very ackward come to think of it. But RoadCrew is right, you'll wanna get a recording of this. SPOON - Wow. I never really got why Spoon is a great song until tonight. Great jam at the end, the boys loved playing it. I'm glad they've rediscovered this one. R&R - Very good. I can't remember anything special about it though. WTWE - First ED song of the night, but not a problem. The chick next to me only knew this song from the Matrix soundtrack... how sad. CRASH - I sat down for this. It wasn't bad, but the first low-point for me personally. The crowd loved it though. HELP MYSELF - One guy in my section knew this song besides me. DMB really needs to have this song on the next live release so more people can get into it. WWYS - Still keeping the energy up, this song wasn't really spectacular. Roi did a good job on his solo though, and Dave acknowledged him after the song. Dave, Carter and Roi were talking and laughing, and they each made the same hand gestures. I have no idea what it meant, but they were having fun. ANTS MARCHING - Another crowd favorite. It was the direct intro and it had a lot of energy. Boyd was all over the stage for this one, even facing off with Stefan. DIGGING A DITCH - Really slowed things down. I mean dead stop. Mediocre performance of a mediocre song. FOOL TO THINK - The only other ED song of the night. Not a great choice, but Carter and Roi were both amazing. I was surprised by the segue to... GIG - Fonz played the slide guitar. Good jam at the end. Another sitting song for me (I've heard this at every show I've been to! I can't escape from it!) SMTS - Great song. I expected the Bridge and I was right. And, since they only had one song left, I figured it would segue into... PNP/RAPUNZEL - Yeah! Great way to end the show. I think Dave screwed up a verse, but he made up for it in his dance. TOO MUCH - Wow. What a kick to the head! I was expecting, as usual, a slower song first... most likely The Maker. I started to worry that this would be a one song encore. But if it had been, what a show! STAY - Okay, one more! Don't it make you wanna stay? Haha... funny to hear Butch sing the lovely ladies part... Carter too. Dave had a lot of great vocals at the end. Check it out, the whole show was great!

Steve B.
A hard show to describe. There were definitely highlights, but there were also disappointments. First the disappointments. The Portland fans are, quite simply, miserable. I have been to 10 different venues now and nowhere else even comes close to being so dead for a Dave show. The sad thing is Dave and the boys were full of energy last night right from the start.The other main disappointements were the lack of traditional jam songs and Dave seemed to be having a little extra trouble with the lyrics a few times and his voice was having some trouble too. As for the highlights, this show got going right from the start. Dave sang all the way through DDTW and was loaded with energy. He went absolutely insane during Two Step when Butch pulled out on the finest solos I've ever heard him play and Carter went off with him. Sppon was good to hear, but this was one of the songs where it seemed Dave was having voice and lyric trouble. Crash also confirmed for me when you have a bad crowd. If they're all sitting down and then jump up right when Crash starts you know the crowd blows and it did. Help Myself was much like Spoon. It seemed like Dave was having some trouble there, but it worked out and it was good to hear that whole band as opposed to just Dave with Tim. WWYS always sounds better in an arena than an amphitheatre and Roi took it even higher with some incredible jamming. Ants was unexpected, but high energy and great to hear. Digging a Ditch through GIG was a real downer. BOWA and Recently would've been great to throw in here, even Lover Lay Down or Angel, but oh well, you win some, you lose some and the closing run of SMTS through to Rapunzel was sick. I have never heard a Rapunzel with so much energy and everyone was into it. Dave, Boyd, Stefan and Roi got into a sort of square and just jammed away while Butch did his thing and Carter continued to dominate not only the show, but the entire tour. I honestly believe after seeing my fourth show this year that this is the best tour Carter has ever had. He is beyond dominant at this point. The encore put a bit of a funny cap on a bit of a funny show. I swear they cut Too Much short, but whatever the case may be it got the crowd into it and Stay is a wonderful closer even if it has a tendency to become highly predictable at times. All in all a very solid show, the boys were more than into it, it's just a shame that they wasted all that energy on such a miserable crowd.

Davis
Best show yet out of the boys at the Rose Garden. The band came out with a lot of energy topped by an incredible version of Two Step. Dave was talking to himself and dancing quite a bit and the boys were clearly having a good time. Great to hear OSW in the setlists again along with Help Myself and Spoon was great to hear live. As Dave said, Grace is Gone is one of the best tunes he's ever written and last night was the tightest version I've seen yet. The SMTS--->PNP--->Rapunzel was definitely nice to hear instead of it leading into Stay but then they played Stay anyway in the encire unfortunately. Only disappointments were that the security guards up front were running the floor like a police state when it came to taking pictures and the encore of Too Much and Stay was definitely a downer. Really wanted to bear LBV again and Grey Street would have been incredible as a final song but with no 12 string up there, I knew it wasn't to be. Still, energetic show and these guys continue to amaze in my 9th year of watching them. See you at the Gorge...

Andy
wellie wellie wellie well, this was my 6th dmb show and definitely a fun one. the moment the band came onstage you could sense the energy...i love it when they open a show by just unexpectedly ripping into a song, tonight was the first time ive seen them do that with "dont drink the water". the live version of this song is so powerful. dave got some good screams in there...him, stefan and carter were really getting into the groove. stef seemed unusually animated tonight. "one sweet world" is always a cute lil song to hear, sets a nice mood for the evening. "two step"!!!!!!!!!! after 5 shows i was still a "two step" virgin, but dmb deflowered me tonight. excuse the analogy. butch and carters jam at the end blew my mind. heavy jazz feel. "pig" was nice to hear, although dave opted to avoid the falsetto notes. "laughing out loud makes the pain pass by..." kind of a drag, since that is my favorite part of the song. i got over it quickly though, when the band began to play "rhyme and reason"... another classic to which i was a virgin previous to this show. without doubt, my favorite part was the end of the song... "i...see...hea..ven...here..." daves emotion really carries through in a live setting. other highlights for me included "what would you say", which was bouncy and fun, especially the bridge..."ants marching", a crowd singalong..."fool to think", which sounds superb on the acoustic..."diggin' a ditch", especially the quiet parts without the band, so gentle and touching...and "stay", which had carter/butch singing the lovely ladies' parts and the rest of the band simply going nuts. according to my mom, who had much closer seats than i, stef smiled and waved to her as he was leaving the stage...i think its a crock personally, but i suppose ill let her think what she wants. to sum it up, spectacular show, wish daves voice was up to the falsetto but it happens to the best of us. lots of smiling, dancing, grooving, and jamming onstage. keep it up dmb, love to all.

Adam H.
Tonight¡¦s show, 8-4-03, I have one thing to say: Holy sh*t! This show was seriously off the hook. I was totally not expecting this. I was expecting an average show, much like the 5-23-02 Portland show last year. No SIR!! The boys kicked it all off with a solid DDTW. They then slowed it down with OSW which was very nice. Then came a song that I have never really been nuts about, until tonight. TWO STEP!!!! Holy Moly! I don¡¦t know how long this song was jammed tonight but it seemed like forever and it was absolutely great! Butch and Carter just tore it up!! The piano was awesome and then Carter rolled off on the drums til I thought they were gonna fall over. Great rendition! At this point I was thinking that the show would let up and go into more recent stuff. Oh no no no no no. SPOON!!! I about fell over. A ton of people sat down in the 100¡¦s where I was too and I couldn¡¦t believe it. I was so excited. Kinda deflated the bubble Two Step blew as far as intensity but was great to hear. Next up was Rhyme & Reason and I got butterflies once again. I wanted to hear this one so badly and got my wish. WTWE was done well but I am not really a fan of it. Crash into Me was another one I wanted to hear badly. I know that it is such a radio song but I was totally stoked to hear it for the first time. Great rendition with the Dixie Chicken at the end. First time hearing Help Myself. I had never heard this song so the jury¡¦s still out for me on this one but I did enjoy although the crowd was totally lost on this one and gasping for another solid song. To the rescue: WWYS. Great to hear! Then they went right into Ants. They didn¡¦t have the solid drum beat solo that I am used to hearing on recordings so that was cool to hear the entire band just launch into it. Diggin a Ditch was tight with the band and really sounded good. Really glad to hear this one! At this point I couldn¡¦t help but think about the fact that there hadn¡¦t been a single repeat from last year¡¦s show at the Garden. Jinxed it. Fool to Think was good. Very solid and I never thought this would segue into anything but it flowed right into GIG. Always a treat to hear this one even though it is played all the time. The big screen had a nice effect through out this song while focused on Dave and really was a good rendition. They then played SMTS"³ ASTB"³ PNP"³ Rapunzel. I thought I was gonna pass out and almost did fall over at the end of them I was so excited. So Much to Say was really well done and I wanted to hear this song because it was the first DMB song I can remember hearing. As they got to the end of ASTB I was thinking Too Much. Oh no! I recognized the tune but couldn¡¦t place it and then it dawned on me. They were gonna play Rapunzel. I was definitely in Heaven at this point. Rapunzel was great and had SO MUCH intensity!! Really jammed this out nicely and I didn¡¦t want it to end. I was feelin¡¦ this one to the Nth degree. Great end to the set! Encore was solid. They played Too Much and that was only the third repeat from last year¡¦s show. At this point I was thinking: Watchtower and I really didn¡¦t want to hear that song. Way too overdone (Redundant). But the boys came through for us all and played Stay! Great version and great way to end the show!

Goldendeer
Great show.. Started off jammin', got a little mellow, and then ended with a burst of energy and a *solid* mix of songs. Here are my personal highlights: Two Step -- Stellar version (and nice surprise early on in the setlist). Spoon -- Another nice surprise (where was Alanis hiding?). :) Crash -- Ya know, all the "old school" fans dog on them for playing this song, but tonight I realized that I think the band really enjoys playing it and it definitely boosts the crowd's energy. I could personally do without Crash, Satellite or Say Goodbye, but the dose of nostalgia they give the crowd is well worth it. Help Myself -- Stoked I got to hear this one after it re-surfaced. WWYS -- I personally thought this *rocked*. WWYS, SMTS, and Too Much all in one night was much appreciated. Too Much -- Always feels good to have your favorite song called out of the bullpen to open up the encore. Dave kicked some ass tonight on this one, and the pseduo-seque into Stay was great.. always love it when they end with Stay (preferably at the Gorge), but pulling it out here in Portland was awesome. One last comment: Dave's voice sounded great tonight. He might not hit every high note, but people really need to get off this "his voice just isn't the same" bit. Very annoying/disrespectful and 95% untrue.. All in all, definitely an "A-" show.. if this was the Gorge, it would've been a solid "A".. speaking of the Gorge, see you all on Thursday and Friday...

Devesh
I haven't seen this sort of energy brought the stage by dave in a while. Song after song he was dancing and waving his arms in between. This kept the crowd excited too (of course a crazy two step three songs into the setlist didn't hurt) which was a HUGE wonderful step up from the crowd atmosphere at last year's portland show. Highlights were: Two step, smts-->el bridge-->pnp/rapunzel. The "no slow song" encore. Energy. Weird hand motions by roi. Carter and butch doing a double solo/duet/crazy time during two step. ants in the middle of the setlist (so much better than closing). and the entire show with the 6 string acoustic. To expand upon the road crew's comments, getting a video of this show would be even better than audio. Unlike the constant complaints about shows in the northwest this near to the gorge, i don't think the band shorted us ANYTHING but confetti and james brown, which by all means can be saved for nyc only.

Teka E.
The second DMB show i attended at the Rose Garden, this one was very similar to the first.... Dave seemed to suffer greatly from "I Need Backup Dancers Syndrome..." he was bobbing and grooving all over the stage. Boyd did himself a kick ass four or five minute solo, I believe in the middle of "What Would You Say" (but i might be wrong) The crowd at the Rose Garden always loves Dave, and this concert was no exception!

Bryce
Great show...I sat 2nd row(best seats ever). The dude from Atlanta that was VH1 fanclub was there right in front of me wearing a shirt that said that it was his 92nd show. Now to add to the review from above. The hand gestures that were made during the show were directed at a rather largely endowed girl in the front row. She was wearing a tiny little tank top that did not cover much. They guys talked, made gestures, and laughed for awhile about this. I think that if you can get Dave's attention, and have the band single you out of a crowd, then you deserve to get backstage....but that's just me. Anyway, it was funny stuff. Again this was a great show.

Kristin
I had 12th row tickets for this show from the Warehouse, but before the show I won a radio contest and got 4th row seats. (The radio station took my 12th row seats and gave them away to someone else.) When Dave came out to introduce Josh Kelley, he talked about how he liked that his baggy pants made his legs look bigger. DMB opened with Don't Drink the Water, which was my 4th time hearing it as an opener, but as I thought at the show, it is a great opener. The crowd around me was great and very energetic. The band was energetic as well. Portland seemed to be a "hits" show overall. I liked hearing Two Step near the beginning of the show. Spoon was a treat since I had never heard it before in concert. Even though the band had been doing Ants Marching in the mid-set spot several times this tour, it still caught me off-guard. They went right into it without any snare intro. The energy was so high for Ants that it made me wish they kept it as a closer, but I'm not complaining. After Fool to Think they segued directly into Grace is Gone which was different. I almost thought they were going to segue into Where Are You Going until I saw Stefan playing the Grace is Gone intro. So Much To Say -> ASTB -> PNP -> Rapunzel was awesome to see in concert. I know they have done that before on this tour, but there's nothing like seeing it in person. There was a lot of Dave dancing and scatting throughout the whole show. When they opened the encore with Too Much, I wondered if they were going to only do a one-song encore. Luckily they didn't, and closed the encore with Stay. It was another good show in Portland!