The Missing Labor-Dave Tradition

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By Ron Signore

Tables turned again… This summer has been a consistent battle of disappointments with the activities that find us joy. Baseball for all intents and purposes was cancelled in many areas at all ages and the MLB delayed the start of the season so long that it may as well have never started. In addition, fans are not in attendance to the games. Football is such a variable to what will happen, though kick off Thursday night between the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans showed promise.

There are many channels of people who group together around experiences that bring energy within the entertainment and a euphoric release. I am talking about concerts. The summer air filled with the sounds of tunes of their favorite bands. The one place where there really ceases to be conflict- unless of course some punk tries to sneak down from lawn seats to the pavilion.

For those 3 hours, people tend to forget about politics, their real-life problems and other morality draining differences. Though we tend to know that artists believe in more of a liberal message, even when they tend to spread that message through their sold-out amphitheater platforms, rights and lefts cheer on. Even the attendees holding an opposing view to that of which an artist tends to express, we see a phenomenon unbeknownst to many of us…they shut up and just wait for the next song.

While summer music tours are a point of joy for many, there is one band that has toured so consistently over the past 25 years while still growing. The Dave Matthews Band. Fans have watched this band grow from the local musicians in Charlottesville, VA to opening for The Grateful Dead, to performing in front of sold out crowds in the largest music venues available.

The community of Dave Matthews Band fans mimic the following many had for the Dead in the 70’s and Bruce Springsteen in the 80’s. Some claim that Dave Matthews now is what Bruce was in the 80’s from a following perspective. While they are three different sounds, the concept of being a roadie is an extremely popular one to fans of all ages.

Selling out venues like SPAC in New York, Alpine Valley in Wisconsin, and Deer Creek in Indiana annually with multi night stands, one venue has been deemed the “Mecca” of venues for the fandom of the band. With it’s gorgeous scenic overview of the Columbia River in the elevated land in the state of Washington, the Gorge Amphitheater has been dubbed by Dave Matthews himself as “heaven’s amphitheater.” Fans from around the globe, no exaggeration, mark this as the tour spot they must see their favorite band. While many tours make the stop in this venue in the middle of George, WA, it can be argued that none have drawn the attention to the Gorge like DMB.

Every year in late January/early February, fans can set their clocks to the release of tour dates and ticket on-sale dates. But many fans know they can start planning their trip to the Gorge prior to that release. The Dave Matthews Band has made it tradition to play their annual 3-night stand at the Gorge on Labor Day weekend. Fans have coined the weekend “Labor-Dave” weekend because of it.

With the scenery as earthly and beautiful as one can imagine and the amazing acoustics that are created from a sound perspective, Matthews Band hits the trifecta at the Gorge with it’s fans. In many cases, we see the frat turn out in larger venues like Deer Creek or Alpine because that is where the party is. The largest tailgates are taking place and its easy for young kids to partake in extracurriculars to the show. But at the Gorge, it does not seem to matter who is in attendance. For that weekend, one can experience an extremely laid-back crowd who are there for that previously described euphoric release. Many find their inner hippie in the marijuana legal state, chill out and just enjoy being.

This year hurt many of us. The lack of live music was like a lack of blood flowing from the heart. The pandemic caused DMB to cancel their summer tour like many other bands. While during the summer, they added their own version of streaming past live events on Youtube, the feeling was clearly lacking. Every Wednesday night you could watch a show selected by the band to stream as if it was being watched live and it would be a slight fix for many, but never anything more than a band aid to the wound.

While it was not the real thing, the band gave us fans something of familiarity. The band streamed shows from different live Gorge events over Labor Day weekend. Facebook and Twitter feeds from fans blew up with the energy one may see in true live events. The excitement in detail while sharing and commenting during the shows was 3 hours many of us forgot we were not at a live show. We came together out of the social media wars we may have been in politically and discussed the aww of Carter Beauford’s drumming. We laughed at the “Elaine Benes from Seinfeld” dancing moves of Dave. We picked up that imaginary violin and jammed out with Boyd (Tinsley). We grooved with Fonz (Stefan Lessard). And while 2 of the 3 shows featured current saxophonist Jeff Coffin, Sunday’s show brought us to a nostalgic sadness of hearing the sweet sounds of the late LeRoi Moore.

The power of music is great. It gets inside you and drives emotions that are tied to events current or in the past. It takes you away from where you are in any mental state. For fans of Dave Matthews Band, the emptiness of live events this summer was a wound that a band aid was unable to fix. But for that brief 72-hour period, that wound was gone, that faith was back, that feeling of one whole human race was present and the weight of the world was gone. Live or not, that Labor-Dave tradition is a uniting force in many.

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