Review - Dave Matthews Band @ Alpine Valley 7/6/13

Dave Matthews Band play Alpine Vally Music Theatre

DMB may have been playing in East Troy, Wisconsin, but their setlist was all over the map

July 6, 2013 was a beautiful summer night in East Troy, Wisconsin. A perfect night for an outdoor concert, especially when Dave Matthews Band are about to take the stage. The opener for the night, the beautiful and talented Grace Potter with her band the Nocturnals, warmed up the stage with their infectious brand of dance rock. As Potter announced, “It's approaching the witching hour”, the sun was about to set and the band broke into their closing number, the catchy sing-a-long “Medicine”.

A mere thirty minutes later, DaveMatthews Band walk onto the stage and start their set with the slow building track, “Squirm”, off their 2009 album “Big Whisky and the GrooGrux King”. The crowd cheered and sang along as DMB transitioned into their 1991 classic “One Sweet World”. The night would continue on like this with the band playing great songs from all eras of their twenty plus year career. It was impossible to predict where the band would go next from song to song, but rabid fans were just as likely to sing along with new songs, like “Kill the Preacher”, a song the band first began improvising last year, as they were the to sing the classics like “Jimi Thing”. The band further kept fans on their toes by playing covers of Tom Petty's “Runnin' Down a Dream” and more predictably Bob Dylan's “All Along the Watchtower”, which has been a staple to a DMB setlist since the early nineties.

Fans were treated to a blues guitar mash-up made in heaven as jazz guitarist, Stanley Jordan, improvised a song with Dave Matthews Band's lead guitarist, Tim Reynolds. Jordan remained on stage and played “Grace is Gone” with the entire band, turning the beautifully sad love song into an emotional eight minute jam. Each member of DMB got an opportunity to solo throughout the night. Boyd Tinsley, the hardest working violinist in rock and roll, absolutely nailed his solo in “#41”. Bassist Stefen Lessard used his moment to tease the classic “#34” and drummer Carter Beauford took ownership over the set closer, “Two Step”. The horn section comprised of Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross filled out the group with talent and versatility that a synthesizer could never emulate (I'm talking to you Paul McCartney).   Even the presence of late saxophonist LeRoi Moore was felt when Dave played the tribute track “Why I Am”.

It's been over twenty years since Dave Matthews danced his way into the mainstream music scene and it's easy to see why DMB has one of the most successful tours year after year. The band is full of extremely talented musicians and Dave Matthews is still writing great music. They have evolved with the times while keeping their roots, allowing them to retain their core group of fans and picking up new ones along the way. A Dave Matthews Band live show is a great scene that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime, but if you are like most DMB fans you will find that one show could never be enough.