Dave Matthews Band Concert

Last summer 30,000 ripples made up the wave of fans that flocked to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 22, 2006. My sister, Rebecca, and I made up two of that great confederation of admirers of the Dave Matthews Band. We arrived in Charlotte four hours prior to the first drumbeat(active voice). You have a series of fragments here. Was that intentional? (Yes it was b/c I was trying to create a sense of parallelism) -Kristinaturner 9/14/07 4:55 AM Four hours preceding the first guitar chord strung. Four hours before the first chilling vocal.(parallelism) Those four hours were almost like waiting on a snowy day, to anticipate the cancellation of school; the wait will be mandatory but the final result will be amazing. We went and checked into the hotel, and from there we made our way to the arena where Rebecca and I tried to stay contained and enjoyed a session of pre-show tailgating. I made my way off of the lawn chair, after waiting for numerous hours, and progressed towards the gates of the stadium. The air was heavy with the dense June humidity and sweat poured profusely down my back, using my striped-blue collard shirt as a sponge. As soon as we made it to the front of the lengthy line the tension began to build. We climbed the steep steps up to the outdoor arena and once we reached the pinnacle, we saw an empty stage overflowing with expectation. We climbed through the grass and landed our feet on concrete and our hands on the smooth, red, warm handrail. From there we were ushered to our seats where we settled for about forty-five minutes. We tried to keep cool by drinking water and staying still but the excitement made that very difficult to do. The only sounds that could be heard were the murmurs of the fans around us that were further on the edge of their seats than I was. Finally the musical maestros took stage. They gave a modest wave to the crowd as Dave Matthews took place behind his guitar, Boyd Tinsley grabbed his electric violin, Carter Beufort became familiar with his drums, Stefan Lessard reached for the bass guitar, and Leroi Moore grabbed his saxophone.(active voice) There was a gargantuan dark purple curtain behind the performers. The time cam when they combined their skills to create an audio and visual masterpiece. A couple of seconds into the song “Satellite”, which is one of the bands biggest hits, the band stopped playing for a brief moment and the curtain fell. Like Goliath, the curtain fell and the stone that hit him was the music played by the band. With the absence of the curtain the crowd could see the various television monitors of different sizes and lights that gave an unbelievable orange ambiance. The monitors, which were joined by two massive pre-existing monitors to the left and right of the stage, showed every angle of each of the five members. From the first note to the last, the stage vibrated from the music, dancing, and singing of fans. (Participal Phrase)Surprisingly, I too felt my own hands abnormally clapping and myself oddly singing! (Adjective shift) The air smelled of perspiration, smoke, and the aroma of a summers’ eve. When the sun finally fell I was still warm from the body heat of my 30,000 friends. The lady next to me never took a seat but danced the entire night. After three hours of watching pure musical perfection by the Dave Matthews Band, we had to leave and enter reality. Ears ringing and head heavy with fatigue were definitely common symptoms after that concert. (Absolute) That was one of the most memorable nights of my life.