Dave Matthews Band Fan Site

The Dave Matthews Band played a couple smaller venues in London recently and the people there were favourably impressed (if I may spell in the UK way). The band has been unable to really make the big time over there because they are hard for people over there to fit into a category. Fusion is very common in the US, but in the UK isn’t not quite as typical. It can be very enjoyable, but you first have to get people there. Combined on a bill with the E Street Band, it’s actually a fairly good concert, because you get the traditional style of rock music, plus the unique thing that the DMB does. This balances it off and gives Dave that feeling of edginess that the band capitalizes upon.

The Dave Matthews Band is loaded. At least, that’s what the current version of the Charlottesville Newsplex would have us believe. Forbes.com has named the group the 12th most wealthy band/musician in the world. This isn’t bad for a group that comes from the small town of Charlottesville VA. It’ll take a lot for them to become more famous than Thomas Jefferson, who also came from that place. But they’re not doing too badly with the newest crowd. They trail Madonna by a lot of money, but she has had a longer amount of time to sell albums and such. Meanwhile, she is also part of the establishment, while Dave and the others have had to help themselves most of the way. It just goes to show you what good music can do compared with what simple money and notoriety tries to do.

Dave Matthews recent shows are being seen as some of the best in the bands career. If nothing else, they are going some of the best shows they’ve been doing for a long time, and their music, as we’ve mentioned, has shifted back to some of their best styles that they have ever paid before. Over the last few years, people have complained that Dave has gotten away from his best music, but now he’s back and doing very well with the kind of music that they’ve come up with. It’s like they got a big jolt last year and went back to their roots. As an example of the changes that have taken place, during his show at the Verizon Amphitheatre, he didn’t close the show on a crowd pleaser, but on a much lower-key note, which began slowly and built to bigger climax. We’re happy to see that he’s trying more innovation again and for the first time in years is making a lot of new music!

Those of you who follow Dave a lot know this already but this is the announcement for the whole readership of this blog. The DMB has added a few new dates to their current tour, including two more performances in Los Angeles in September. This is exciting. We thought that all their shows would be sold out and that would be the only chance. It’s great to see that they’ve noticed how quickly these things sell out and how fun it’s going to be to catch this show. They are making it available to as many people as possible, so we can all look forward to it!

The reviews for the DMB’s most recent shows have been very good indeed. His shows seem to be mostly comprised of songs from the new album, with a few of the older classics mixed in here and there. The jam band has got everyone interested in them again, with a rather impressive retooling of their music this year. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see how long they stay at the top of Billboard and what they are playing at concerts in, say, 6 months. Will they still be playing songs from the album or will they be able to branch off a little more by then. Their music is always good, but their early and recent music is especially great. Have you heard one of their concerts yet? What did you think?

Congratulations! More than 400,000 of you bought the new album in its first week! I don’t know if it’s because you liked his music anyway, or because you saw him on Hulu and Fuse last week or if you just followed my advice to get the CD right away. But you did it, and you got the DMB up to the top of the Billboard Chart this week. How fun! He remains one of the best performers in the world right now, but his CD really brings back the magic of the early years while not losing the veteran sound that they have been working at for many years now. Let’s keep the DMB up there. All of you who didn’t buy a copy of the album, make sure you get one and maybe Dave and the others will be able to stay up at the top of the charts for a few more weeks!

There are a lot of reviews of the new album out and I just want to collate them a little bit and summarize. The majority of the people are saying that the music is great, almost a throwback to the sound that made the Dave Matthews Band popular in the first place. The DMB had a big jolt last summer with the loss of one of the members, and the reflection on that event seems to have brought them back to their musical roots. They have tried some very new things, but the independent sound with great lyrics is back. People seem happy that the group is back at the top of their game and playing a little bit less with an eye to the commercial value of the music. It’s going to be interesting now.

Dave Matthews made an appearance today on NBC’s Today Show, where he and his band played a couple of songs from the new CD. There were many fans camped out in front of the studios from the night before and they were very excited to see and hear him in person. It was raining out, but the people didn’t seem to mind. It was quite pleasant for them to see this fun performance, even though it wasn’t a formal concert or anything. At the same time, Matthews was able to banter with the people on the air as well as with some of the fans out on the street. The appearance was to promote the new album, which came out earlier this week.

The new DMB album just came out officially today! Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. At the same time, a whole lot of reviews are out. One of the main ones that I read here was the one from the New York Daily News, which explains that this CD harkens back to their earlier days very well. In the last few years, they have become very commercial in some ways and much more orthodox. Now they have gotten a performance that is very much like one of their earlier ones that people enjoyed hearing and made the band what they were in the first place. What is the reason for this sudden shift? Probably at least in part the loss of Moore, who passed away last year. It was sad but we really enjoy the music again!