The Great American Roadtrip, Dave Matthews Band Part 4

The new DMB team has hit the road - kicking off in Indiana on June 22nd, and making our way back to Philly for the shows across the river in Camden, NJ. Along the way, we’ve seen some creative fashion statements, experienced a group ketchup clean-up, and had a chance encounter with Dave himself (more on that later).

All the while, we’ve been registering close to 100 voters per show. So, let me introduce the  team for the second leg of the 2012 Dave Matthews Band  tour:

Abby Brazina, hailing from Philadelphia, is the mother hen of the group. She has been with HeadCount since 2008 and is a veteran Touring Team Leader, having worked on the Jack Johnson tour in 2008.  She also leads the Philadelphia HeadCount team. She keeps on schedule and amazes the team with her never ending stories.
Abby’s Favorite DMB song: Shake Me Like A Monkey

Ashton Meadows, a student at the University of Cincinnati and the baby duck of the group. Ashton joined HeadCount in the fall of 2011 as Cincinnati’s Team Leader.  One of Ashton’s finest qualities is her ability to never be lost in the crowd of Dave Matthews Band fans because of her singing and dancing. She brings entertainment to the car with her creative use of language - that is, when she’s not singing along to the satellite radio.
Ashton’s Favorite DMB song: Pantala Naga Pampa > Rapunzel

Brenda Olivas comes to the team from Ft. Collins, Colorado. She started volunteering with HeadCount this past year. Brenda is the resident Dave Matthews Band groupie with over sixty shows under her belt. With Brenda, there is no dilly-dallying around. She is always on the go and keeps the team on their toes.
Brenda’s Favorite DMB song: Pig

Chelsey Tillman hails from Chi-town and is a recent Poli-Sci graduate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  Chelsey came to HeadCount after volunteering for Reverb on the Campus Consciousness Tour with J. Cole. Chelsey is the team’s silent weapon.  She’s always calm, cool, and collected, and has the best hair on the team.  She can’t go into Dunkin’ Donuts without getting hit on, but she hasn't gotten the team free strawberry frosted doughnuts...yet.
Chelsey’s Favorite DMB song: TBD

We have enjoyed our time in the Volkswagen, meeting volunteers in each city, and talking to different fans about how many shows they’ve been to or what they’re looking forward to most.

Especially because Dave didn’t do a full tour last summer, opting to do the Caravan festivals instead, people have been pretty excited to see DMB back in action.

Dave fans, most of whom are veteran Dave followers, are, for the most part, really supportive of HeadCount. It’s been a really positive crowd. Someone spilled ketchup on the back of my shirt, and before I knew it, three women were helping me clean it off (the aforementioned ketchup fiasco).

There was a woman walking around saying, “Happy Dave Day”, pretty much summing up the vibes of many fans hitting this tour. We’ve also been seeing really creative, homemade t-shirts in the crowd. Sometimes, big groups of friends will be wearing the same one, like on school field trips. There was the “GrooGrux Crew” and team “Burnin’ One Down 36”. There have also been a lot of take offs on Carter’s jerseys.

The shows have had an all ages crowd. People who started listening to Dave because of their parents danced side-by-side with people who have been listening to him since they started.

For me, the most memorable moment came when I was standing in the security office and a group of people walked in. One automatically stuck his hand out to shake mine - it was Dave Matthews. He smiled, said hello, and was very friendly, chatting with everyone in the room. Dave is super personal. We talked about biking. He was getting information about building up a custom bike and getting the kind of pedals he wanted. He rides his bike around a lot at all of the stops on the tour.

Before signing off, we’d like to give a shout out to the HeadCount team from the first leg of the Dave Matthews Band tour. Emily, Sarah, Justin and Jesalyn, you set the bar high.

Stay tuned for our future adventures on the HeadCount, DMB, the Volkswagen Great American Road Trip, and the antics that result from spending hours on end in the our favorite VW Routan, Jimmy.