America Coming Together Concert: October 6, Ames, Iowa – Hilton Coliseum

http://www.vfcfinale.com/





On
Wednesday, October 6th, at 6:00 p.m., my 17-year-old daughter and I
began the trip to Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University, to hear
Dave Matthews Band, along with My Morning Jacket, Jurassic5 and Ben
Harper and the Innocent Criminals. We would not return to Des Moines
for the night until 1:48 a.m.

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Dave Matthews in Ames (photo: Stacey Wilson)

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Hilton
Coliseum was packed. With 14,178 seats, all of which appeared to be
sold out, the concert (at roughly $50 a ticket) grossed an estimated
$708,900 for the Kerry/Edwards campaign war chest (exclusive of band
expenses). While it was “politics light,” with most of the acts simply
urging the young crowd to vote at all, while not necessarily saying for
whom, the concert was organized by MoveOn.org to (hopefully) rally the
youth vote for the Democratic ticket. Judging from the number of
Bush/Cheney stickers on cars in the parking lot, the largest
contribution that many of these students will make will be financial,
as some were obviously just there for the music. As they exited in
their Bush/Cheney cars, they hunched down like criminals leaving the
scene of a crime.



If you
were just there for the music, you were treated to a six-hour concert
that underscored this message articulated by Dave Matthews when he
said, “You probably know why we’re here. You all know who I’m going to
vote for. The most important thing is that you vote. That’s what makes
this a successful democracy, so vote for whoever you’ve got to vote
for. And wish me luck, too.”



The most
overtly political act of the night was Neil Young, the final
participant,  who was a surprise contributor not listed before the
concert. Playing with peace symbols on his guitar strap, this dinosaur
from groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young said he represented
“Canadians for Kerry,” but added, “But I’m also here for you, no matter
who you are. All the Canadians I know want a change. I’ve been around
the world and everybody says the same thing: they want a change.” He
then launched into a song about Spain, where, he said, “the people took
the government back.” The Buffalo Springfield version of “There’s
somethin’ happenin’ here; there’s a man with a gun over there. Stop,
Baby! What’s that sound. Everybody look what’s goin’ down,” was
repeated many times, in tandem with Matthews.



The best
act of the evening was definitely Dave Matthews’ Band, which played for
almost 2 hours after a short intermission. Very few spectators made it
out for My Morning Jacket, who mainly sound like Beach Boys Lite and
are best described as having very long hair, which they flail wildly
while playing.

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Jurassic5 in Ames (photo: Stacey Wilson)

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Dave,
himself, introduced Jurassic5, a creative group that fuses rhythms from
the thirties with rap. They were very energetic and very good. Ben
Harper and the Innocent Criminals followed Jurassic5. Ben might have
been smoking some of those funny cigarettes. Some of his remarks made
little or no sense, and certainly, “Burn One Down,” a song about
smoking marijuana, while well-received, did not seem to have an overtly
political theme supporting a change of Administrations.



By the
time Neil Young joined Dave Matthews onstage, his long, wild Howard
Hughes hair and Big Foot geriatric jig added little, other than to
legitimize the fact that some of us were protesting wars in the sixties
and we are now protesting them, again, in 2004. Sad, but true.



We had
truly excellent seats and, although at six hours the concert seemed a
tad long, Matthews’ finale of “Too Much” from the Crash album was
outstanding.



All-in-all, a good Mother-Daughter Bonding Tour experience, with numerous photos to prove same.