Daily Archives: October 11, 2004

America Coming Together Concert: October 6, Ames, Iowa – Hilton Coliseum

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On Wednesday, October 6th, at 6:00 p.m., my 17-year-old daughter and I began the trip to Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University, to hear Dave Matthews Band, along with My Morning Jacket, Jurassic5 and Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. We would not return to Des Moines for the night until 1:48 a.m.

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Dave Matthews in Ames (photo: Stacey Wilson)

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Hilton Coliseum was packed. With 14,178 seats, all of which appeared to be sold out, the concert (at roughly $50 a ticket) grossed an estimated $708,900 for the Kerry/Edwards campaign war chest (exclusive of band expenses). While it was “politics light,” with most of the acts simply urging the young crowd to vote at all, while not necessarily saying for whom, the concert was organized by MoveOn.org to (hopefully) rally the youth vote for the Democratic ticket. Judging from the number of Bush/Cheney stickers on cars in the parking lot, the largest contribution that many of these students will make will be financial, as some were obviously just there for the music. As they exited in their Bush/Cheney cars, they hunched down like criminals leaving the scene of a crime.
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