Dave Mathews Band - The O2 6th March 2010
I'm so glad I've got to see this band live at last.
I "discovered" The Dave Mathews Band some years back during a business trip to the USA through hearing / seeing in particular Ant's Marching from Under the Table and Dreaming. That must have been in the mid 90s I suppose and for many years I'd buy their albums on my USA trips as I never saw them over here and hardly anyone who I ever mentioned them to had even heard of them.
Anyway - the gig. Brilliant! The stage set was minimalist to say the least in these days of huge overblown productions. A pretty bare stage with some scaffold like towers at the back for the lights to reflect off, a small drum riser various amps etc. and that was it. No big screen projection, pyrotechnics etc.
However these boys don't need it from the word go the musicianship was simply stunning. They rattled through a good number of tracks off the latest album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, and old classics including Ant's Marching which was one of the highlights for me. But there were many, almost every number was encore quality really.
It is clear that Dave Mathews isn't the most comfortable of live performers in the sense of the interaction between the songs or the show but that doesn't matter as I say the whole brilliance of the music and the musicianship transcends that - he over comes if with his own particular brand of dancing and self deprecating humour.
The final accolade I'll give is that they came on at 8:15pm and when they walked off I thought "Eh?! That wasn't very long" I looked at my watch it was gone 10:15pm - two hours straight and I'd been so lost in it all I'd lost total track of time.
I "discovered" The Dave Mathews Band some years back during a business trip to the USA through hearing / seeing in particular Ant's Marching from Under the Table and Dreaming. That must have been in the mid 90s I suppose and for many years I'd buy their albums on my USA trips as I never saw them over here and hardly anyone who I ever mentioned them to had even heard of them.
Anyway - the gig. Brilliant! The stage set was minimalist to say the least in these days of huge overblown productions. A pretty bare stage with some scaffold like towers at the back for the lights to reflect off, a small drum riser various amps etc. and that was it. No big screen projection, pyrotechnics etc.
However these boys don't need it from the word go the musicianship was simply stunning. They rattled through a good number of tracks off the latest album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, and old classics including Ant's Marching which was one of the highlights for me. But there were many, almost every number was encore quality really.
It is clear that Dave Mathews isn't the most comfortable of live performers in the sense of the interaction between the songs or the show but that doesn't matter as I say the whole brilliance of the music and the musicianship transcends that - he over comes if with his own particular brand of dancing and self deprecating humour.
The final accolade I'll give is that they came on at 8:15pm and when they walked off I thought "Eh?! That wasn't very long" I looked at my watch it was gone 10:15pm - two hours straight and I'd been so lost in it all I'd lost total track of time.
I've never heard of them but that is my kinda gig old bean.
ReplyDeleteI'm there for the music not the bleedin' fireworks.
Whoever they are and however they sound I like 'em already!
How have I missed so many of your posts? I must have been very busy!! Anyway caught up now.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your brain is okay.
I've got tickets for Paul McCartney!! Yay, someone whose name I know unlike your bands!! I am a musical pleb.
Totally agree about the gig. I first heard him on the Woodstock 94 album and have been a huge UK fan ever since. I think Saturday was the best I have seen from the band. The new album is fine and dandy but jams than came out of these songs were mesmerising in places. I am still buzzing today from seeing a mammoth gig from probably the best live band musically in the world today. See you at the next one!!
ReplyDeleteI am relatively new to the Dave Matthews phenomenon. I only got into them around 4 weeks ago when a friend of mine asked me to join her at the gig. So I bought their new album, and borrowed 'under the table' from her. Overall on listening to the albums I was pretty impressed.
ReplyDeleteThat all changed when I saw them live. The album came alive in a way that is only possible when a band puts on as staggering a live show as this was. This was exactly what live music should all be about, and what is missing from a lot of the current bands we normally see today. Quite simply I was blown away. It's easily one of the best gigs I've seen in a number of years (and I've been to a large number in that time).
Quite simply superb, and they definitely have themselves a new fan. Why hasn't the UK embraced this band? And I owe my friend big time for introducing me to them.