Reviews of Dave Matthews Band Concerts Past

Mike Joyce
The Washington Post

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August 3, 1999
Maybe the heat got to these guys, because the Dave Matthews Band looked awfully relaxed Sunday night at Nissan Pavilion. Many of the band's jam sessions unwound at an uncharacteristically gentle pace, some of the music was quiet enough to be drowned out by the crowd noise, the musicians were downright pokey between songs--it was as if the gang were playing Blues Alley instead of the biggest shed around town.

"The Dreaming Tree" epitomized this low-gear, low-key approach; after meandering through the bulk of the ballad, the band embarked on a long, slow instrumental excursion, led by drummer Carter Beauford's minimalist work. Saxophonist LeRoi Moore chimed in with a winding, unstructured solo, and a good seven minutes of hushed, jazzy tinkering resulted. Unfortunately the crummy, bass-heavy sound mix washed out many of the finer points of this digression (this selective amplification also rendered most of Matthews's between-songs comments into unintelligible mush).

The band brought things to a boil on a few up-tempo items--violinist Boyd Tinsley turned in a typically combustive solo on "Lie in Our Graves." A few songs later, he helped kick off a stupendous version of "Two Step," which burst from its meditative intro into frenzied choruses, then tapered off into a hammering drum solo at the end.

Next to that furious intensity, the quieter, slower stuff sounded a bit off. Considered on its own, though, it made for some interesting explorations, and it was heartening to see this band try different things, even when that meant not giving the fans what they might want--a risk the group seems prepared to run, considering that it left its signature tune, "Ants Marching," off Sunday's set list.

Rob Pegoraro
The Washington Post

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July 21, 2000
Back in the day, when Joe Gibbs stalked the sideline and John Riggins ran through holes opened by the Hogs, a light but persistent rain falling on RFK Stadium was called "Redskins Weather" because it rendered opponents helpless against the Burgundy and Gold's bruising running attack.

Unfortunately, the light but persistent rain that fell on RFK Wednesday night fell on a Dave Matthews Band concert, and therefore was just called a mess.
Matthews and his five support musicians didn't seem at all fazed by the wet conditions--but they were on a covered stage. The huge crowd didn't seem to mind much either, howling with approval for Matthews all evening. Or perhaps the constant cheers were because the inclement circumstances hadn't affected cellular communications. With seemingly every other concertgoer shouting into a phone, it was clear that the devices played an indispensable role in the evening, assisting in vital tasks like orderly seating, stadium safety and the ordering of emergency beers. Additionally, several attendees phoned each other to say that tube tops may be coming back in style, and they're, like, so tacky.

Oh yeah, there was music, too. Matthews, whose group has grown to enormous popularity since its bar-band beginnings around the University of Virginia, hasn't contributed anything particularly memorable to the rock-and-roll canon, but his compositions are pleasant enough. DMB has always been at its most effective in concert, and versions of songs like "#41," "Stay (Wasting Time)" and "Two Step" were the reason many didn't mind getting so wet. The band--violinist Boyd Tinsley, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer Carter Beauford and reedman Leroi Moore, who were joined by three female backup singers and keyboardist Butch Taylor--favors conservative improvisation, and "Lie in Our Graves," "Ants Marching" and "Drive In, Drive Out" all surged and crashed with the kind of easy-to-follow dynamics essential to making a stadium show work.

The state-of-the-art video displays at both sides of the stage helped the presentation immensely, and even though the pictures and sound didn't quite sync up from all areas of the stadium, the professional camera work allowed everyone to enjoy Matthews's trademark goofy shuffle dance and arched eyebrows.