Dave Matthews Band Fan Site

 I attended DMB’s second show at Wrigley Field after a friend out of the blue offered me a ticket. Attending a concert alone at Wrigley Field is a experience in itself, but to go see Dave there was truly special. The band didn’t repeat one song between the two shows at 1060 W. Addison Street. While I was jealous of those who got to here “Why I Am”, “Ants Marching”, and “Everyday” on Friday night, the show I attended had some truly amazing moments. Sitting in the upper deck I still had a great view of the stage. It was surreal seeing this huge concert stage set up at Wrigley Field with the L rolling by in the background. “Two Step” got the biggest crowd reaction of the night with everyone from the outfield to the upper deck bopping to Floyd Tinsley’s fiddle. Dave’s performance of “Christmas Song” to open the encore was bone-chillingly beautiful, while “Last Stop” finished the set. What a magical night.

Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King concludes with “You and Me”, a unadulterated song about love’s possibilities, was featured in DMB’s latest music video. The video opens with Dave sitting in a chair playing guitar surrounded by numerous empty chairs. As the song progressed the chairs are filled by musicians including the rest of DMB. This is one of my favorite songs off of the album, for its straight ahead positive message and I got a feeling its going to be amazing live. I can imagine it’s going to be great sing-a-long on the tour this summer. Check out the video here

The Dave Matthews Band will make a stop on their summer tour this year in Manchester, TN to headline the Bonnaroo Music Festival. Dave’s played the festival before with DMB and  Dave & Friends, so this announcement doesn’t come as a surprise. I personally saw DMB play four years ago on the main stage and they were definitely the highlight of the festival for me. Expect a number of guests to join DMB on stage with all the performers playing Bonnaroo. When I saw them Warren Haynes and Robert Randolph made cameo appearances on stage. Other acts playing the three day festival this year include Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder, Weezer, John Fogerty, Phoenix, Jeff Beck, and the Avett Brothers.

On the latest Dave Matthews Band album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, is appears that Dave is a firm believer that every coin has two sides. The first single from the album “Why I Am” is a great example of irony in DMB’s songwriting. A irresistible saxophone riff drives the song with some heavy electric guitar work makes the track jump out of the speaker and grab your attention. The character of the GrooGrux King, which is a reference to recently deceased band member Leroi Moore, appears to be Cajun monarch of Mardi Gras whom the speaker in the song celebrates life with. The opening lines of the song demonstrate man’s capacity to do both amazing and terrible things: I grew from monkey into man/Then I crushed 15 million with the wave of my hand. The point I gather from the song is to truly enjoy the good parts of the lives we have because the world is such an imperfect place.

Playing a barn-burning version of “You and Me” accompanied by a group of teenage musicians, DMB had one of the best performances of the Grammy Awards this year. The band’s album Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King was nominated for two awards, but came away somehow with no awards. Despite the disappointment of not winning, it was great to see them perform “You and Me” live in such a big setting. The young musicians did a great job performing the song as Dave bounced around the stage during an impressive instrumental section. Dave’s buddy Adam Sandler introduced the band and special guests. Matthews is known to pop up in Adam Sandler movies and the two seem to have a mutual appreciation for one another’s work. The performance featured forty five 16-year-old kids playing horns, drums, strings, and singing along with the world-famous group. The night must of been a great thrill for all the young musicians as well as DMB.

There really isn’t much in the way of Dave Matthews news this week. We know that he’ll be a major part of the Grammys this year, including a performance, perhaps his first in the Grammys since the band went back to its roots about a year ago. They are also nominated for several awards and might even win it. You think he’s going to win? I sure hope so. Meanwhile, there are still stories being written about the fact that he was the best ticket selling artist of the decade. Anyone with his level of dedication can perform a lot and Dave really likes to get his band out in front of the fans all the time. There are many things to look forward to during this year, including a whole tour and maybe even another album. It depends on how things work out, but this year could rival last year for DMB fans!

The other day marked Dave Matthews’ 43rd birthday. Happy Birthday to him! He has been producing over the last year or two at possibly the highest level of his life. While he was popular in the late 90s and into the early 2000s, he has really taken the concert world by storm lately. This was recently proven by the declaration that he’s the top musician of the first decade of the century, with more ticket sales receipts than anyone else. This guy hardly sleeps, it would seem and he’s going to keep growing in a big way. There is no word on how he actually spent his birthday, but surely he didn’t do anything too crazy, else we would have heard much about it. Hope he has enjoyed it.

The lineup for the 2010 Grammys has been set. There are many different talented performers who were potential winners of these coveted spots, but usually they go to the musicians with the biggest buzz over the last year.It had already been announced that the Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift and Beyonce would be onstage. The other day, they announced that the Dave Matthews Band and Lady Gaga would be the other performers on tap for this fun day. It could have been interesting to see Rihanna onstage finally, but maybe it wasn’t ready. But Dave and these other performers will surely give an amazing performance. Maybe we’ll even be treated to a fun collaboration or two. Can you imagine Lady Gaga and Dave performing together? I could imagine him playing with Taylor Swift quite well, since they both are able to do a great job with acoustic style music.

The fact that Dave and the band were rated among the top concerts and tours in the world for the last decade has been getting an amazing amount of press. It’s like everyone picked this story up. It’s great news, of course. I love to see him in concert, so I guess I contributed to him earning that honor. But that doesn’t tell us much about why people are that happy to hear his music in person. I think the trick was that he kept releasing music, kept trying new things, and kept close to his fans. Many other performers seem to be so far above it all that they end up somehow very distant from the fans and they can’t connect as well. But the Dave Matthews Band has no such pretensions and just stays connected and interested all the time. Keep it up fellas!

When the latest DMB album was released, we all knew it was going to be something special. The band was just emerging from one of their most difficult moments, when one of their members was killed in an accident in 2008. Over the course of this year, the group had been redefining itself into a big new band, getting back to their roots and everything. Don’t be surprised if that plan continues for awhile, since it takes a long time to get all those things back in order. But Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King has been nominated for a Grammy, which is definitely worth it, and hopefully we will be able to keep watching them perform. Maybe they will even perform at the Grammys themselves? We can only hope!