Here’’s the set list for the show on the 23rd:

• Pantala Naga Pampa
• Rapunzel
• Satellite
• When The World Ends
• Time Of The Season
• Hunger For The Great Light
• Dream Girl
• Say Goodbye
• The Idea Of You
• Louisiana Bayou
• I’ll Back You Up
• Down By The River
• Crush
• The Maker
• Jimi Thing
• Stay [Wasting Time]

What I love about DMB is that they somehow manage to help me achieve two seemingly opposing states; self-reflection while living in the moment.  I always find myself reflecting back on my life at Dave’’s shows.  A song will make me recall a past event with absolute lucidity – such memories almost always trigger some self reflection; thoughts of how lucky I am, how much I love my wife & child, how a few seemingly random events, had they turned out some other way, could have lead to a dramatically different life for me.  Self reflection certainly feels like an important thing – it’’s a shame that most of us don”t find more time for it.  I don”t mean this to sound too heavy – don”t get me wrong – I have a great time at Dave’’s shows, and the show in Vegas was no exception.  I”m able to completely unplug and live in moment as I soak-up the positive energy that a DMB crowd can deliver.  While I will take some time to reflect on my life, I”m also going to have a few beers, sing my fool head off, and generally enjoy the hell out of myself with few thoughts of my immediate problems.  As Jack Kerouac would of said, I”m able to “tune-in, turn-on, and drop-out.”  Only difference is that I manage to achieve this state for only about 2 hours during the show – then it’’s back to the real world.

Anyway, maybe I”ve ranted too much on the topic.  My point was, or is, that DMB shows make me feel great and this one was better than most – which is saying something.

Note that the band clearly states that this is not a “stick it to the man” move. They consider this a part of a marketing strategy – the end goal of which is to make some money. The free album is a way to get their product in front of more potential consumers than it would otherwise. Some very interesting and effective marketing, as I can promise you that I would not otherwise have heard this album. Not that the music is bad, but it’’s just not that good. The man-of-leisure has distguishing tastes, you understand.

It’s interesting to see the freeware model taking hold in markets other than software. My wife & I were talking the other day about the failed free bike programs in several cities during the early 90′’s. The obvious problem with that type of shareware model is that you are working with hard copys, i.e. there are a limited number of free bikes that can be distributed. When someone deletes a copy (steals it), that copy is gone from the total set of available copys. Eventually, that set will reach zero. The only successful shareware programs that utilizes hardcopy require strict monitoring and limited usage, like libraries. Digital media, on the other hand, has the capability of being infinitely copied. Note that this is not just a difference of distribution, but primarily of usage. Because of this difference, I can treat my copy of the new Harvey Danger album as mine. Limited usage is a fundamental axiom of any shareware program that involves physical medium. I can check-out a library book, but I can only keep it for a short time, and I can”t highlight it or take notes in it. I can do whatever the hell I want with my Harvey Danger album. For obvious reasons, limited usage “licenses” don”t fly. Most folks would rather fork out $25 for a book than borrow it from the library.

One of the rare markets that the limited usage model really works is movie rentals. It would be an interesting study to learn how many people rent movies vs. rent books. My guess is that we”ll find that even when balanced per capita, more movie watchers rent movies than book readers rent books – by a very large margin. I wonder why?

Anyway, I guess my point in this rant is that I hope to see many more new instances of the freeware distribution model. Something for nothing is good, and it allows the consumer to get a taste of a company’’s products and services prior to making a financial commitment to them for whatever it is that the free offering is bait for.