Dream of 5 or 7 is Heaven!

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By Ron Signore

I was on a conference call late Friday afternoon. A senior member of our executive staff joined me on the call as the first two to arrive. The simple greeting exchange commenced.

“Hey Ron, how are you doing?”

My very instinctive responses are few, but one most common for me is, “Living the dream.” I continued, “I get to celebrate my middle child’s birthday tonight.”

The dialogue continued as we waited for the other two members to join and got to the basic topic of being young again. Not having the responsibility, we all have now as adults. Many of us do not deny the responsibility we have, we do not ignore it, but anyone who does not wish to be able to go back to a more simple time when the burdens of real life are not present is lying- either to you or themselves. My colleague added a caveat I felt was assumed. The notion of going back to a simpler time, but with the knowledge we have from our first run through to the current moment.

“I would have spent less money at Harry’s Chocolate Shop and put more money on Google or Amazon,” I added with a chuckle. While that had some serious truth to it, I pondered that thought again as I laid in bed watching The Sopranos. I wondered the actions I may actually take if I had such an opportunity. As I dove into deep thought, and as I type, I realize one thing that would have to be adjusted in my do-over would be avoiding paralysis by analysis, which I was doing during this self-entertaining exercise. I mean, I even got to a point where I correlated an episode of Family Guy into the “what if” scenarios. The Family Guy example is pretty simple as it correlates to the Back to the Future movies or the Butterfly Effect: if action A would have changed, how would the proceeding actions in B-Z be altered.

It ultimately led me to the memory of the greatest memories I had and how I would not change a thing. Specifically, my wife, my children, my career moves (though sometimes I could see reasons why I should have questioned if the grass was greener in certain aspects) are all things I would not want to risk changing- even if I was an early investor into Amazon or Apple or Google.

Outside of those specific life milestones and joys, it drove me to reflect on what I consider the greatest year of my single life with my friends. The year 2005 was a year I cannot help but smile as I think about almost any aspect of it. Maybe it is because I chose to forget anything negative during that time, but the highs were so high, there is no reason to kill that buzz. I should note I was 20 for most of that year, so there may have been some underage consumption of alcohol. Furthermore, my group of friends were not into any types of illegal substances, so the euphoric highs were that of joy, not chemically enhanced.

The end of 2004 was kind of rough. At the age of 20, I had a relationship that lasted almost 6 years come to an end. My identity was not fully complete because a huge part of my adolescence was tied to a girl. I suppose it prevented me from getting into a lot of trouble as a kid. There were some fun times that one could call “trouble” growing up. We did the occasional phone pranks and ordering pizzas to someone’s house, but reflecting as a parent, nothing I would be overly upset with if my son ever did that.

2005 was going to be a new year. The continued passion for the Dave Matthews Band with my best friend Sharpie created the roadmap for the summer. Literally. Sharpie and I had been to a few DMB shows together, but when we hung out outside of sports, we watched and listened to Dave Matthews Band. It was what we did. Even at during our freshman year of college, the use of the internet took us to searches on video clips of whatever we could find for live performances of the band.

When the 2005 tour was released for the band due to the release of their album, Stand Up, we decided we wanted to see the band as much as we could (afford) at new venues. A tradition we held true well into our late 20s and look to pick up again here soon. We identified 5 shows we wanted to attend. We made sure we hit our home show in Chicago, we hit both shows in Indianapolis and both shows in Wisconsin. Sharpie and I dubbed our future summer “the dream of 5.” We would refer to this often throughout the summer and as we reflect, we talk about that to this day. The summer tour brought many firsts for us as we chased several songs of the DMB portfolio.

The first show we saw during the tour was in Chicago. This was a unique show for us since we found a way to get sky box tickets. Seeing the band from an overhead view with food and drink was spectacular. The set was ok, nothing overly special to the positive, however, I do recall the opening back, “Jurassic 5,” was not our cup of tea.

The real fun began with our road trip to Deer Creek in Indianapolis. I am not sure if Sharpie cared or not, but due to the death of our friend’s grandfather (Bethany), I invited her to join us. Thinking back, I remember thinking the amount of fun we had just watching this band may help spread to someone who is a little down. Maybe those were my intentions, maybe I was rationalizing? Nonetheless, this was a very memorable trip.

Sharpie and I stayed at my uncle’s house which was nearby the amphitheater. Bethany had family near my uncle’s house, so she stayed with them. Worked out nicely for us poor college kids on a budget. Now it is important for me to share that the White Sox were really good that summer, so conversations between my uncle and us hit heavily on that. Also, as poor college kids, we bought cheap seats in the lawn. That never bothered us. Sharpie and I always arrived early, and really didn’t tailgate. We would eat some food and have some legal beverages, which turned out to be a great decision on our part. Sharpie and I would wait in line (Bethany as well in this instance) for the gates to open and sprint as fast as we could to get the best seat on the lawn. We had our plans all drawn out. We always parked just to Boyd Tinsley side of Dave Matthews in the closest part of the lawn we could.

That day was hot and muggy. The decision to load up on water and some soda for flavor was a brilliant move looking back. All the kids, probably younger than us, were falling left and right due to the idiocy of drinking so much on a day where rehydration would be the right move. One kid in front of us exited the show before the opening act of the Yonder Mountain String Band came on after he passed out in his own vomit. Ooops. Night one was a very fun show with a great set capped with a 20-minute version of Seek Up. We were on top of the mountain.

The opening act for night 2 was Robert Randolph and the Family Band. Robert Randolph would end up opening for Dave and guesting with the band frequently throughout the rest of this tour. I must say, the set was good. A lot of songs we tried to hear were heard. But the most memorable moment of that show came towards the end. As the 3 hour DMB set came to a close with the song, “All Along the Watchtower,” with Robert Randolph sitting in on the lap slide guitar, a bolt of lightning lit up the sky at the moment of an introductory symbol crash came from Carter Beauford to the lyric “no reason to get excited…” It was without exaggeration, divine.

After we left night 2 in amazement, we hit one of the greatest memories I have with Sharpie from a comedic perspective. We decided to stop at Wendy’s after we dropped Bethany off. We pulled up to order. I asked Sharpie what he wanted and he ordered 5 junior bacon cheeseburgers and 2 double stacks with cheese without missing a beat. I honestly thought he was joking. He was not. Without shame, he ordered a coke too, did not even make it a diet coke. A two night stand for our favorite band took forever to get to and went by just like that flash of lightning during night one. This two night stand would ultimately be one of my favorite to memory. Everything was new, including the excitement

The two night stand we had remaining in Wisconsin at Alpine Valley was probably the best two night stand from a set list perspective. Alpine always tends to top Deer Creek in that aspect, but most notably the tailgate aspect. As we took the hour or so hike north across the Illinois-Wisconsin border we stayed true to our basic food and beverage regiment. The opening band, OAR, was a great way to get the weekend started in a very hot July. The nearly 40,000 people in the amphitheater rocked to what we can now identify as rarities amongst the regular tunes one may consistently hear at a DMB show.

The summer was winding down to a close. We hit 5 amazing Dave Matthews Band shows around the region. It was running into August and we had to begin the return to our schools. For me, it was transferring to a new school in Purdue. For Sharpie, it was about time to start football. 2005 could not have ended on a higher note, except, it was not over.

People think long distance relationships are hard when it comes to romance. I am not ashamed to say, it is equally as difficult, though for different reasons, when it is your best friend at a distance. During the first semester, DMB had announced a fall tour. Our mantra of the “summer of 5” or “dream of 5” became “seven is heaven.” We added a stop at the Universities of Wisconsin and Illinois to our roadmap. The game was a little different for us at this point. Schedules were a little tighter. We traded some show concepts to keep it new. We started buying better seats. We developed a game that we perfected when it came to predicting what the band would play next. I cannot divulge our secret formula, but it was highly accurate. We began finding different nuances to break down and discuss. Sharpie, however, was much more finely tuned to music. His ear was amazing to the things some of us may not hear without it being pointed out. As a side note, his ear allowed him to mimic the drumming of Carter Beauford on his own kit at home.

Things have not gotten stale in my opinion for us and our DMB adventures. We still find new complexities in the music. We seem to always find new songs to hear and chase, most specifically to the ability of DMB to pump out new albums. We would continue to find new venues, like the landmark venues in The Gorge, SPAC, Burgettestown, Cincy, and our latest discussions have us considering a northeast trip to New Hampshire or Boston (or back to SPAC). In retrospect, especially to the original comments of going back an investing in specific stock for monetary gain as opposed to the money we spent on what one may view as just concerts, I would not trade a dime for the experiences we had over the years. They are priceless to a friendship that is now over 20 years in the making.

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