{"id":3387,"date":"2018-12-14T09:29:48","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T14:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=3387"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:16:26","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:16:26","slug":"review-dave-matthews-band-td-garden-12-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2018\/12\/14\/review-dave-matthews-band-td-garden-12-07\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Dave Matthews Band @ TD Garden 12\/07"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Ren\u00e9 Huemer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By David Taylor<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dave Matthews Band<\/a> brought their Fall 2018 tour to TD Garden and delivered the music like only DMB can. The jam-band pioneers kicked off the night with fan favorites \u201cEveryday\u201d, \u201cFunny the Way It Is\u201d, \u201cThat Girl Is You\u201d, and \u201cGranny.\u201d Mixing old songs with new (including a great cover of Peter Gabriel\u2019s \u201cSledgehammer\u201d), the show never lulled, remaining energetic, alive, improvised, and electric. They let loose and experimented, breathing new life into their songs that are now nearly two decades old. <\/span><\/p>\n

As always, the jam interludes were long and fast. The band played off each other, complementing and highlighting one another\u2019s skills. The band\u2019s drummer, Carter Beauford, proved why he is ranked number 41<\/a> on Rolling Stone\u2019s \u201c100 Greatest Drummers of All Time.\u201d His drumming was great in every song, but when he got the stage to himself to introduce \u201cSay Goodbye,\u201d watching him solo was as magical as watching Eddie Van Halen play \u201cEruption.\u201d He is ridiculously talented, and he never stopped smiling. You could almost hear the joy radiate through his drums.<\/span><\/p>\n

The entire band looked like they were having as much fun as the audience. Throughout the night, Matthews bounced around the stage doing his wacky dance that looks like he\u2019s stomping on a bunch of bugs. Stefan Lessard (bass) did his baby head-bob. And Tim Reynolds (lead guitar) stayed his steady self, letting his fingers do the dancing. Reynolds, like Beauford, is an especially talented musician, though his work with an electric guitar is second to his work with an acoustic. To really appreciate him, one should watch his work with Dave Matthews on the Dave & Tim shows. Here, he and Matthews play acoustic sets apart from the band, and Reynolds compensates for all the missing instruments (drums, bass, brass section, keyboards, violin, etc.) with one guitar \u2014 it\u2019s amazing.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from the individual members\u2019 talent, the band as a whole drew the audience in. Their music gripped us. It got inside of us and lit a fire. We felt <\/em>Matthews\u2019 raspy howls, Coffin\u2019s saxophone, Beauford\u2019s drum. Fans new and old felt the raw emotion in the band\u2019s set, with Matthews\u2019 full, powerful voice at the core of the music.<\/span><\/p>\n

DMB gave the crowd two great surprises in their encore. First, they played a stripped down version of the seasonal \u201cChristmas Song,\u201d this being the song\u2019s first appearance in 334 shows and only the second time played live since 2012. Second, while closing out the show with Dylan\u2019s \u201cAll Along the Watchtower,\u201d the band broke into a cover of Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cStairway to Heaven,\u201d and they covered it well! Not surprisingly, Reynolds shredded Page\u2019s solo (which nevertheless did sound rather strange backed with a brass section). But surprisingly, Matthews did a really good job covering the high screams of Robert Plant. I cannot imagine two voices that sound more different than Dave Matthews\u2019 and Robert Plant\u2019s, but somehow he was able to pull it off.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, even with all the positivity, there were certainly elements that the show lacked. First, the setlist was on the weaker side. No DMB set is ever the same, and given the band\u2019s deep catalog of music, it\u2019s unrealistic to expect them to play your favorite song. Regardless, it could have been better. No \u201cTwo Step\u201d, no \u201cAnts Marching\u201d, no \u201cSatellite\u201d, no \u201cThe Stone\u201d (though \u201cThe Stone\u201d is played less frequently than the former three). It left me wanting more. Second, the band has a major hole to fill without former-member Boyd Tinsley on violin. Earlier this year, Tinsley released a statement saying that he needs a break to rest and be with his family. However, after NPR<\/a> and Rolling Stone<\/a> recently publicized the sexual allegations made against him, Tinsley\u2019s break will likely be permanent. Without him, songs with a heavy violin section like \u201cWarehouse\u201d and \u201cGrey Street\u201d felt incomplete, so the band needs to find a way to compensate for their loss. It will be exciting to see what they do next.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By David Taylor   Dave Matthews Band brought their Fall 2018 tour to TD Garden and delivered the music like only DMB can. The jam-band pioneers kicked off the night with fan favorites \u201cEveryday\u201d, \u201cFunny the Way It Is\u201d, \u201cThat Girl Is You\u201d, and \u201cGranny.\u201d Mixing old songs with new (including a great cover of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[651,652,653,192,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3387"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3391,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387\/revisions\/3391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}