The Dave Matthews Band

To many Kansas Citians, summer just wouldn't be the same without a sold-out appearance by the Dave Matthews Band. The faithfully touring quintet serves up a reliable show that mixes genuine songwriting with just enough crunchy granola flavor to indulge the hackey-sack set. Perhaps because of its college-town origins, the DMB also attracts a heavy frat-boy and sorority-sister crowd, but the group draws an equal number of furrowed-brow music aficionados who hang on every percussive foray and guitar flourish. A fair number of those serious devotees nearly abandoned ship following last year's ultraslick Everyday, but the Charlottesville, Virginia, ensemble returned to form with Busted Stuff, a comeback that pumped the infamously shelved Lillywhite Sessions full of new life. In the coming months, the band will issue its fourth "official bootleg," taken from a Boulder, Colorado, performance last year; maybe an especially enthusiastic KC crowd could inspire a fifth.