I couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off about the crowd at last night's Dave Matthews Band show at the Sprint Center.
After about 20 minutes, it finally hit me - it was the T-shirts! Glancing around the arena, I saw at least 15 different DMB shirt designs being worn by hundreds of people. Even stranger, I only saw a couple of shirts mentioning other bands.
I was aghast. Not only were these people breaking one of the main concert commandments ("Thou Shalt Not Wear the T-Shirt of the Headlining Band"), these shirts were like badges of honor for past Dave shows they'd been to. This point was driven home when the guy sitting next to me (who was wearing a DMB hat, of course) claimed to have spent hundreds on his and his wife's tickets to see Dave up close - for the sixth time.
Suddenly, I began to understand: Dave Matthews Band fans aren't really into music; they're just really into Dave's music.
Full disclosure: I'm not a huge Dave fan. Part of it is the music itself, although I won't claim that Crash and the Live at Luther double-live never spun on my CD player in high school and college, respectively. The other part is the group's notoriously frat-tastic fanbase.
Still, I left Wednesday's show reminded of the fact that once you get past all that patchouli-or-popped-collar douchebaggery, there's a musically gifted live band that still knows how to put on a crowd-killing arena show - but that doesn't mean it didn't have its issues.
Dave and crew took the stage after a relatively empty-house opener from Willie Nelson, whose classics ran together into a sort of bluesy, redneck lounge act. Like Willie, Dave seemed a little road-weary, his typically marbled-mouthed warble cracking on a few high notes during the set opener, "Rapunzel." But with only a couple of dates left on a somewhat sizeable tour, he had more than enough left in him to please the crowd.
Despite not being a superfan, I have always felt that instrumentally, the "band" part of the Dave Matthews Band - particularly violinist Boyd Tinsley, guitarist Tim Reynolds and drummer Carter Beauford - outshines Dave's singing any day. For the most part this held true, with musicianship that sounded like it came straight off the albums.
Where the show faltered, however, was its blatant overuse of long, lifeless solos in nearly every song, which killed a lot of momentum and gave the show a weird, uneven energy at times. It's one thing to showcase Tinsley's show-stopping violin work; it's quite another to play the same five notes on the soprano sax for five minutes during "Proud Monkey." To be fair, I wasn't stoned, but this felt more like a Kenny G breath-holding contest than some sort of life-altering jam-band moment.
Perhaps the biggest credit needs to go not to the band but to the tour's organizers, who created a visual backdrop for the band to build off of. Emerging from behind a giant white curtain that dropped to the ground at the show's beginning, the band played before a wall of skyscraping monitors that alternated between gorgeous black-and-white video footage, flashing colors and live shots that sent the crowd into hysterics.
If only it could've sent them into the Gap to buy new T-shirts.
Willie Nelson set list
Whiskey River
Good Hearted Woman
Funny How Time Slips Away
Crazy
Night Life
Me and Paul
Texas Flood
Shoeshine Man
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
On the Road Again
I Saw the Light
Dave Matthews Band set list
Rapunzel
Proudest Monkey
Funny the Way It Is
Lying in the Hands of God
Shake Me Like a Monkey
Gravedigger
Dreaming Tree
Spaceman
Lie in Our Graves
Why I Am
You Might Die Trying
You & Me
Crash
Crush
Alligator Pie (Cockadile)
Tripping Billies
Encore
Baby Blue
What Would You Say?
Halloween
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: As a non-fan, it took me longer to Google my notes and recreate the setlist than it did to write the actual review.
Interesting Factoid: "Halloween," the night's closing number, is like the Halley's Comet of DMB live songs. Up until about a year ago, it had only been performed live seven times, according to the song's ridiculously thorough Wikipedia page.
By the way: Screaming "I love you, Dave!" at the top of your lungs for two hours straight will not get his attention. But that didn't stop me from trying.
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I hear that Jason Harper is trying to make impressions with his..uh...witty (?) writings. Well, you can't blame the guy for trying, right?
Well, I have to say that I enjoyed myself Wednesday night. Even though I have followed and even obsessed DMB since UTTAD, I have lost interest at times since their peak, in my mind, with Before These Crowded Streets. The band is much different from what I grew up with. The "long lifeless solos" to which the author refers is exactly what built this band. However during the times of the past the songs were catered to jamming and the solos made a lot more sense. Since DMB has become a record industry juggernaut (post- Lillywhite), the songs have been more coesive with top ten pop radio, 4 minute type musicianship, definitely not suitable for the 3-5min. solos. But that is what the crowd wants these days. A lot of songs that they know word for word.
I got that when they performed "Crash Into Me". To me, that song is boring due to the inability to explore it in different horizons. No improv value, just cookie cutter single. I've never liked the song. I decided to relieve myself as everyone else sang in unison. Perfect time for a restroom break.
I am starting to feel like my parents do with their favorite bands by saying that the newer stuff is just not as good. I know that it is protocol to promote the new album on tour, but I would have liked to hear some Under the Table and Dreaming or more Crash but those times are behind us. Tripping Billies was nice!
It's kind of weird that the first DMB show that I went to, Oct. 28th 1996 at Sandstone they played unfamiliar songs as well, but that's because they hadn't been recorded yet!
I hear that if you take a lock of Dave's hair, a cherry blossom and a cup of pondwater with seven tadpoles in it that was gathered on the night of a new moon and mix it all into a potion and drink it, you can see through Alanis Morissette's eyes for 15 minutes.
I agree with Tony. I have been to four DMB concerts now and last night was nothing short of spectacular. I have also been an avid Dave fan for about 6 years. Although Aaron Ladage believes that the musicians in the band seem to out-shine Dave's vocal performance, one must understand that it isn't just the singing that lies within the beauty of the music. It is also the talent and creativity that flows into all of the lyrics; the song lyrics that are meaningful to people in numerous ways. Dave Matthews is a talented music writer and artist. He designed much of the graphics for his new album as well as many in the past. Although, I was bummed when he didn't start into Too Much because that is one of my favorites. And I will be blessed the day I get to see them perform Watchtower. Overall, it was one of the best performances I have seen, but the first show when I had 2nd row seats is still at the top. DMB for Life!
Anonymous says:
Last night�s show confirmed for me that I�m not a huge DMB fan. A good friend of mine told me DMB puts on one of the best shows he�s ever seen. Yes, the band is talented, but I somehow expected more. I had trouble hearing the vocals over the base, maybe that�s partially to blame. I�ve been to 10 concerts at the Sprint Center and this one was by far the least attended.
I was a non-dmb fan before this past week and i attended the des moines, tinley and kc show and am now hoooked! i have been going to country concerts for years and lately oar. dmb's show last night blew me away with the musical talent. to many people in todays world just want a good chorus and do not care about the song itself. not knowing the songs i could tell how passionate the dmb fans are as they sing every word. leaving kc made me feel like i witnessed history and i have never had that feeling leaving another concert! can't wait for the next one!
Your review is pretentious and condescending. But hey, that's the Pitch for you. Makes me think of some song lyrics: "baby you think you're the best on the block, but when you get to New York your ass wont' be worth hock." The band is amazing, Dave is a modern day poet, and if you weren't trying so hard to make your review sound 'to be a good critic', you might be able to see the artistic brilliance of this band. Just keep trying.
You admitted that you aren't a DMB fan, and that you had to google the setlist. But you couldn't even get that part right. There are a number of websites that would've given you the correct set (dmbalmanac.com, dmband.com, dmbsetlist.com just to name a few). The 2nd song in the encore was "So Much To Say," followed by "Anyone Seen The Bridge" which led into "Halloween." You also forgot to mention the short song "Pantala Naga Pampa" which was played before Rapunzel. Otherwise, it was an entertaining review. Good use of the word douchbaggery, as a hardcore DMB fan, I will be the first to admit that their shows do bring out that crowd.
That made me a little sad, too. But it seems that Willie has a lot of, you know, expenses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
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