Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band: 11/8/23 “Based primarily on my ongoing concert shenanigans, my motto for years has been ‘I’d Rather Be At A DAve Show’, however I had yet to see DMB LIVE until now, better late than never. When the opportunity presented itself back in September I jumped on the presale, scoring my seat in Bon Secours Arena’s upper bowl, row two. I was more concerned about taking in the entire experience rather than being close up, not to mention my wallet took a considerably less hit. Not being a classic jam band disciple I took advantage of the two month wait to familiarize myself with the essentials. The Grammy award winning band from Charlottesville VA came into town Wednesday with 10 studio albums, 30 charted singles including 9 number ones and too many live releases to list out. Aside from Matthews, founding members Stefan Lessard (bass), and Carter Beauford (drums) remain since its inception in 1991. In addition, onboard since 2009, are guitarist Tim Reynolds (a solo artist in his own right with 13 of his own studio albums) and Jeff Coffin on saxophone (formerly Bela Fleck), with Rashawn Ross on trumpet since 2006 who has worked with too many session musicians to list out. In 2018 keyboardist Buddy Strong (formerly Usher) took a permanent place in the band. Billed the ‘DMB 2023 Fall Tour’ the 8 city tour began in Savannah and concludes in New York, New York. The mini-tour was likely a dry run for their upcoming South African run and subsequent European tour which begins next month. Greenville’s show was only the second date so there were no prior set lists to follow along with, not that they would do any good since each gig is different with its own respective set. As one would expect the event was a sell out save a few restricted view seats behind the mix and on the upper side stage corners that opened up on Ticketmaster’s map once the band had set up. In typical fashion I was sure to arrive early for a close up peak of the stage set which majorly was an open concept. Keys were to the left, drums in the middle and horns to the right which included trumpet and four different saxophones set up on stands directly in the forefront. Four stage height light towers enclosed in three large video screens taking up the entire stage length. The top lights which could be raised, lowered, and pivoted at will were enclosed in frames which doubled as LED screens giving the stage a multi-dimensional appearance. Psychedelic patterns were most often displayed during the performance when individual close ups of band members were not shown on the screens. A nearly filled to capacity pit covered a full third of the floor. Despite an ‘Important Message’ appearing on social media stating, ‘Dave Matthews takes the stage at 7:30 PM, no opening band, get there early’, the Wednesday crowd was slow to trickle in. At 7:51 David John Matthews 56 from Johannesburg South Africa with band took the stage for a 2 hour and 35 minute / 19 song performance beginning with a pair of obscure 90’s cuts: ‘Spoon’ from the ‘Crowded Streets’ album and ‘One Sweet World’. Dave who had few words to say most evening long broke the silence by welcoming the crowd, ‘Thank you very much for spending your Wednesday evening with us this evening. What we will do is what we planned to do and um hopefully y’all have a good time.’ With that, the band started the opening notes of their #5 ‘Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin)’ to cheers from the crowd. A loud ‘Thank you Dave’ shout could be distinguished as some folk, although not all, were there to hear the hits. After ‘Joy Begin’ Dave began to address his activities during the pandemic and the same boisterous fan yelled out ‘Don’t get depressing’. Dave kept it lite though, ‘I found myself quite often along with many other things, I ate a lot of mushrooms, (then he qualified what he meant to laughter from the audience) Shiitake and other ones, Lion’s Mane and ah, I think I wrote a song about it.’ The song ensuing was the title cut from his latest album, the psychedelic ‘Walk Around The Moon’ one of three songs peppered in throughout the evening from the new release. The hits were also peppered in although not the majority of them, with ‘Grace Is Gone’ coming next featuring some great pinky slide work by Tim and ending with some impressive improve jazz by Buddy on keys. ‘You Never Know’ a deeper cut from ‘Busted Stuff’ followed, it’s performance had a distinct 1970’s Genesis concert-like feel in both sound and lighting (heavy on the keys, heavy on the drums), come to find out in a later read that Peter Gabriel has been one of Dave’s big inspirations. The next song, introduced by Dave as being ‘from the olden times’ was 1994’s ‘Jimi Thing’ which turned into an all out jam as the make up and composition of the original version no doubt entirely supports. Dave took a back seat to let Rashawn take lead vocals on a cover of Commodores ‘Brick House’ after which he introduced the original members of the band. ‘Me and Stefan and Carter been playing music together for going on now going on pretty close to thirty-tree years, feels like two hundred and thirty years!’ By inserting 2001’s #1 ‘The Space Between’, Dave broke an otherwise quieter lull in the set and fired up the near 13,000 person crowd into an all standing position once again.’ Shake Me Like A Monkey’ from the ‘Big Whiskey’ album came across with as much of psychedelic feel that you’d catch in a vintage Pink Floyd show. And just like that, it was hard to believe that over two hours had passed and Dave was thanking us once again for coming out on a Wednesday evening as 1995’s ‘Ants Marching’ ended the regular set. The audience sang along to every word, ‘Take these chances, place them in a box until a quieter time, lights down you up and die.’ With Dave and band exiting the stage and all the lights down the audience kept the decibel levels up non stop (as loud as I’ve heard in quite a while) all the while illuminating the darkened arena with cell phone lights until he appeared back on stage. Dave came back out for a two song encore beginning with a solo performance of Pearl Jam’s ‘Just Breathe’, just he and his custom Rockbridge SJ Sunburst six string. The song was a perfect match for his vocal range and arguably the best song of the evening vocally. With the band members having all returned to accompany Dave, the septet finished out the evening with 97’s ‘Two Step’ from the Crash album. It was a perfect ending to complete an evening filled with instrumental riff and run cross genre folk-rock-fusion fun. The only thing in my opinion that would have made things better would have been to see the set performed in a smaller venue, some place like Atlanta Symphony Hall where every seat could have been closer up, somewhere that had the capacity to showcase the sound quality which DMB delivers. Notably missing from the set were the #1’s ‘Too Much’, ’Stay’, ‘Everyday’, ‘Where Are You Going’, ‘Funny The Way It Is’, ‘Mercy’, ‘American Baby’ a #2, and ‘Grey Street’ a #5. Raised as a Quaker, Matthews a pacifist left South Africa facing possible military conscription. Working for IBM and bartending in the States prior to his career take off Matthews is presently living the American dream with no signs of letting down, all thanks to the power of rock ’n’ roll!” Review and photo by DAve (Concert #837)