Dave Matthews Band at the Shoreline

It has been a long time since I have been to the Shoreline in Mountain View for a big time rock & roll show. As I am fond of saying, "When you take a trip down memory lane, you usually end up in the ditch on fire". This was not quite that bad, but the Shoreline is not the same as it used to be. I am sure the reserved seats are still as good as ever, but the lawn has sunk to the point that you can not see the stage. I know this is true because after I filled out the "Customer Service Survey" that they sent me after the show, I received a very apologetic email from Shorelines manager. He told me that the "land fill" that Shoreline is built on has settled quite a bit in the last few years, and that they had installed big screen video systems to insure everyone would have an unobstructed view of the performance. To quote a lovely young lady who was standing next to me at the show, "if I wanted to watch TV I would have stayed home". I could not agree more. The other thing that blows my mind is that I got a customer service survey from a rock concert, I remember when good customer service at a rock concert was that nobody died (anybody remember the Who concert on my 18th birthday). Even with the poor view, the evening was great, the sights, sounds and smells of a big time rock and roll show are still mostly the same. The younger folks have added a few new twists, cell phones have replaced lighters as a way to applaud the band, and no one gets separated from their friends for very long, again thanks to cell phones. All in all I had a great time, Dave and the boys sounded great, the crowd was great, and everyone danced like no one was looking. The evening also made it very clear that I am not as hip as I once was, it was nice of the new cool kids to let us hang out with them for a while. If you are going to go to the Shoreline understand that the venue needs some work, also don't eat the food (take your own) or drink the wine (I advise switching to beer for the evening), pay for the VIP parking, and get reserved seats if you can. Here is a view from the cheap seats.