Last night at the Comcast Center, four friends and I had the pleasure of seeing Dave Matthews Band. DMB has always been one of my favorite bands; the last time I saw them was in the 11th grade, before I could drive, before I had ever drank, and before I knew what that funny smell coming from the lawn seats was. At some point early in college, I drifted from DMB a bit, as many musicians looked down on the rowdy crowd of bros and biddies who worship their hero: Dave. The usual crowd at a DMB show is not my favorite group of people in the world but there is no sense in punishing the band for the crowd they draw. Inevitably, I realized I was being foolish for listening to the opinions of musical elitists (as listening to the opinion of any elitist generally is). So at age 22, roughly six years since last seeing DMB, I went back with the accompaniment of friends. And it was great.
Let me first say, we didn't see "Dave," we didn't just see "Dave Matthews," we saw "Dave Matthews Band." Referring to the band as just "Dave" is a tremendous injustice to the six other guys in the group. If people consider Dave Matthews a solo act, then he has the best backing band in the world.
The entire band goes through drummer, Carter Beauford. Beauford might not be a household name, but he should be. Without Carter Beauford, DMB is a solid jam band, but there is no way they are nearly as successful. His style plays perfectly into the style of the band. DMB's long improvised solos don't work unless they are able to build and have direction. It's a pretty simple concept: if you want to keep a solo exciting, it has to go somewhere and the longer a solo goes for, the harder it is to keep the excitement. Regardless of who the soloist is, they're going to start with something simple. Carter matches their intensity with something simple. The more minimal the band begins, the more dramatic the climax is. As the soloist picks up the intensity, whether its through volume of notes, loudness of the sound or getting into the upper register (or in Dave's case, scat screaming), Carter matches that intensity and goes beyond it. By the end of each solo, you have a moment where everyone is going nuts, pushing their instruments to the physical limit. At these moments, typically accompanied by a climax in the light show, the crowd goes wild. Though the crowd thinks they're cheering for the soloist, they're actually cheering for Carter because without him, that moment would not have happened.
Take this solo for example. While it is the amazing Jeff Coffin's (I'll get to him later) solo, it all happens because of Carter. Starting with something minimal at 2:00, getting really into it at 5:00, and going completely insane at 6:15. The reason why Carter is a great drummer is he makes everyone else in the band better. In that video, why do you think Coffin decides to face the drummer instead of the crowd? He knows that by working with him and feeding off of his energy, his solo is going to get to the next level.The amount of physical energy Carter Beauford exerts on a nightly basis is unreal. DMB played for almost 3 straight hours (no set break) last night and that is the norm for them. To exert that kind of energy playing for three straight hours requires the stamina of an athlete. Take a look at Beauford's wikipedia page, he is 54 years old! Fifty four! That is unbelievable. It's his skill and energy that earned him a spot as one of Rolling Stone's top 10 greatest drummers. Another thing I love about him is his smile. You can see it in the picture above, Carter always has a huge smile on his face. To me, I interpret the smile as his way of saying, "yeah, I'm aware, I'm nasty." He's a true showman.
Enough about Carter; the four friends with me at the show last night will tell you that I did not shut up about how amazing he was all night. The rest of the band are all great players, too. Stefan holds down a solid bass line and can show off a little when he's called upon. Crush was his highlight of the night as he milked one of the band's few tunes driven by a great bass line. Boyd Tinsley, though not the greatest violin player in the world, is a fantastic entertainer. He is such a ridiculous character, I enjoy watching him play so much. What's not to like about a jacked black guy with dreadlocks who always wears tight clothing and rocks the hell out of his violin? Boyd's highlight of the night came on Ants Marching, which I was thrilled to hear amidst a set of mostly sad/angry tunes. During Boyd's solo, the rest of the band gathered around the drum set as Carter (yup, back to Carter again) called out instructions for background hits. By making the rest of the band an extension of himself, and the band's tremendous ability to follow his improvisation, Carter took Boyd's solo to the next level and of course, the crowd showed it's appreciation. It was Ants Marching, we all do it the same way, bro.
The loss of Leroi Moore was terrible for the band, so I hate to admit this, but his replacement, Jeff Coffin, is a much better saxophone player. Jeff was poached from Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, a great bluegrass/jazz fusion band known for the technical proficiency of all of its players. Rashawn Ross, who came from Soulive, another one of my favorite groups, is a great trumpet player and showed off some great jazz licks. Tim Reynolds, probably best known for his acoustic collaborations with Dave, is a prodigious guitar player and a master of achieving sounds most people would not think could come from a guitar. These three touring musicians, not officially a part of DMB, are all phenomenal players and add a tremendous amount to the live show.
One thing that makes a band like DMB even greater is that they get better over time. With such an improvisational style, over the past 20 years they have gotten to know each other's styles so well that they play with such chemistry. Since these guys are taking their instruments to the limit almost every night, naturally they are only going to get better. Each one of them wants to have one of the best solos of the night, always pushing their boundaries. There is a lot to be said for a band made up of a bunch of guys who are really damn good at playing their instruments. But a group of guys who are great musicians still needs a leader, a frontman and a personality.
And this brings us to the mythical character that is Dave. Dave Matthews is a pretty fascinating dude. As I get older, I have focused more on the lyrics in his music and discovered that he is a really gifted lyricist. Ants Marching may have my favorite lyrics of any of his songs. I was slightly disappointed by Dave on Wednesday; he didn't speak to the crowd much between songs and he must have been in an awful mood because it was a very sad/angry set overall. They threw a couple crowd pleasers in at the end (closing with Tripping Billies), but for the most part it was a pretty heavy set, including the borderline-screamo Halloween during the encore. Given that it was a Wednesday night with not so great weather and that the band is constantly touring, it is pretty excusable, but it seemed like Dave was kind of just going through the motions. Thankfully, his band is so good that even if he is not completely in the zone, it's still going to be a great show.
There's something larger than life about Dave Matthews, some kind of aura that makes him seem like more than an average man. Eccentric is a tremendous understatement for him. With the sheer volume of songs he has written, and his style of personal lyric writing, DMB fans feel like they really know Dave.
[One side note, I have never been around more Phillip Phillips haters in my life. Phil Phillips is basically Dave Matthews reincarnated and went on to win American Idol. The Dave lovers hate Phil. The reason I hated Phil was not Phil's fault, it was because the judges constantly praised him for his originality and being like no one else. By saying that, the judges were admitting they have never seen or heard Dave Matthews before, which I think as a judge on a major popular music competition TV show, is pretty embarrassing.]
But getting back to Dave, there's a sense that you really know Dave and with that comes an emotional attachment. Phil Phillips, especially since he didn't play any original music on Idol, does not have that kind of emotional connection to his audience. Very few performers do.
The likability and connection to Dave Matthews combined with the incredible musicianship of the rest of the band, driven by the real captain of the ship, Carter Beauford, makes Dave Matthews Band a great live show. Wednesday night wasn't the best show I've ever seen from them, but few things beat listening to great live music with friends. You don't need to be a bro to appreciate DMB, but it sure won't hurt.
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