DMBP -- July 29, 2008

Disney Music Block Party
29 July 2008
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Columbia, MD

We raced up from XM in DC, crossing fingers that there would be no traffic. There was traffic, but we managed to get parked and out of the car just as Raven Simone introduced Choo Choo Soul. By the time we got to the front gate (bags not checked -- water brought in), my girls were not ready to race across the field to see a band that they know so little about, so we wandered over to one of the activity tents to color a little and ease ourselves into the block party....after a bit, the girls went through the mister to cool down. It was so HUMID out that we were all just melting. We found a place to the side of the stage to place our blanket and stuff, then headed to the "family dance area" to see what was up. Choo Choo Soul just finished up and Raven came back on stage. We stayed in a front spot as Ralph and Tom started to set up. Ralph spotted us and waved; then we said hi to Tom.

The Ralph's World show was great! On drums was John Richardson and on bass was Michael Alban. The freedom that wireless gives the band is awesome! No real surprises in terms of set, choreography, jokes. did I mention in the Morton recap that Camille noted that the "fish pockets" joke has morphed into a pirates one? Ralph did change some lines in "Things that I Like" to say "Disney Music Block Party". For the finale, instead of kids up on stage, Ralph came down into the audience, which was really cool.

We then headed over to the "signature tent" and joined the line, which was quite long. It got half as long when they realized that the line was doing double time for Raven and for Ralph. After getting a photo with Ralph, we headed over to some more of the tents to try out some of the activities, then went to see They Might Be Giants on stage. Wow, they had a lot of band members up there with them! The girls were itching to go do some more of the fun tents -- play-doh, sand toys and more -- so we left early, but I could still see and hear much of the TMBG show while we wandered. When we went into the instruments tent, there was Tom on the floor playing guitar. As we looked around, Michael, Mike (another RW drummer) and John were there too. I had missed getting Mike to sign the girls shirts, so I ran to grab them from our basket and asked him to do that. Ralph, Tom, Michael, and John did a little set there sitting in the tent; they played "Helter Skelter" and "Duckies". It was cool to see them hanging out like that and taking the time with the kids that wanted to say hi or see their guitars.

We left when they were about done and went to some other tents. As the girls wandered into the dancing tent and then back out with some goodies, Ralph came walking across, and took some time to talk with me. Fiona came wandering by as well, and it was great to see her again! We finally said by to Ralph, and Tom who came to usher Ralph on, then went to see Dan Zanes play. He really got the crowd dancing and everyone wanted to join the train! Then, all too soon, the party was over. Chloe wanted more time in the sandbox, so we went over there and she played and played. After being in the car and at concerts, she needed a lot of time. I was annoyed when the workers tried to push us out at 7:30pm; when we entered, I aksed and was told we could stay in until 8pm, and I wanted to let Chloe to have lots of time to just play. Bah.

We had gotten our hotel reservation using hotwire and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was around the corner from the block party. Not only that, but as we were headed to our room, we ran into three of the people in Dan Zanes's band!! They said a lot of block party folks are here. Does Disney use Hotwire too? Next morning, we ran into Dan Zanes himself as we were loading the suitcase into the car

The play list is at the bottom. Click on photos for a larger version.

Camille	Chloe	Chloe	Mist Tent
Crowd	Raven	Coming on stage	Ralph
Ralph	Ralph's World	Cameras	Tom
Ralph's World	Tom and Michael	Tom and Michael	Tom
Michael	Ralph	Ralph, Tom and Michael	Ralph
Ralph	Michael	Tom and Ralph	John
Ralph	Wipeout	chloe	Ralph's World
Tom and Ralph	Finale	Finale	Finale
Finale	Finale	Finale	Final jump
Ralph and girls	TMBG	TMBG	TMBG
TMBG	TMBG	TMBG	TMBG
TMBG	TMBG	TMBG	Play tent
Tom in music tent	Ralph in music tent	Ralph in music tent	Chloe in music tent
Ralph and Chloe	Photo	Dan Zanes	Dan Zanes
Dan Zanes	DZAF	Dan Zanes	Dan Zanes
Catch that Train	Dan Zanes	Dan Zanes	Venue
Venue	Venue	Venue	Sand trucks
Chloe	camille	Flat band	DZ at our hotel