Dave Matthews Band   

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Wetlands Preserved
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On September 15th, 2001, the Wetlands Preserve rock club closed it's doors after 13 years as New York's venue of record for the burgeoning jamband scene.

Now you can learn all about the club's legend and history with Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Rock Club, a new concert DVD by first-time director and Phishing Manual author Dean Budnick.

I'll remember Wetlands Preserve as a beautiful flower growing in a crack of concrete.
— John Dwork, Dupree's Diamond News

Wetlands Preserved traces the influential and progressive club's rich history through vintage footage, original recordings and new digital animation featuring the accounts of musicians, staffers and clubgoers.

The film includes performances by Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Phish, and Pearl Jam, as well as the music of Disco Biscuits, Warren Haynes, The Roots, Ani DiFranco, Sublime, Ben Harper, moe., 311, Spin Doctors, Bob Weir, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, KRS-1, Joan Osborne, Fishbone, Agnostic Front and Michael Franti & Spearhead.

Your heart will dance, your eyes will pop, your ears will buzz.
— Dean Budnick, Director

The Wetlands wasn't just a great music venue — it was a unique medium for social change. As part of founder Larry Bloch's business plan, each month a percentage of the club's proceeded were to be donated to a non-profit Center For Social and Environmental Justice. And so it was. A fund-raising success story by any measure, the “eco-saloon” often donated more than $100,000 to the cause each year.

A unique workplace and environment for compelling music and social change.
— Dean Budnick, Director

Although the venue is closed, the spirit of The Wetlands lives on thanks to the Wetlands Activism Collective. The Collective fights for human, earth, and animal liberation through protest, direct action, street theater, political advocacy, and public education. Visit the Wetlands Activism Collective website to read about their campaigns, learn how you can donate or volunteer, and to see some great Wetlands flyers and concert posters.

The Wetlands Preserved DVD (official site) is now on sale.

Well it only took a little over 2 1/2 years, but on April 1st you'll be able to relive the 20th Anniversary Farm Aid show that took place September 18th, 2005 at The Tweeter Center, Tinley Park, Illinois.

This is just one disc, but it's packed with over 2 1/2 hours of music from a range artists including Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, and John Mellencamp (all of whom are on the Farm Aid board of directions) plus Widespread Panic, Wilco, Buddy Guy & John Mayer, Los Lonely Boys, Emmylou Harris and more.

Farm Aid started as a benefit concert in 1995, but has since become a larger aid organization that works to increase awareness of and lobby for the importance of family farms, in addition to the annual concert.