DMB, take two

We went to the second DMB show last night. Tom had researched the parking a bit and thought we could park in the pay lots early, but alas, no parking anywhere now until 4pm. Not to fear, we drove aimlessly in downtown Mansfield to kill an hour or so, then quickly called his friend Hubie, a Mansfield guy, to see if perhaps we had missed something interesting to do in town. His solution: hang out in his backyard, stick our feet in the pool, and raid a beer or two from the fridge in The Barn (what in our house is affectionately referred to as the Man Cave, seeing as how we don't have an actual separate building!). Needless to say, we asked him to call his very good-natured wife, Meg, to make sure it was okay -- she was feeding a friend's dog with the kids and on her way home, but true to self, said "see you in a few." So for an hour, we hung out with his dog, a longtime friend re-doing his roof, and a motley crew of rabbits, hens, a rooster and a few goats. I stuck the requisite toes in the pool, while Tom fished in the beer fridge. What, did we have a concert to attend?

Long story short -- we left Hubie's to pay $30 to park in a private lot. Had a few beers, weren't terrorized by the cops. Walked a bit further to Great Woods, but well worth the state of mind. Were horrified when GW security harassed a husband and wife -- at least ten years older than I -- when the husband offered a sip of his beer to his wife. She must have had a duplicate license -- an absolute no-no -- and the acne scarred pip-squeak tossed the $8 beer in the trash. Oh, did we have a concert?

Yes, the show was great, although we were disappointed to not hear some of our favorites. The encore was bordering on the bizarre -- he played a very low-key, nearly solo song that neither of us knew, then the whole band returned to cover an old 60s song along the lines of "thank you for letting me be who I am" (or something to that effect). Very disappointed until he ripped off his headset and started dancing around the stage. Dancing was an understatement -- he really tore it up! At some point, Tom and I went from disappointed to amused to laughing it up. Still wish he closed with one of his classics, but it was different!