He came, we saw, we conquered.

Where to start? Well, first off, I´m tired, and I´m about to go hit a nap, because this weekend wore me out. It was probably one of my top 2 or 3 weekends here, and I´ll try to give y´all a quick review.

The concert. Was. Sick. We got there early-ish: very early by Argentine standards, but average to late by Michael´s Festival Standards. I wondered if we were at the right stage when we first found it, because there were no more than 100 people listening to the band that was playing. When the band finished about 75 of these people left, and we hunkered down in the front row, on the rail. For a Dave Matthews concert. That only cost 30 dollars. Now that´s value.

We picked out the fellow Americans with ease, and spent the next three or four hours talking and waiting. Some of the bands were good, some were ... well, I think my wording at the time was ¨queerer than a 3 dollar bill.¨ This was mostly directed at the guy who kept winking at the almost all male crowd and doing a Ricky Martin-esque ass shake, while wearing skinny jeans hemmed with polka dots and some other super-homo accesories. We couldn´t stop laughing though, and one of the songs was pretty catchy. Fito Paez played just before Dave, and this was both the begining of the good music and the begining of an important realization:

Argentina has a couple of things they are known for: tango dancing and going to soccer games. And military dictatorships, but that´s a different story. They also have a few customs which are less well known but just as much a part of their way of life. One such custom is jumping up and down and singing. Cool, right? Wrong, because when you have thousands of people jumping and pushing on you it actually sucks, and, at times, can strike fear into your heart as you almost fall down because you are standing on the ledge of the barrier and you feel like you are going to end up getting trampled. At least that was my personal experience.

Despite the jumping, the concert was awesome. Really awesome. During the second song, or an extension of the first song, depending on how you look at it, the sound system stopped working. I thought there was going to be a riot, and I was between a crowd and a hard (metal barrier) place. And then it happened. Dave descended into the crowd and came right at us. And then stopped, and started shaking hands and thanking all of the Argentines that had come out, walking THE OTHER WAY. So close. RJ´s hand was within inches of touching the man, the myth, the legend, but it was still really sweet. Other highlights include the encore, All Along the Watchtower, in which Tim Reynolds substitituted (and demolished) the Stairway to Heaven solo, improving the middle part and then, to blow the few minds that hadn´t already been, playing the last part with his teeth. Which I have filmed. It was, as we say, ¨ridonk¨, or ridonkulous.

Another highlight was Two Step. A lot of popular DMB songs have certain parts where the crowd participates, but I have never heard this done before, and I´m not sure Dave had either, because he was absolutely loving it. During Two Step, if you know the song you just have to imagine the intro riff -- which is also the jam. During the jam the crowd started chanting daaaaaaaah dah dah daaaaaaaah, for about 5 minutes while the band just rocked out. The crowd was, basically, another instrument accompanying the seven guys on stage, and Dave started to scat (the jazz-speak freestyle type thing) towards the end. It was, also, ¨ridonk.¨

During the jumping and shoving I did manage to tear my shorts, and of the 7 americans 4 of them and countless others had security pull them over the rail because they were so uncomfortable, but those of us who stayed were rewarded with front row seats to the aforementioned encore performance during which Tim Reynolds ascended into the stratosphere of most mind blowing guitar performances I have seen live, joining Warren Haynes, Luther Dickinson, and Davy Knowles.

After the concert we went to a place which really opened my eyes to what sushi can (and should) be. If you´re from Gulfport you probably know that Samurai is good, but there is a difference between a place that has great sushi because the rolls are huge and filled with awesome and exotic stuff -- coconut shrimp, mango, whatever -- and a place that just has such high quality fish that a simple piece of niguri or a regular Philadelphia roll tastes like heaven in your mouth. And that´s what Moshi-Moshi did. We also did a sake tasting, 8 kinds of sake, and they were all good, but there was one that had gold leaf in it that was a definite fan favorite.

The next day we went all around the downtown area, and did lots of cool stuff, and then met up with RJ´s friends, the mexican girls and the Spaniards, a little later. This was cool because:
A.) I don´t have a cool social group like that, and the people were a lot of fun.
B.) Two good ratios were present at this gathering: 2 native English speakers to 7 or 8 native Spanish speakers, and 3 guys to like 7 girls -- as Dylan Drake would be able to let you know, this is a ratio rarely found in Oxford.

All kidding aside, the whole group was really fun, and I´m envious of RJ for having such a tight-knit group of pals. I´m excited to go hang out with them all again in about a month. RJ may or may not have lost the memory card with the pictures from the weekend, but I will upload them if I can find it.

T-minus a few days until I take off for the Andes. Weather is about 80 all week in Mendoza and in the 50´s or maybe low 60´s in Patagonia. Can´t wait.

Take care folks, until next time.