I just got home from the first of two Dave Matthews Band concerts at the Verizon Wireless Music Center.  Well, he is playing two nights but once is enough for me.  Since I’ve been telling all our deejays they will need to post regular blogs to our new website, I thought I would set a good example with a DMB concert review … my first concert review after 23-years in radio!

Let me start by saying I like Dave Matthews; I’m just not a “follow the band around the country and camp out three days before his concert” type fan.  Smiley has become one of “those guys” who spends more time preparing for a DMB concert than he did preparing for college admission tests (and, he didn’t go to college, proving my point).  Our mutual friends Bill & Erin Baas from Blossom Chevrolet have dozens of people camping out for the weekend on the lake … they follow him around the country for concerts, know every song by heart, and plan vacations around his tour schedule.  In comparison, I only knew five songs he played tonight and would not have felt bad missing his visit to Indianapolis.  Fate would deal me another hand, though.  Thanks to some tickets which “fell off the back of a truck” yesterday (courtesy of the RCA Label Group), we got a babysitter and joined 25,000 others for a “date night” journey to Noblesville in the middle of Friday rush hour traffic.  Papa Hoov, our VP & General Manager, and Hunter will also have record label compliance forms for their Section A Row 20 tickets.  But, I digress.

As I said, I’m not fanatical about Dave, and I don’t always like the “jam band” moments for which his shows are known.  However, for great live rock and roll music, you can’t do much better than Dave Matthews.  DMB delivered three-hours of back-to-back songs, although not many “hits,” to a sold-out venue that didn’t sit from the first note to last.  His band is amazing; especially drummer Carter Beuford, violinist Boyd Tinsley, trumpet player Rawshawn Ross, and saxist Jeff Coffin … all truly stand-out performances.

In the past 5-10 years, cell phones have become ubiquitous at concerts.  You can use them for pictures, replace lighters during those love songs, to call your friend when the band plays their favorite song … This year, I noticed many of those phones were Tweeting – constantly updating Dave’s set list via Twitter.  I’m pretty sure @hunteronair updated his status more than he sang to his wife.  My competitor @rayne1009 went so far as to Tweet song lyrics AS DAVE SANG them.  Yeah, if you Follow both of them, I’m sure your reading experience was JUST like being at the concert.  I even sent a TwitPic of Hunter tweeting.  Guys, come on.  I know I’ve told you how important social media will be to our marketing strategies; but, enjoy the friggin 150-decibel concert!

Hunter was the first to go.  Papa Hoov was somehow last man standing.  Quite impressive … for a suit!

I’ll leave you with one last DMB story.  Our evening concluded with the purchase of 2 pretzels on the way back to my truck.  Cost = $16.  SIXTEEN DOLLARS … for TWO PRETZELS.  Who pays sixteen bucks for a couple pretzels?  This guy!  Who drops one of them in the parking lot?  This guy.  So … hello, Taco Bell. 

Man, this concert blogging thing is harder than I thought!  Dave Lindquist from the Indy Star, your job certainly isn’t in jeapardy!  And, it’s time for bed.  I’ll leave you with the set list from tonight’s July 31, 2009 concert:

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My job is never the same two days in a row.  Today is a perfect example.  I was busy working on some project in my office when our Web Geek and Promotions Diva asked me a simple question about how I wanted to promote a new feature on 107.9 The Track, our sister station.  Jokingly, I went on a rant as late great TV pitchman Billy Mays … Next thing I know, I’m dressed like Billy Mays recording a video parody for The Track’s website.  Look for it online Monday.  Smiley was wrong – the green screen does get used!  And, yes I know Vince does the ShamWow, not Billy.

Dave Smiley helps out Toni’s first video blog by giving you a backstage tour of the Z99.5 Studios.

My daughter’s 5th birthday was yesterday.  5 years!  I can’t believe I’ve managed to keep a human being alive and well for 5 years (most of the credit goes to my wife, of course).  Sometimes, it feels like it’s been about 5 hours.  I can remember every detail of July 28, 2004 like it was yesterday.  Other times, it feels like it’s been 500 years.

I really love this age.  She starts kindergarten in a few weeks, and she’s been practicing her counting and reading to get ready.  She’s got such a personality.  She’s actually become one of my best friends.  It’s funny: sometimes during the day when something goes wrong, I think, ”I wish my kid was here.  She’d understand.”  Some people are “baby” people…they love having infants around.  Not me.  I’ll take a pre-schooler that you can have an actual conversation with any day.

As you may or may not know, in a few minutes (about 15 to be exact), Liz and I will be married for 3 years.  We got married July 29, 2006…it doesn’t seem like it’s been 3 years at all!  I mean, we didn’t move into our new house until April of 2007, which really made it seem official.  Anyways, if you’ve listened to the show at all in the past year and a half (why would you be reading this if you hadn’t lol), you’d know that we have been trying to have a baby for nearly a year now.  Despite two unsuccessful attempts, we are very hopeful. 

It’s funny all of the people that try to give you advice on things to do before, during, and after sex…do a headstand or hang upside down so that your legs are up over your head afterwards, do ONLY missionary position, do it on a heating pad, each of you do a shot of Orange Juice during, and my favorite…do it on a waterbed!  So after getting all of this USEFUL knowledge, I decided to do a little research to see if any of these are true…and here’s what I found:

Headstand/Hang Upside Down
Now, according to IVillage.com, “if you elevate your legs it helps due to gravity not fighting against you but I don’t think you have to hang upside down, that’s a little extreme.  She also says that it doesn’t help determine boy or girl as well.

Missionary Position
This is another one where there isn’t a significant amount of research stating that it’s true, BUT IVilliage says that the worst positions are when the guy is on bottom and any standing position

Doing a shot of OJ
Alot of articles said that you should drink lots of Vitamin C before attempting conception.  They say that you need to do it AT LEAST 8 hours prior!  Unless you do it in the morning…which is the best time to do it…but I don’t think Liz would want to get up when I do…hell, I don’t want to get up then!

Heating Pad
I stumbled across a ton of articles that stated that heat is BAD while conceiving…it’s never good!

Waterbed…lol
For some reason, this is the one I found most obsurd!  First, who even still owns a waterbed (besides Smiley lol)?  Second, what does having a rolling water mattress help?  I didn’t find ONE article proving or negating this advice, so who knows?!

I’ve come to the conclusion that while most of these wouldn’t hurt to try (Smiley, can we use your waterbed? lol), they most likely won’t help either.  Now, if you have any other helpful tips like the ones I received feel free to comment below and let me know!  And I’ll keep you posted on the progress of “BABY WATCH ‘09″.  I think this is our year!

No, it’s not another cat!  I’m not THAT crazy.  So after 2 years in this house, I’ve finally got a bar suitable to be on my Packers wall!  Thanks Dawn for passing this little gem my way!  Now, if only football season could be year round…

Was I the only man in indianapolis that watched the Bachlorette last night on RTV6? lol

I talked to Jillian yesterday on the moning show and asked her 5 questions that would help me “clue in” to who she picked before the finale!  You know, like “who is the best kisses” and “who is the strongest”.  anyway, she answered “ED” to 3 out of the 5 questions!  I called it!!

Click this link to listen:

http://wzpl.everyzing.com/m/audio/25490943/the-bachelorette.htm

First I had to admit Wifey and I don’t want kids but my sister gave my parents their first grandchild over the weekend.  Yes, mom and son (whom I call Timmy…yes it’s a SouthPark thing) are doing well.  I realized while we were at the hospital something…I still don’t want one HOWEVER, I find myself texting my sister, her husband, my parents to see how TIMMY is doing.  Still don’t want one of my own but it’s made me realize something — I’M GONNA SPOIL THE SH*T OUT OF THAT KID!

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been searching for a car (preferably neither one of these two).

So far, we’ve taken three cars to our mechanic to check out, and he hasn’t liked any of them (we’re looking for a used car, here).  It’s been kinda frustrating so far, but I’m not losing hope yet!  The perfect car is out there, and it’s just hoping I’ll find it soon!  (BTW, if you know anyone with a black Honda Civic, 2004-2006 model year, manual transmission with less than 80k miles that they want to get rid of for about $6000, send ‘em my way!)

If you’re one of the millions of “smart phone” owners, I want to make sure you know about this app!  FlyCast allows you to listen to hundreds of radio stations from around the country in real-time, including Z99.5!  The quality is fantastic, especially for mobile phone streaming.  But, there are some other cool features that make FlyCast worthy of download.  Oh … and, did I mention it’s FREE?  Some of those features:

• FlyCast displays the title/artist/CD of every song we play.
• You can buy the song playing with a click and download it to your smart phone.
• You can share the song or the show you’re streaming to your friends through Twitter or Facebook.
• You can “rewind” the live stream to “go back” and listen to a song again, or even go back and listen to the past two hours and fast-forward through what you don’t want to hear.

FlyCast is a free download; but, premium versions are also available that let you record up to 20 hours of programming to listen on demand.

Check it out, and take Z99.5 To Go on your BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android smart phones.

Find out how to download FlyCast here.