Hey my friend ...

When I tell friends how many Dave Matthews Band concerts I've been to, I often get this strange blank stare. It's like they're saying, "Really? Are you f'ing crazy?" If only they knew that lots of crazed fans out there have seen many, many, many more shows than me.

When I recently visited antsmarching.org -- a very large DMB fan Web site -- I came across a lot of negativity. There were just too many "fans" bitching about songs the band plays, how long concerts were lasting, what was or wasn't played in the encore, etc., etc. This past weekend when I was at my 17th full-band show, I blocked all those things out of my mind and just had a good time.

That got me to thinking -- I have never documented my thoughts after concerts. I did a little bit on MySpace a couple of years ago, but it really wasn't much. So after 17 shows -- 19 counting two Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds concerts -- I've done what I never thought I would do ... I have ranked my concert experiences in order of "worst" to best.

Thus comes the purpose of this blog. In order of worst to best shows, I'll post about my experiences. Maybe it'll help friends and family understand my obsession a little better. I can't promise there won't be negativity along the way, but for the most part this will be a positive blog. In addition to posts about the concerts, I'll have various other personal DMB stats along the way. I can't just post about concerts -- that'll make this blog have a very short life. The hope is for this to continue for a while.

As a side note, the Dave & Tim concerts are not ranked, but I will throw in two random posts to discuss those two shows. D&T shows are just totally different from full-band shows and just don't fit into being ranked.

Lastly, it feels kind of odd to be starting this blog shortly after LeRoi Moore was hospitalized. The good news is LeRoi appears to be on his road to recovery after an ATV accident near Charlottesville. For now, I send along my get well wishes.