Dave Matthews Band Caravan

When I accepted the job in Portland, we knew that we would have to drive across the country. We figured we would do it as quickly as possible and just drive as much as we could each day until we got there. However, when we found out about the Dave Matthews Band Caravan show in Chicago, we decided to make a trip out of it and that's how this whole long roadtrip got started.

Caravan Day 1

Friday morning (July 8th), we woke up at 6am to drive from De Pere, Wisconsin to Chicago. We picked up Nikki in the city and checked into our hotel, which was actually right over the state border in Indiana, but very close to the venue.

The show was everything and more I could have hoped for. It was set on a huge empty lot with three stages. There was a ferris wheel, a giant merch tent and many food and beer stands all over the lot. There were also Brita water stations (which actually created huge lines) for people to fill up their water bottles with clean drinking water.

The first band we saw was Blind Pilot, one of Nikki's favorites. They put on a great set and both Cara and I loved it. Afterwards, they were signing autographs and chatting with fans so we talked to them a bit about Portland (they are from there). Cara and Nikki got a picture with the bassist.

For the rest of the afternoon, we explored the fairgrounds and also saw Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Ray Lamontagne and O.A.R. before heading over to the main stage for our first Dave Matthews Band set of the weekend. Over the course of the weekend, Dave played 3 full sets of about 3 hours plus an acoustic set with Tim Reynolds. It's hard looking back to say which set was the best, because we got to experience 10 hours of amazing music (without any repeated songs by the way).

We tried to meet up with Landyn, James and Jake after they showed up around the time O.A.R. came on, but with the huge crowds and some drunken confusion, it didn't happen. We just met them back at the hotel and decided to stick together the next day.

Caravan Day 2

On Saturday (July 9th), we all got to the concert at around 2pm. Our friend Ben who lives in Chicago came for this day to hang out with us so we met up with him right away. Saturday was the day with the best lineup (in my opinion). We got to see Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, a Dave & Tim acoustic set, G. Love & Special Sauce, Ben Folds, Kid Cudi and another amazing set by DMB.

Caravan Day 3

The final day of the show was the most mellow for us. James and Landyn left to go home in the morning. We checked out of our hotel and went to the north side of Chicago (with Nikki and Jake) to have breakfast with Mike Canada and leave our stuff at his place because we were staying there for the night. We had breakfast at a great Jewish deli called The Bagel. Then we casually made it over to the show to see David Gray, The Flaming Lips and finally DMB for the last set of the weekend.

The Flaming Lips were performing Dark Side of the Moon with some Wizard of Oz mixed in and it was a ridiculous and awesome set.

The DMB set on Sunday night was probably the best of the whole weekend. A few highlights were when they played Gravedigger, Ants Marching and covers of Sweet Emotion and All Along the Watchtower.

All in all, I think it was the best concert I have ever been to and I have been to a lot of concerts. It was really a great cap to a great summer. The rest of the roadtrip is now mostly long days of driving, but we'll be sure to keep everyone posted with the places we see along the way.