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.
