Jones Beach is a great place for DMB
Hey Dave, it’s about time! Ending a 12-year avoidance of Long Island, the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) returns to Long Island this week when they play at Nikon Theatre at Jones Beach on July 21 and 22.
It doesn’t seem right that it has taken so long, does it? The band has a voracious downstate New York audience. They play NYC pretty often. In fact, they ended their 2008 summer tour at Madison Square Garden last Sept., and began their 2009 spring tour there in April. The band also had their official “launch party” for its newest record, Big Whiskey & The Groogrux King, at the Beacon Theatre on June 1. For a band that spends most of its time on the road, especially during summer, Jones Beach appears to be a venue that would become a staple every year.
Why have you forsaken Long Island, Dave?
I am allowed to ask. I saw DMB the last time he headlined Jones Beach, and about 25 times since. I’ve camped among kids almost half my age near Saratoga, shrinking into my tent while Lord of the Flies played out around me amongst a backdrop of bonfires, backwards ball caps and cargo shorts. Saw couples have sex within 20 feet of me in Hartford, at the saddest excuse for an amphitheatre in America. I’ve dodged fountains—literally—of vomit coming from the mouths of the country’s future political leaders and titans of industry. Went to Las Vegas, twice, and used DMB shows as the anchor and justification for the subsequent debauchery and poisonous fun.
And every time I attended an outdoor gig, I always wondered why the band would not love to have the glow of the NY crowd with the naturally beautiful backdrop of Long Island as part of their yearly calendar. The venue plays well into the model location for a DMB show. The band has not been a stadium act for many years, and not because they couldn’t sell out Giants Stadium. They’ve already done that. After 2001, the band seemed to go for medium-sized outdoor venues, like Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Ambience is not always a factor, either. I hate to invoke Hartford again, but I must. It’s that horrible there.
This is also not the same band that played here more than a decade ago. Not by a long shot.
It has been a long voyage for DMB since they last headlined at Jones Beach in June of 1997. By way of comparison, the band that will take the stage July 21 and 22 has changed so much that, for us geeky fans, it is like seeing a child grow to an adult.
There have been weddings. There are children. Solo albums. Tragic loss. Four studio albums. Hundreds and hundreds of shows.
And millions and millions of dollars.
Sometimes it seems like the band is pushing the reset button these days. In spring 2008, the band was limping along, playing sold out shows despite the fact that it had been three-plus years since their last record release, Stand Up, arrived to mixed reviews. When the band played the Stand Up For A Cure concert in September to close out the 2008 summer tour (and my friend almost got kicked out because he lit a cigarette. At a cancer benefit.) Butch Taylor, DMB’s keyboardist had quit, longtime associate and stunt guitarist Tim Reynolds had joined and a beloved original member, sax player LeRoi Moore, had died suddenly as he recuperated from a serious ATV accident he suffered in June. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin has since taken over Moore’s duties in grand fashion, but it’s clear the band has suffered emotionally with the loss.
Their homage to Moore is the memorable music on Big Whiskey.
One year later, the band has returned to the road in support of Big Whiskey with a new energy. Maybe the fresh outlook on the music and the band has provided the decision makers the logic and reason to choose Jones Beach as a stop for the mighty DMB touring machine.
I don’t know if I am completely objective about the band. Admittedly, and obviously, I am a pretty big fan. I did not love the last couple of studio releases Stand Up and Everyday, but DMB is really an act to behold in a live show. For the Dave haters—and there are lots of them—that is one of those explanations that drives them up the wall. But it’s kind of true. They just shine live.
Although Matthews has rebuked the “jam band” status of the group, I am not sure why. Anytime a band plays a 20-minute version of any song, they are jamming. If you do that, um, three or more times a night, you might be a jam band.
The first step is admitting it.
I have sat through some pretty sluggish meanderings in some of the shows I have attended. Since last year though that has not been my sentiment. The jams are interesting and explosive again. Trumpet player Rashawn Ross is a player’s player. Coffin is a monster when he blows his horns. Reynolds is a guitar playing cyborg. Drummer Carter Beauford is the best in the business. Stefan Lessard is a wonder, never losing his place through Beauford’s off-time fills and machine gun syncopation. Violin player Boyd Tinsley is truly unique by definition.
Drummer Carter Beauford
As a tour this extensive in duration and dates progresses, becoming road-weary becomes a reality. Matthew’s voice gets beat up. Set lists—never the same from night to night—can become sort of ordinary. We Dave geeks keep up on all of this.
On Sunday, July 19 DMB played a pretty awesome set at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. They were kind of one-for-two in that city, having a questionable night on the 18th. So now we wonder: what we are in for?
By the end of the summer tour, I can eventually turn into a guy my friend calls “Angry Dave Fan,” too. This is when I take a step back and assess how much cash went toward seeing the band, getting a hotel, buying another live CD release after a tour. I curse the man and his music, trying to find a way to write DMB-related exploits off in my tax returns. I haven’t figured it out yet, and I have a pretty good accountant.
Finally I can just get in my car and shoot to a DMB show in my own backyard. I hardly even burn gas to get there. No planes, trains, tolls or lodging fees. Finally, after 12 years, the band has come back. I have been told by some people in the know that the show is a popular one. A source at Live Nation, the company that organizes a lot of the shows at Jones Beach and pretty much controls the live entertainment universe, said the tickets are tight. Despite numerous requests, I couldn’t even get a PR person from Red Light Management, the powerhouse company built on the backs of DMB’s success and their manager Coran Capshaw, to return an email or call. They don’t need the press. But we’ll give it to them anyway.
The reason is simple. Love them or hate them, DMB is the biggest act to come to Jones Beach in years. They are one of the biggest bands in the world. You don’t gross more than $50 million—which they did in 2008—and not be considered a powerhouse. Plus, they have been touring at that level or higher for years. To have them come back to Jones Beach is a big deal.
LeRoi Moore died in 2008. He was a beloved member of the band.
I’m sure the New York State Park Police have this show on their radar. There will be plenty of buffoonery in the parking lot that will meet stiff contradiction and correction at the hands of troopers. And with all this, I wonder.
Really, why have you blown us off for so long, Dave?
I’ll be there, of course, and I am not taking Angry Dave Fan. He is not allowed to hang out with me until the end of the summer. There is a show upstate I am thinking of attending and I don’t want him interfering.
See you at the beach.
