tour.
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Bucks County, PA
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April 14, 2009 -- New York, NY
The Dave Matthews Band kicked off their 2009 tour with a bang at MSG tonight, and from the time Dave introduced the Roots to the final notes of Billies, they sounded like a band on a mission.
Dave joked prior to the Roots' set that he was talking to the Roots before the show, and they asked him, "Who starts a tour at Madison Square Garden?" While it quickly became clear that DMB does, and does it very, very well, the first music of the night was nothing short of fantastic. The Roots opened up with Thought @ Work off of Phrenology, and over their raucous 40 minute set played a solid mix of cover jams (including Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song") and originals, such as You Got Me and The Seed (2.0). The floor crowd was digging their set, but I'm not sure that they were as well received in the building as they should have been.
After a nice 30 minute break and the chance to walk around MSG a bit and meet up with some good friends in the process, I made my way back to my seat just as the crew was finishing cloaking the stage with two large black curtains. I suppose this is the band's new opening instead of using a screen, but soon deep red lights were visible through the fabric and the shadows of each member could be seen sporadically, making for a very cool effect. The intro clearly indicated a Don't Drink the Water opener, and just as the song began the curtains were pulled away (though the right one snagged and they had to pull it down by hand). Not my opener of choice, but it was played well and definitely got the crowd going. This standard version ended, and Carter went into the drum intro for Cornbread. Again, a standard version, but I found myself wondering why, after 3 years of playing the hell out of this song, Dave still hasn't figured out a second verse and instead just makes random noises that gives way to a surprising number of cheers. Hopefully we won't be treated to this tune every night, but it was fun and a fine performance.
Then came the first new song of the night, Funny the Way It Is. This one started out with very quiet tones by Stefan, with Carter joining at a rapid crescendo and the rest of the band following suit. Dave came in with the lyrics much as he does on the studio version, but the build was much better live. This song is very strong live -- the studio sounds translated very well to the stage, and honestly, while I liked this one already, hearing it live definitely upped its rep for me. It should be interesting to see how they develop this tune over the year, because it sounded very, very nice.
Raven was a very nice treat. The band reworked this one a bit, with a new guitar intro prior to the band joining Dave's strings and voice. Otherwise, it's Raven as Raven has been since 2002, which is definitely a good thing. YMDT was well played, though still not quite a favorite of mine.
The second new song of the night was Spaceman. Dave plays a fairly light riff on this one, but I found it to be quite reminiscent of his earlier writing -- single notes and slides. This one was definitely quieter, but I found the vocals to be pretty fast and thus the lyrics were hard to decipher. The music and beat have a very creole-sounding feel to them, with a clearly heavy New Orleans influence. This one seemed a bit longer than the other two BWGK tunes, but that may have been because of the slower feel to it.
Nancies and Pig were fairly standard, but both were welcome additions to the setlist (especially with Pig being notably absent in 2008). Dave then announced that a friend was in town, and I'm not going to lie -- I was more than a little disappointed that it was Gregg Allman. Don't get me wrong, I love the Allman Brothers, but I've heard DMB do Melissa before and wasn't overly impressed. This was a fine version though, and it's always cool to see a living legend sit in with DMB. I would have preferred a certain Trey Anastasio, but it wasn't meant to be.
Recently was as good as I've ever heard it. While it would've been nice to get an intro or outro thrown in there (On Broadway, anyone?), hearing the full version again was a very nice treat, and the jam was very unique, with the band waiting extra half-steps and playing with the timing. Definitely a highlight for me. SDL and #27 were both pretty standard.
The final new tune of the night, Why I Am, was introduced by Dave as being Roi's favorite of the new songs. I can see why -- Jeff and Rashawn were all over this one, and this is a fun, funky tune. In a weird way, this was the fun, electric song the band was shooting for with Bayou but missed the mark. While nothing overly amazing, the lyrics are sure to bring a smile -- referencing the Groogrux King and "drinking Big Whiskey while we dance and sing" -- and unlike the close to 10 minute Bayou jams, this one closes out at what seemed like about 4:30.
The final run was nothing short of incredible. Ants was really, really nicely done, with an extra long outro and some great work by Boyd. By the way, Mr. Tinsley is playing a different violin than the standard black Zeta, though I know nothing about violins so I can't begin to describe the differences. Anyway, this was a very solid performance of Ants. #41 was shorter than the ridiculous version at MSG in September, but was still well played. Jeff and Carter jammed back and forth for a bit, and some really nice things were happening there. #41 basically went right into Two Step (I think, at least, though perhaps the tapes will prove me wrong). Carter owned this one. I know he always owns it, but this was different than last summer. After his solo, instead of working right into the outro, he continued to play some interesting beats, utilizing many of his unique pieces, before finally hitting the outro and crushing the end.
Sister and Billies were nothing overly special, but were to be somewhat expected, as the band was already running right near curfew. I actually called Billies before it was played, but wasn't disappointed in the least.
As far as tour openers go, tonight was a great one, and consisted of a nice mix of classic DMB tunes, newer songs, rarities and live debuts. The new stuff definitely should give everyone a reason to be excited, and the older songs sounded great. One thing I noticed was that no single member stole the show tonight; there was no MVP. This was the first time I left a show of the current DMB lineup and truly felt that they were playing together as a single unit. That, to me, is a very good thing.
Looking forward to tomorrow night.
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