I saw the Dave Matthews Band open for Phish at the Santa Monica Civic.<\/p>\n
I do what Chip tells me.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d told me I had to come see Phish at the Variety Arts Center and I’d watched them blow up.\u00c2\u00a0 The DMB was his new band.<\/p>\n
I didn’t know that the Santa Monica Civic had a false floor, that it was suspended in such a way that when they started playing "Ants Marching" and the college-aged audience dressed in the same exact clothing as the band members themselves erupted and started moving up and down that the floor would too.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d never heard the number before, I haven’t forgotten it since.<\/p>\n
During the break, before the headliner took the stage, I went with Chip to a side room, just east of the auditorium itself, that resembled nothing so much as an elementary school classroom, to hang out.\u00c2\u00a0 It was there that I met Boyd, Carter and LeRoi.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe LeRoi, I can’t remember exactly, it was fifteen years ago…<\/p>\n
This was before Dave became not only a TV star, but a cultural icon, before his humor became widely known.\u00c2\u00a0 They were just another band.\u00c2\u00a0 Who kept getting bigger and bigger, whose fanbase kept growing.\u00c2\u00a0 I followed them to the Palladium, all the way to Staples and the Hollywood Bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 And got to know their manager, Coran Capshaw, along the way.\u00c2\u00a0 Not incredibly well.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is probably why he wanted to have lunch on Tuesday.\u00c2\u00a0 To talk in an environment different from backstage.<\/p>\n
On the way to the Peninsula, I heard "Where Are You Going" on No Shoes Radio, Kenny Chesney testified not only about Dave, but the band’s drummer.\u00c2\u00a0 I told Coran and Chip this when we sat down.\u00c2\u00a0 Coran told me Kenny had a place on St. John too.\u00c2\u00a0 They were buddies.<\/p>\n
It was that kind of conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 Catching up, filling in the little details.\u00c2\u00a0 Telling me about the status of the band.\u00c2\u00a0 How they’d mixed it up, how they were playing better than ever before, with Tim Reynolds on the road with them and two replacements for LeRoi.<\/p>\n
LeRoi had been in an ATV accident.\u00c2\u00a0 This I knew.\u00c2\u00a0 But Coran told me the details.\u00c2\u00a0 The four-wheeled vehicle flipped over backwards upon him.\u00c2\u00a0 He broke ribs, had a collapsed lung, his shoulder was hurt, they had him in an induced coma for a week.\u00c2\u00a0 And three days after he came to, LeRoi checked himself out.\u00c2\u00a0 Against the will of the doctors.<\/p>\n
And after being home, he got an infection.\u00c2\u00a0 The nurse taking care of him had LeRoi readmitted to the hospital.\u00c2\u00a0 Where he was on both heart and lung machines.\u00c2\u00a0 But he pulled through.<\/p>\n
The story was told with seriousness, but no drama.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no question, LeRoi was coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly by the first of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 We started talking about other things.\u00c2\u00a0 The challenges of maintaining a superstar act in these confusing times, ticketing, Music Today.\u00c2\u00a0 And an hour later, the phone rang.<\/p>\n
Coran carries both a BlackBerry and a Razr.\u00c2\u00a0 He picked up the Razr.\u00c2\u00a0 He was listening rather than talking.\u00c2\u00a0 And after two minutes or so, he flipped the phone closed and became wistful, let us in on his mental soliloquy.\u00c2\u00a0 That was LeRoi’s assistant.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d called 911.\u00c2\u00a0 LeRoi’s lips had turned blue.\u00c2\u00a0 They were taking him to the hospital.\u00c2\u00a0 He had a blood clot.<\/p>\n
Coran traced it back to the infection that had put LeRoi back in the hospital weeks before.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d had a hard time fighting back.\u00c2\u00a0 And he hadn’t gone into the process in the greatest shape, he had diabetes, other health problems.<\/p>\n
LeRoi had flown to L.A. for rehab, he was staying at his house here, just miles away.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly the story took on a different feel.\u00c2\u00a0 Somewhere in the landscape visible from the Peninsula deck, this story was playing out.<\/p>\n
Then ten minutes later, the phone rang again.<\/p>\n
But this time, the call was longer.\u00c2\u00a0 Chip and I engaged in conversation.\u00c2\u00a0 For the better part of ten minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 And when Coran flipped the phone closed again, he said:<\/p>\n
"He died."<\/p>\n
A jolt just went through my body, writing this.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never been in a situation like this before.\u00c2\u00a0 I might have met this guy, but in a perfunctory way, I don’t know him.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s part of the lifeblood of Coran and Chip’s world.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s a human being, like the rest of us.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s now gone.<\/p>\n
Chip put his head in his hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Coran stared into space.\u00c2\u00a0 I was in shock.\u00c2\u00a0 Trying to decide the best thing to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Feeling that I needed to excuse myself, that they didn’t need an intruder, I was just about to stand when Coran got up, said "I’ve got to deal.", and walked off.<\/p>\n
Chip asked, WHAT NOW?<\/p>\n
I realized that I needed to stay.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as Chip needed to.<\/p>\n
I figured this was L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 LeRoi had probably gone to Cedars.\u00c2\u00a0 The news would be on the wire, on the Internet, in a matter of minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 I told Chip that Coran was probably trying to beat the press to the punch, in addition to alerting the rest of the band.<\/p>\n
DO THEY PLAY?<\/p>\n
I didn’t know.\u00c2\u00a0 It could go either way.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they were too fucked up to play.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe they’d say this is what LeRoi would do.<\/p>\n
Chip called Dan, founder of the agency.\u00c2\u00a0 Told him and asked him the question too.\u00c2\u00a0 The gig scheduled for that night, in Staples Center, only hours away, did it happen?\u00c2\u00a0 Dan said what I did.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe, maybe not.<\/p>\n
And then it became that moment in "Almost Famous".\u00c2\u00a0 The plane crash scene.\u00c2\u00a0 When suddenly truth passes between human beings.\u00c2\u00a0 Chip and I have a deep, honest relationship, but we touched on subjects we’d never delved into before.<\/p>\n
Then, after about forty minutes, we left.<\/p>\n
In the car to Felice’s house, the shock truly set in.\u00c2\u00a0 I realized why you needed the living around you when someone passed.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were alone, you drifted away.<\/p>\n
Felice was on her exercise bike, watching "Oprah".\u00c2\u00a0 I could barely speak.\u00c2\u00a0 She realized something was wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 I ultimately got the story out.\u00c2\u00a0 It barely registered.\u00c2\u00a0 How could it?\u00c2\u00a0 You go to lunch and a band member dies, DURING LUNCH?\u00c2\u00a0 News like that bounces right off of you, it doesn’t stick.<\/p>\n
And it seemed that only Coran, Chip and I knew.\u00c2\u00a0 I kept going online.\u00c2\u00a0 The band’s Website had not changed, there was nothing in the Google News.\u00c2\u00a0 I was in the loop, but no one else was.\u00c2\u00a0 This never happens in 2008, where everything is instant, where everybody knows everything all the time.<\/p>\n
I spoke with my mother.\u00c2\u00a0 But I basically listened.\u00c2\u00a0 I called Chip two hours later, as we’d agreed.\u00c2\u00a0 He still didn’t know whether the band would play.\u00c2\u00a0 He said he’d call me back.\u00c2\u00a0 A little after six, he told me to come on down.<\/p>\n
By time we got to Staples, the news had just broken.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe by going to Hollywood Presbyterian, the vultures had missed the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Ambrosia had written a press release, the news was now out, Chip’s BlackBerry was going berserk.<\/p>\n
The halls were almost empty.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave was talking to a gray-haired gentleman.\u00c2\u00a0 There were no festivities, there was no buzz, but in less than an hour, the band would take the stage in front of thousands.<\/p>\n
Coran’s number two said the band had had a meeting, uttered "Back to the van.", their mantra, to remember where they’d come from, their brotherhood.<\/p>\n
We went to catering.\u00c2\u00a0 Coran nodded his head, but stayed glued to his phone.\u00c2\u00a0 It was positively bizarre.<\/p>\n
And twenty minutes after the time on the sheet, the Dave Matthews Band took the stage.<\/p>\n
I don’t know how you play under those circumstances.<\/p>\n
And being in L.A., the roar of the crowd was muted to a degree.\u00c2\u00a0 L.A.’s jaded, everybody plays L.A., a concert here isn’t just enough of an event!<\/p>\n
But the band is firing on all cylinders.\u00c2\u00a0 Coran’s checking the set list as we stand behind the lighting board, he tells me they’re going to play my favorite, "The Dreaming Tree".<\/p>\n
The ten minute number calmed my nerves.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is a magic carpet loaded with oils and other soothing potions, it’s just what you need when you don’t know what you need, when you’ve got more questions than answers.<\/p>\n
And they played "Ants Marching", with even more ferocity than they had fifteen years before.\u00c2\u00a0 Their cover of "Sledgehammer" had more power than Peter Gabriel’s.\u00c2\u00a0 But the highlight of the evening was unexpected, a rendition of Talking Heads’ "Burning Down The House".<\/p>\n
Only played for the first time live two weeks before, the number is unmistakable.\u00c2\u00a0 It starts with an ethereal guitar, the drum pounds and then…<\/p>\n
Watch out Whatever the audience expected, this exceeded it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say the band was a freight train, but it was more like a 747, that had DRIVEN all the way from Charlottesville to Los Angeles and was burning rubber at the airport before finally coming to a rest…\u00c2\u00a0 THE TIRES WERE SMOKING!<\/p>\n And just like a modern jet, EVERYTHING was working.\u00c2\u00a0 It has to in order to move.\u00c2\u00a0 And boy was the band moving.\u00c2\u00a0 Musically.\u00c2\u00a0 There were no dance steps, everybody was almost rigid in his place.\u00c2\u00a0 But Carter’s arms were churning, Dave was spitting into the mic like he was seventeen, and he needed to show the bullies, who he was, where he was coming from.<\/p>\n I’m an ordinary guy This was not the hair band eighties.\u00c2\u00a0 The members of the DMB were wearing the same clothes that had covered them backstage.\u00c2\u00a0 They were not stars, they were MUSICIANS!<\/p>\n There was nothing on tape, no loops, no hard drives.\u00c2\u00a0 This night they’d had to conjure the fire from scratch.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d had to reach down deep and do it one more time, knowing that their brother was not only gone, but was never coming back.<\/p>\n EVERYDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n Pick me up, love, from the bottom The video of the hugger played on the hi-def screens.\u00c2\u00a0 The audience sang along, knowing every word.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s just what we’ve got, every day.\u00c2\u00a0 Until we don’t.<\/p>\n I don’t know what happens when people die.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this really the end?\u00c2\u00a0 LeRoi had called his business manager just that morning, left a voice mail before the crisis, did he know this was going to be his last day on this mortal coil?\u00c2\u00a0 And the recipient of this message, he didn’t receive it until after LeRoi expired.<\/p>\n The audience was cascading in a virtual wave, going up and down in place, not the artificial arena exercise, but something inspired by the music.\u00c2\u00a0 We were in unison.<\/p>\n Jump in the mud, mud Get up from that couch!\u00c2\u00a0 Go out into the bright sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0 Dial your crush and ask her for a date.\u00c2\u00a0 It may be messy, but maybe not.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t be somnambulant, get out of your own way, don’t only embrace life, but eat it up.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyday.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I saw the Dave Matthews Band open for Phish at the Santa Monica Civic. I do what Chip tells me.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d told me I had to come see Phish at the Variety Arts Center and I’d watched them blow up.\u00c2\u00a0 The DMB was his new band. I didn’t know that the Santa Monica Civic had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-leroi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You might get what you’re after<\/em><\/p>\n
Burning down the house<\/em><\/p>\n
Up on to the top, love, everyday
Pay no mind to taunts or advances
I’m gonna take my chances on everyday<\/em><\/p>\n
Get your hands filthy, love
Give it up, love
Everyday<\/em><\/p>\n