Concert Photography and Reviews
One time shy bar tender and long time super star, David John Matthews first performed with Tim Reynolds back in 1997 at The Wetlands in New York. Tonight, nearly 20 years later, at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, they played again, this time they are older, wiser, better looking and have a much deeper library of past work to play through. You could see the bliss in Dave’s face and you could hear it in his voice as he sat comfortably along side his long time friend, mentor, collaborator and band mate Time Reynolds. This was a show to remember, absolutely flawless.
This was the first of three shows scheduled for the wekend, all three shows were SOLD OUT.
The venue for these shows in an intimate 7,000 seat theater, the Theatre for The Performing Arts in Las Vegas located in the Plant Hollywood Complex. The venue is beautiful and spacious, the seats are up scale and the persons near the front are literally sitting less than 20 feet from the performers, the low stage makes for eye to eye contact with the performers, pretty unusual these days, most stages tend to be at least 6-7 feet above the front row seating. The low stage meant that I had to kneel down to shoot to the show, which is extremely painful for my whacked knees but the magic was in the air and I didn’t even think of my knees once, not until I tried to stand up.
Lights went down about 8:45 and Dave and Time came on stage to a really cool light setup with fog effect. There was a harsh side white light that revealed their silhouettes to go along with these cool blue panels that lit up.
The lighting at the front of the stage was very bright and took a bit of adjusting to get the exposure under control, can you say “PANIC”, shooting Dave, trying to get lots of good shots, and suddenly intense lights from EVERY direction! It caught me off guard I thought this was going to be some mellow fire side show, glad its not, the lights were stunning.
A couple quick crowd shots as I shuffled across the front of the stage on my knees in order to get out from in front of the brutally bright stage lights. The crowd was super into the show.
I finally made it around to the other side of the stage but the ubiquitous white retina burring stage lights continued to make for “challenging” shooting conditions, who cares, the music could not have been better, the sound was perfect in this theater.
Below are a shots from that night, if you want a poster size version please send me an email at lewis@gonzoshots.com. YOu can click on any photo to enlarge and also start a slide show.
This show had an excellent mix of songs from his earliest work right up through his current Grammy nominated Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Dave and Tim were feeding off the energy of the fans and the fans digging on this rare opportunity to witness music magic at its finest. What’s not to love, two old friends who just happen to be musical giants, one intimate acoustic setting and three guitars, and there you have it, see the stage set below, looked more like your living room than any stage show .
You know how older couples can finish each other’s sentences? Well that’s exactly what is like to watch Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds jam acoustically, only they finish each other’s riffs instead of sentences, dynamically adjusting to each other’s nuances, no words spoken, maybe not even eye contact, simply pure musical intuition, the kind that comes effortlessly when you have played music together for many years.
Dave mentioned that one of his favorite things in the world to do is to watch Tim play guitar, this comment seemed to embarrass the reserved guitarist and caused him to utter the only words he spoke that evening. I cannot tell you what Tim said in reply to Dave’s comment, but I can tell you that the crowd howled with laughter. and that the words started with Mother and ended six letters later with the letter R. Its a musicians way of saying, “Why thank you Dave for such a kind comment, I love you too!”
Dave Matthews fans are an interesting bunch, very intense, maybe a bit too cerebral but fun none the less. I spoke with many of these diehard fans before the show and was amazed at how many have been to not one or two but dozens of his shows, one woman was celebrating her birthday by attending her 31st Dave Matthews show, one young man had just flown in from New York had seen Dave over 50 times! One middle aged couple had flown in from Germany just for the show.
Dave seemed very relaxed and joked continuously with the crowd though out the show, he quipped that he is at least a few years off from doing his first Christmas album and then launched into a wonderful version of ” Have Your Self A Merry Little Christmas” one of the very few songs sung that night that did not have the majority of the 7,000 + fans singing and hanging on every word. Dave went on to explain the difference between Las Vegas crazy and New Orleans crazy, there is, he insisted, a significant difference, he explained that New Orleans crazy is like, the real thing, real crazy and Las Vegas crazy is more like … temporary Disneyland kinda crazy.
For a complete set of photos of this performance see:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonzoshots/sets/72157622870853931/
For the Denver Post post with my photos see: http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2009/12/14/live-review-dave-matthews-and-tim-reynolds-planet-hollywood/
Below is a wonderful blow by blow by one Dave’s fan’s who posted this account hours after the show, I have added a few of my comments as well;
So Damn Lucky: Expected funny, so this definitely surprised me. Dave improved some lyrics before he went into the song, but they passed by too quickly so I didn’t get a chance to recognize them. The outro was really well done, not dragged out or anything which I’ve felt it started to be lately. Good start to the show.
Stay or Leave: God I love this song, so solid. This is when I knew that Dave’s voice was really going to be on tonight, and it was.
Funny the Way It Is: Very, very good D&T. This song just works live on all stages and tonight was no different. Awesome version. LCC – Dave mentioned what we had all been talking about, this odd odor inside the venue, maybe caused by the massive fog machine that must have been on for hours prior tot he show since the whole venue was kinda misty and the odor, well Dave just laid it right out there, “It smells like farts!” The first of many frank Dave Talks for this evening.
Bartender: WHAT?!?! Caught me off guard completely. I thought this would open N2 or 3, but we get it midset?! Dave went to town on this one and stretched the vocals out a little bit, the crowd was loving it!
Old Dirt Hill: Time to slow things down with some ODH. At the beginning Dave said “I have no idea how this will turn out..” so when they started ODH I thought it would be faked into Why I Am, but to no avail. Nonetheless, Tim got SO dirty on this version, he was playing some crazy slap guitar and Dave was into it. You could tell this song just sounded so much more fresh after taking a rest for a year, they had a good time with it.
Crush: Awesome, awesome, awesome. Another one I didn’t expect to come out tonight, but I’m glad it did. The crowd got really fired up and this got the night started if it wasn’t already.
Shake Me: One of the most surprising points of the night. Dave mentioned that there was some question on how this would turn out, but they absolutely nailed it. I was pleasantly surprised, check that, I was amazed at how good this song sounded with the 2 of them. Dave mentioned that he was a little shaky on this one, but Tim wasn’t, so he’d be alright.
Tim solo: Didn’t recognize this one but it was damn good. I HATE the fact that people use Tim’s solo as a bathroom break, pretty disrespectful IMO.
Little Red Bird: Cool story by Dave beforehand, and then they broke into this. Dave nailed the vocals and Tim had a really nice solo during the breakdown of it as well. LLC – Dave told about being in the middle of the Indian Ocean on vacation and becoming attached to a little one legged bird, love Dave’s stories ie. DaveTalk
Alligator Pie: Hot damn this was another highlight, really well done. Dave played it on the raised B guitar (sister, oh, etc.) and it sounded spot on. Dave’s voice was still in prime shape at this point in the show. LCC – Familiar intro about Stella (his daughter) asking “Daddy when you gonna put me in a song….”
Eh Hee: Another one that sounded really fresh after a year off, they were into it and the crowd was digging it.
Can’t Find My Way Home: I recognized this as soon as they started it. Dave nailed the vocals and it was a short and sweet rendition of this great Clapton tune. The crowd had a nice response to it as well. LCC – Actually a Blind Faith song, but Clapton was in Blind Faith when it was recorded.
Spaceman: I love this song. That is all. LCC – If he gets it wrong as much as he gets it right, this night he definitely got it right!
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: Some guy and girl were dressed up as Santa and Mrs. Claus, so Dave broke into a little Christmas jingle and then commented on how he “has a few years before he releases his Christmas album” , This was a goofy, campy, and beautifully impromptu song sung as only Dave could. Below is a shot of my “assistant” Max with Santa.
Oh: I really like this little song, it’s just a happy, simple love song.
The Maker: One of my favorite D&T tunes, great Tim solo and Dave does a little extended outro like they do full band. The crowd once again loved this one, one fan asked “How is it that Dave, who sure seems to be agnostic, gets so much feeling into this song?” This song just stirs up emotions and was sure a highlight for night one.
Tim solo: I really recognized this one too, but couldn’t put my finger on it. This one was way better than the first one, a real bluesy/jazzy sort of groove from Tim. Standing ovation for him after he got done which was much appreciated.
#41: This guy had been yelling for it the entire show and Dave had just got done calling him a douchebag at about the same time he struck the first chord of #41. Crowd got real wild during this one and it fed the energy into the end of the set. LCC – Dave went on a little dialog about being happy that the word Douche Bag has regained popularity as of late, also he liked the fact that the same thing has happened to the phrase “going ape shit” “I called the guy a douche bag and he went ape shit on me!”
Gravedigger: Love this song minus Willie LCC – The highlight of the evening for me, one guy next to me said “ this song always makes me so sad, his girl friend told him to just shut and listen, my sentiments exactly.
Dancing Nancies: This version alone is worth the download. Daves intro was insane and the jam was awesome, but really Dave’s intro was cool as shit. A great a high-energy ending to the set!
Encore:
Time Bomb: Interesting choice for E1, and I was questioning how it’d sound, but it rocked. The outro was really well done by Tim and Dave once again nailed the vocals. As hard hitting as it was all year long.
Two Step: Great ending to a great show, you couldn’t have scripted it better. Tim was into it, Dave was into it, and the crowd was just feeding off of that energy.
—– End of Set Summary —-
I won’t deny it, I am a hug fan of Dave Matthews, I have everything CD this man has made since Under The Table and Dreaming in 1994. That being said his tours just never seemed to coincide with my life schedule. Just last fall I was issued a photo pass to shoot him and his entire band in Slat Lake City, I was so exited and was walking out the door when I decided to double check the venue only to find out that he had cancelled.
But late last week I was given the opportunity to shoot him in Las Vegas of all places, I dislike the town but could not pass up a chance to see my musical hero in action. Even an eight hour drive and the chance of hitting a winter storm across any one of the several mountain passes did not stop me from getting to the show.
As best I could tell this is what Dave used on this night:
Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King received Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Album of the Year! The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards are scheduled to air live from Los Angeles on CBS on January 31, 2010.
In case you are not up on Dave Matthews here is a little history lesson;
David John Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is a South African-American Grammy Award-winning musician.He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band.
David John Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the third of four children born to John and Valerie Matthews. At two years old, Matthews’ family immigrated to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, where his father, a physicist, started working for IBM.
In 1974, the family moved to Cambridge, England, for a year before returning to New York, where his father died from lung cancer in 1977. Biographer Nevin Martell argues that Dave’s father’s death may be an impetus for his “carpe diem” lyrics. At some point while residing in New York, Matthews attended his first concert when his mother took him to a performance by Pete Seeger. The family moved back to Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1977.
Upon Matthews’ graduation from St Stithians College high school, he was faced with conscription into the South African military just as civil disobedience to the practice was becoming widespread.A Quaker (and consequently pacifist), Matthews left South Africa to avoid service.
Matthews moved to New York in 1986 where he worked for I.B.M. for a short time,then joined his mother in Charlottesville, Virginia the same year, a town Matthews’ family had lived in before he was born.[6] It was in Charlottesville that he became part of the local music community. Pursuing various interests, Matthews acted in various local productions. Although Matthews had started playing the guitar at the age of 9, it was only in Charlottesville that he started performing publicly. From time to time local star (and future collaborator) Tim Reynolds had Matthews join him on stage, and another friend, Ross Hoffman, persuaded Matthews to record some of his own songs. This eventually led to his first professional musical gig at a modern dance performance by the Miki Liszt Dance Company, based at McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, singing “Meaningful Love”, composed by John D’earth and Dawn Thompson. In 1991 he hatched the idea to form his own band.
The death of Dave’s sister had a drastic effect on Matthews’ outlook on life. On January 29, 1994, he performed with Tim Reynolds at The Wetlands in New York where he dedicated that performance “to her memory”. Dave Matthews Band’s Under the Table and Dreaming, released later that year, was dedicated to her. Anne Matthews was survived by her two children who, upon her death, traveled to America, where Dave and his younger sister Jane took responsibility for their upbringing.
Matthews had originally envisioned someone else singing his songs, but instead decided to use his own vocals. After writing his first few songs, including “I’ll Back You Up”, “The Song that Jane Likes” and “Recently”, he began to consider starting his own band. Matthews formed Dave Matthews Band in early 1991 with Boyd Tinsley, LeRoi Moore, Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, and Peter Griesar (who left the band in 1993) while working at Miller’s. The band’s first show was on April 20, 1991, at the Earth Day Festival in Charlottesville.
Songwriter David John Matthews, working in Charlottesville Virginia as a bartender at Miller’s bar in November 1990, made friends with a lawyer named Ross Hoffman. Hoffman convinced Matthews, usually reserved and scared of playing in front of people, to lay down a demo of the few songs he had written. Hoffman hoped Matthews could shop the songs in order to find other musicians to perform on some studio work with him. Hoffman encouraged Matthews to approach Carter Beauford, a local drummer on the Charlottesville music scene. Beauford had been in several bands and was then playing on a jazz show on BET. After hearing the demo, Carter agreed to spend some time playing the drums, both inside and outside the studio.
Matthews also approached LeRoi Moore, another local jazz musician who often performed with the John D’earth Quintet to join them. Moore skeptically listened to the demo, but liked what he heard and decided that he too would give the young South African a chance. These three began working on Matthews’ songs in 1991. Matthews recollects that, “…the reason I went to Carter was not because I needed a drummer, but because I thought he was the baddest thing I’d ever seen and Leroi, it wasn’t because I desperately wanted a saxophone, it was because this guy just blew my mind. At this jazz place I used to bartend at [Miller's], I would just sit back and watch him. I would be serving the musicians fat whiskeys and they’d be getting more and more hosed, but no matter how much, he used to still blow my mind. And it was the sense that everyone played from their heart. And when we got together and they asked, ‘What do you want the music to sound like?’ I said, ‘I know this is a song I wrote and I like what you guys play, so I want you to play the way you react to my song.’ There was a lot of breaking of our inhibitions.”
Matthews later said in an interview with Michael Krugman,[7] “In a way, initially it was just the three of us and I approached them with this tape and they said ‘Sure,’ cause they had time on their hands. They were both working on other things, but they had some afternoon time.”[7] The beginning stages of this new band was, in the words of Morgan Delancey, “a time of trial and incubation.”[8] Beauford would later recall that, “It started out as a three-piece thing with Dave and Leroi…working on some of Dave’s songs. He only had four songs at the time..And it didn’t work out with the three of us.”[8] Matthews said, “The first time we played together…we were awful. Not just kind of bad, I mean heinously bad. We tried a couple of different songs and they were all terrible…Sometimes it amazes me that we ever had a second rehearsal.”
Miller’s Bar on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville
Their limited instrumentals, however, did not provide the full sound they desired; more musicians were needed. Secrets was a former jazz fusion band based in Richmond, Virginia most notable for having LeRoi Moore and Carter Beauford as members before forming the Dave Matthews Band. Moore’s former bandmate, John D’earth, conductor of the University of Virginia Orchestra and local musician, taught music at the Tandem Friends School. Stefan Lessard, a junior bassist at the time, was under his guidance in the student jazz combo, Yabanci Jazzites. On the recommendation of John D’earth, the 16-year-old Lessard was asked to join in the studio to help complete the demo. While the partnership was never intended to continue beyond the studio, the four liked the sound and decided to continue together for live performances as well. Consequently, regular practices began in the basement of Carter Beauford’s and Matthews’ mother’s home.
Peter Griesar was a bartender at Miller’s beginning in 1989, and in August 1991, during Miller’s annual respite for inventory, Matthews, Beauford, Moore and Lessard used the empty bar for rehearsing. Griesar heard them rehearsing and decided to stop working for a while, pulled out his harmonica, and started playing with them. After a few songs, he was invited to perform with them. He immediately accepted, becoming the band’s first keyboardist. Griesar’s last show with the band was March 23, 1993.
Boyd Tinsley was the last member to join the band. Although he had performed on the demo with Matthews, Moore, Beauford and Lessard, he was busy with a couple of other bands at the time (Boyd Tinsley Band and Down Boy Down) and did not want to commit to a group of musicians that were only together in the studio at the time. He didn’t become a full-time member until the middle of 1992. Matthews later admitted,[7] “We had no plans of adding a violinist. We just wanted some fiddle tracked on this one song “Tripping Billies“, and Boyd was a friend of Leroi. He came in and it just clicked. That completely solidified the band, gave it a lot more power.”
The band’s first in-studio demo was recorded in February or March 1991, and consisted of “The Song That Jane Likes,” “Recently,” and “Tripping Billies” prior to Tinsley joining as a full-time bandmember. Tinsley only performed on “Tripping Billies.”
Their first public show was at the city’s 1991 Earth Day Festival.[8] Local weekly appearances soon followed, and within a short time word of the band’s sound spread.
They still did not have a name for the band. One name that was thrown around was Dumela (which is the Tswana word for “hello”,[11]) but no real enthusiasm was ever felt, and they dropped it.[12] One story is that Moore reportedly telephoned a place they were booked and said to just write ‘Dave Matthews.’ The person receiving the call just wrote ‘band’ after the name, and the name stayed Dave Matthews Band from that point on.[8] Matthews told Robert Trott of AP, “Boyd [Tinsley], if memory serves, wrote ‘Dave Matthews Band [on this flyer for the show]. There was no time when we said, ‘Let’s call this band the Dave Matthews Band.’ It just became that, and it sort of was too late to change when we started thinking that this could focus unfairly on me. People sort of made that association, but it’s really not like that.”
Beauford seemed to agree with Matthews’ analysis of the band name when he said to Modern Drummer magazine that, “As a matter of fact, that’s one of the things about this band that everybody likes: There isn’t a leader. Each one of us can express ourselves musically without being choked by a leader. Everybody can offer what they feel is gonna enhance the music. So yeah, that’s the main thing that all the guys — especially me — feel make this band happen. It’s the freedom that we have to speak with our instruments.
By the summer of 1991, they were playing at Eastern Standard with Charles Newman as their manager for a brief time.[13] They were also playing a regular Tuesday night show at the popular Charlottesville club Trax. Tapings of shows at Trax are some of the most widely shared among DMB fans. After Newman, Coran Capshaw, owner of the Flood Zone where the band often played, took the helm of The Dave Matthews Band.
For a variety reasons, like sensing that the band was on the verge of making it big, not wanting to have his life ruled by the grueling schedule that touring musicians often face, difficulties communicating with Matthews, and maintaining the mortgage on his new home, Peter Griesar decided to leave the band after a show at Trax nightclub on March 23, 1993, a night known as “Big League Chew”.
On November 9, 1993, DMB released its first album, Remember Two Things, on its Bama Rags label,[16] later re released by RCA in 1997.[17] Live songs on the album were recorded at The Flood Zone in Richmond, Virginia on August 10, 1993, and The Muse Music Club on Nantucket Island on August 16-18, 1993.[citation needed] The album debuted on college charts as the highest independent entry, and went on to be certified platinum by the RIAA in 2002 [18] — a significant accomplishment for an independent album. Meanwhile, the band kept touring and its fan base continued to grow. By allowing fans to tape shows for their personal use, DMB created a highly interactive community that continues to this day. Only recently has the band had to take legal action against some bootleggers who sell recordings of their concerts at a profit — something the DMB trading community also abhors.
Matthews focused primarily on his work with Dave Matthews Band from 1990 to 2003. Since that period, he has occasionally ventured outside the band in various .
Matthews sang on the track “Sing Along” on Blue Man Group’s second album The Complex in 2003.[14] Later that year he released a solo album, “Some Devil“, which went platinum; its single, “Gravedigger”, won a Grammy Award in 2004.[15] To support the album, Matthews toured with a group of musicians (most of whom performed on “Some Devil”) under the name Dave Matthews & Friends.
Matthews is also a close friend of Béla Fleck.[citation needed] Matthews appears as a guest vocalist on Béla Fleck and the Flecktones‘ 1998 release Left of Cool and both Fleck and Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten have made numerous appearances both live and studio with DMB (e.g. Wooten soloed in the second part of The Maker, and also in #41 on the 1998 live album Live in Chicago). The Flecktones also opened for DMB on several tours.[17] Matthews performed a duet with Emmylou Harris on “My Antonia” on her 2000 album, Red Dirt Girl.[18] They also appeared together on the musical television show CMT Crossroads,[19] where the two performed Matthews’ “Gravedigger” and the folk song “Long Black Veil.
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Wow! I met you at the show and so glad I stopped to talk with you and get your card. Your shots are amazing and I LOVE the video. What a treat! Thank you so much. Expect to hear from me in the future! You have my dream job
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