I must have some amazing ticket karma currently, or perhaps a good plan along with a little luck. I spent the weekend outside of Pittsburgh, PA attending back to back nights of Dave Matthews Band concerts. If you recall from my experience at the beginning of the tour, I received a couple of free pit upgrades for showing my Volkswagen Jetta key. Even though I didn’t drive the Jetta to Pittsburgh, I still took along an extra key hoping for more upgrade opportunities.

My friend Will and I walked into the venue on the first night just as the opening band was playing their last notes. I quickly remembered that the VW girls were spotted during the set break, so we sprinted up the side of the lawn and immediately saw the distinctive VW blue shirt being worn by a girl holding a sign. She was walking away from us so we quickly ran toward her while yelling that we have a key. Guess what? It worked again, and we were rewarded with pit upgrades!

Unfortunately by the time we gained the wristbands necessary for entry into the pit, the standing room area was completely overflowing with people. Rather than trying to fight the crowds, we found another couple of friends that were down in the first ten rows of seats and were fortunate enough to watch the entire show with them. The people who had tickets for the seats next to theirs never showed up.

Finally got to use my tailgate for it’s intended purpose.

DMB Takes the Stage

A little too far for my crappy iPhone camera.

Awesome Light Show

Great Venue – take notes Riverbend.

When the second night rolled around all of my friends wanted in on the pit action. So we devised a plan to get in early and be ready to get as many pit upgrades as we could. I realized that they must start combing the lawn immediately after the opening band finished their set, so we found the VW booth and waited for them to work their way toward the lawn.

Apparently we weren’t the only ones with this plan, as the VW girls were quickly bombarded before they could even technically hit the grass lawn. A friend was told earlier that they couldn’t give out the tickets until they were on the lawn. Even with the large crowd we had no problem getting four pairs of pit upgrades for everyone in our group. Fortunately the pit wasn’t as crowded this night, at least not early on, so we all headed there to enjoy the show up close and personal.

I’m not going to make it to any other shows on this tour. However I would encourage anyone that is going to any future shows, be sure to find a VW key, get inside before the opening band finishes their set, find the VW booth, and be ready to get yourself an upgrade. I attended three shows on the tour and got the upgrade at all three.

Part Of Our Pit Group

Amazing Video Screens

Tim Reynolds

Great Views in the Pit

Lasers