Concert Commentary: 'A Concert for Virginia Tech'

Girl!
You need to get some facts straight before you call yourself a "music editor."
First off..Dave Matthews Band has never toured with John Mayer...so I'm not sure what "recent tour together" you speak of....
Secondly, to say Boyd Tinsley (violin) and Leroi Moore (sax) have BEEN Dave Matthews Band since the beginning...17 years ago.
Thirdly...I believe that the trumpet you refer to is Rashawn Ross...NOT part of the roots, but an independently awesome musician that has tour with DMB for over a year.
And, last of all...to say that Dave Matthews Band is known for "relaxed, low key music" and questioning their ability to keep high energy through a live concert only speaks of your ignorance. As an attendee of over 50 DMB concerts all over the country withiin the last 12 years I assure you that I have NEVER gone to a concert and witnessed anything but people dancing from the time the enter the stage until the moment they leave.
Before you contine as a "music editor" I suggest you educate yourself on the musicians of which you are speaking.

Maybe you saw a different concert than the rest of us.

I thought Phil Vassar's performance was great and I did not expect him to play a John Lennon song. There's never a huge crowd for the opening act at any concert, so you should never expect the opener to have a pumped up crowd.

Nas wasn't bad. There's not much I can say about his performance, but I think he was received with greater enthusiasm than this article leads on.

Personally, I thought John Mayer was incredible. He has come a long way as a guitarist and it really showed here. You mention that repetition doesn't impress you, but I don't think too many performers could have put on a show like he did.

Obviously, you have never seen Dave live before. I also think he kept our attention a lot longer than an hour as mentioned above. His shows are always high energy. I would never describe the DMB music as relaxed. I've seen Dave live about 4 times now and he never lets a crowd down. There's a reason they are one of the hottest tickets in the world.

From reading the article, I guess you didn't appreciate the musicians as much as a majority of the crowd.

OMG John Mayer and DMB have NEVER toured together! It is unbelievable how uneducated you are on these artists on several things you said. I'm shocked.

Ms. Massey,
Its a Friday night. I highly recommend renting the DMB DVD "The Central Park Concert." This will help educate you on how engetic DMB can be. This will also help in case you have to write another review of one of their concerts, you can actually cite songs they played. Researching groups before writing articles about them is my career advice number one.

Secondly, you failed to mention very monumental events of last nights concerts:
1) Whenever, Dave had some down-time in between each song, the ENTIRE stadium would break out into a moving "Lets Go, Hokies" cheer.
2) Dave ended the song "Jimi Thing" with a cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds". Again, very touching moment when DMB stopped playing and then ENTIRE stadium continued singing.
3) John Mayer confessed on stage that Dave Matthews was the single reason why he picked up a guitar as a child.

Sorry anyone who read this review, it did not do the concert justice. Best of luck with the career Ms. Massey.

Concerned Planet Reader

I have to agree with the above comment. There were many great moments throughout the concert. I've been to a lot of concerts in my time, and this ranks up there at the top with the most memorable.

one other thing, "One Mic" was not the song song Nas performed to address critics. He did perform One Mic, but "Hate Me Now" is the song he used against Bill O'Reilly and other haters.

You should really consider retracting this story.

The concert was really awesome, it did go a tad too long, but it was incredible nonetheless. You put it down far too much, especially since these artists were doing this show for us. To lift our spirits and give us a good time. That they did. There is no reason to put them down at all. You should have focused on the fact they did what they came here to do, and it brought VT together to have a fantastic time. Not to mention all the artists kept thanking us for letting them come here, and we should totally be thanking them back. All of the comments above I agree with. Next time do the research and write a really good article with true facts. Not something that seems like you took 10 minutes to write.

Everyone here may love DMB but I left at 9, I thought about leaving before he came on because I can't stand his music. It bores me and therefore I wasn't going to stay at this concert for hours on end to hear him play what Ive heard was a few songs that lasted almost half an hour. Not exactly my cup of tea and truthfully even before DMB came on people were chanting lets go hokies and doing the entire stadium wave. Its not DMB that causes it, its the hokie spirit in general.

Amy, where on earth did you hear that? A few songs? He really went all out and put on a great show with numerous songs for everyone.

It really does shock me that anyone could say something negative about what happened.

These artists went out of their way to do something unique that has never been seen in this town before. An all out rock concert in Lane Stadium is something I never thought would have happened here in a million years.

Dave Matthews deserves nothing short of appreciation for what he did for us.

No need to hate on the Dave Matthews Band. I may be biased having seen them 30 times now that I've caught their last three shows at the Gorge - the run just prior to this concert.

I'm glad it was said above that DMB is known for low key shows. They are as full of energy as any legitimate musical act out touring today. Name one that puts on higher energy show - or has as demanding fans - as the Dave Matthews Band.

Do you actually receive a wage or salary for you elementary assessment of musical performances????? If so, your employer should sue you for every dime you have been paid for misrepresentation since you obviously portrayed yourself as intelligent during your interview. It has all been said before I see, which should tell you something since it's only been 24 hours. You may have a more successful career as a fortune teller, they actually get aid for KNOWINGLY spew bull****.

I have to agree with all of these posts. Like people have said, DMB and Mayer have never done a tour together.

Also...all of the songs that Mayer performed have been released minus the one COVER song. So there are no unreleased tracks there. For a solid set consisting of old songs, are we talking about just No Such Thing here? And if so, you might want to check out his latest album Continuum. Where you can find the rest of the hits from the concert ;]

Why would you complain about a FREE concert uniting Hokie Nation going too long. If you didn't like an artist leave. If you paid money for a concert you wouldn't be complaining it went too long.

This was a very badly written article. The entire purpose of the concert was to help the Virginia Tech community heal, not to criticize how bad the concert was. I have to say it was the best concert I have ever been to. Phil Vassar was decent, but definitely not boring. Nas was extremely sympathetic and showed this by leaving out harmful lyrics. John Mayer could possibly be the best blues guitarist of our time, and NONE of his solos were "boring". In fact, I didn't want him to leave the stage. Finally, Dave Matthews Band was amazing. When John Mayer joined Dave Matthews Band for "#41" (and you need to do your research before writing articles), it was possibly the best song I have ever heard, live or recorded. Music is very subjective in general but at the very least you could have written about the real purpose of the concert instead of criticizing every little nook and cranny. This was a concert that took months to put on by various parties and to forget that fact is just sad. I hope you read your articles from now on after you write them. All I have to say is it was a great concert and a special thank you goes out to everybody that helped put it on.

Dear Laura,
I love you. Many years ago I wrote a negative story about AC/DC and absorbed a brutal putdown from irate fans, including one of my former students. The best news is that I survived that onslaught, just as you will survive this one. No wisdom for you here, just a dose of commiseration.
I remain one of your biggest fans (and I loved the concert).
Cheers.
Your eternal pal,

Roland

Roland, you are right about writers needing to survive onslaughts. I work as a news editor myself in addition to finishing out my degree. I have made my share of mistakes and readers will always point them out. You definitely can only learn from it and not take it personally.

Just wanted to let you know that the 'concert for virginia tech' was about more than just what songs were on the set list. This concert was about pulling together our school once again into the proud hokie nation that it has always been. It almost provided a sense of closure to those who needed it most. I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy yourself and considered the musicians there mediocre. If you couldn't see that the concert was so much more than just a bunch of music, than maybe you had no business being there in the first place.

Not much of an article but I did appreciate the pictures! My pictures from the concert didn't come out very well. I am a VT alumna that flew in from my current residence in Missouri to attend the concert with my very special community. What am amazing evening I had for so many reasons including sharing in healing and moving forward, and enjoying probably the best concert I have ever seen. So, thanks for the pictures, sorry you didn't enjoy the concert. The memories and feelings will for me forever be a very special memory.

dear laura,
maybe you should cover things like sweater knitting contests or perhaps spelling bees so that you can truly understand what boring is and so you can display your vocabulary skills to a group of people that will actually be impressed with your use of the word verbose. and for the record you dont know shit about what you were writing about.

oh and roland.... why defend an obviously underqualified reporter when you yourself should know that she failed in her attempt to put together a story on a topic that everyone who picks up the paper is familiar with? she chose to touch on the things that she found negative instead of the positive ones such as the unity of the hokie nation, the willingness of the artists to do such a thing at their own expense, the common bond that everyone shared that night, the only negative aspect i could possibly find about it is the tragic events that brought us together inside lane stadium to heal and to adjust.....not bitch about being bored and feeding wrong information to us the reader.