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Bridge School Benefit Concert: Familiar Feel, Spirited Collaborations

October 22nd, 2006

San Jose Mercury News

The 20th installment of the Bridge School Benefit was about old friends and familiar pleasures. On Saturday, event veterans like Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam and the Dave Matthews Band slipped the event's all-acoustic format on like a well-worn glove, while the most intriguing newbie, industrial rock icon Trent Reznor, struggled on his first try.

What the show at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheatre lacked in breakthrough performances and surprise guest stars, however, it made up for with glorious weather and some spirited collaborations between the performers and host Neil Young, especially on an epic 'Cortez the Killer' that closed Matthews' set.

As always, current and former students of the Bridge School, a Hillsborough institution for children with severe physical and speech impairments, lined the back of the stage, accompanied by their parents. Included in this group was Neil and Pegi Young's son Ben, now in his late 20s, the impetus for the school's founding. Ben received a standing ovation when he was introduced, along with the rest of the students, to open the show.

Ben's dad opened and closed the show. Young was in fine voice in his initial three-song set, which closed with a duet with Pegi on 'Comes a Time' -- the two were joined by an American Indian drummer and dancer.

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpOctober 22, 2006

Dave Matthews to play 'Lake City' heavy

2006, articles, moviesdbtpOctober 5, 2006

Dave Matthews Band Makes Most of Hour Set

October 2nd, 2006

By Leonard Martinez / El Paso Times

You could forgive the Dave Matthews Band if they wanted to phone in their performance opening for the Rolling Stones tonight at the Sun Bowl. After all, DMB has been a huge headlining act of its own for the past 12 years or so.

DMB didn't phone it in though and gave an outstanding performance.

The last time DMB performed in these parts was 10 years ago as part of the HORDE Festival in Las Cruces.

The band took the stage at 6:45 p.m. for a 10-song set that lasted an hour and 10 minutes.

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpOctober 2, 2006

Homegrown harmonies

October 2nd, 2006

BY BRADLEY BAMBARGER Star-Ledger Staff

Dave Matthews stands out among abundance of acts at Farm Aid concert

At first, Saturday's Farm Aid concert in Camden summoned memories of Live 8 in Philadelphia last summer -- memories of underwhelming music and not enough topical urgency on stage. If the stateside Live 8 concert, which aimed to raise awareness of global poverty, wasn't much more than a showbiz party, Farm Aid looked as if it might end up being like a high-end state-fair hootenanny, organic but anonymous. That was until Dave Matthews took the Tweeter Center spotlight early in the evening of the day-long show.

The singer not only riveted the capacity crowd of 25,000 with only his guitar as backup; he spoke to the cause at hand -- family farms and their benefits to our health and planet. He countered conventional wisdom with easy charm, showing that a musician can articulate issues and not fear turning people off. The 39-year-old Matthews -- a member of Farm Aid's board alongside founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young, who all performed later -- recalled that before he "wanted to be a fireman, I wanted to be a farmer. ... I even love that smell of manure you get through your car window in the country."

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpOctober 2, 2006

Dave Matthews brings female fans to Farm Aid

October 2nd, 2006

CAMDEN, New Jersey (Billboard) - While Farm Aid may belong more to co-founders Willie Nelson or Neil Young, it was Dave Matthews alone who filled hundreds of seats at the event's 21st annual show, held Saturday near Philadelphia.

As Matthews performed a solo, mostly acoustic set, his faithful (especially his female devotees) beamed and swayed in the aisles at the Tweeter Center in Camden, N.J., matching him word for word.

Like Young and another co-founder, John Mellencamp, Matthews played a six-song set, kicked off by the bouncy "Everyday" and featuring the solo songs "Gravedigger" and most notably, the delicate electric guitar lullaby "Some Devil."

Following performances from political reggae act Steel Pulse, polka king Jimmy Sturr and jam kingpins Gov't Mule, Matthews was one of the few to address the whole point of the show, in more than two or three words: "Every farm should be run by a family -- people who love the earth," he said, in addition to repeatedly (and jokingly) remarking, "There ain't nothing better than a good tomato."

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpOctober 2, 2006

All-star Lineup Rocks Farm Aid in New Jersey

September 30th, 2006

By RYAN CORMIER, The News Journal

CAMDEN, N.J. — It was July 1985 when Bob Dylan stood on stage at Live Aid in Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium and thought out loud, saying that some of the money raised that day should go to help family farmers pay their mortgages.

Two months later, Farm Aid was born, thanks to founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp.

Twenty-one years later, Farm Aid made a homecoming of sorts to the Philadelphia area Saturday, holding its annual fundraising concert at the Tweeter Center in front of a sold out crowd of 25,000.

As always, the show was made up of an eclectic mix of music, from the country rock of Steve Earle and the prolonged jams of Gov’t Mule to the reggae of Steel Pulse and the Tex-Mex sounds of Los Lonely Boys.

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpSeptember 30, 2006

Betting on the farms

September 29th, 2006

Dave Matthews and friends aim to keep farmers on their land

By CHUCK DARROW

Back in the 1960s and early '70s, Manhattan-attorney-turned-rural-farmer Oliver Wendell Douglas (played by the late Eddie Albert on the CBS-TV sitcom, Green Acres), often would launch into an impassioned speech about the importance of the American farmer to the nation's social and economic health and well-being.

Those monologues -- always delivered with the strains of patriotic fife music in the background -- were offered strictly for laughs. Decades later, rock superstar Dave Matthews is echoing the character's sentiments, but comedy has nothing to do with it.

"Our view of what a farmer is, the one we imagine in our head, by the silos, near the barn, tending to his pigs, tending to his cattle, or tending to the fields, is really being erased," insisted the 39-year-old South African-born, Virginia-based "jam band" avatar. He was on the phone in advance of Saturday's Farm Aid concert at Camden's Tweeter Center.

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 29, 2006

Wish you were {t}here - Dave Matthews Band, John Paul Jones Arena

September 28th, 2006

in issue 0539 of the HooK.| By Vijith Assar

The tickets for Saturday night's event are labeled "Grand Opening"-- not entirely true, strictly speaking, but forgivable since this weekend's double-shot of DMB introduced Charlottesville's newest venue to at least twice as many fans as any other show it has scheduled for this season.

For 365 days out of the year, the John Paul Jones Arena will cast over 29N the sort of shadow that only a $130 million construction budget can create. It's a tremendous, state-of-the-art facility with the potential to be a fantastic host for both music and sports alike.

But on Saturday night, September 23, none of that matters. As Dave Matthews Band takes the stage for the second their two-night, first-time-in-five-years homecoming shows, drummer Carter Beauford announces himself with a single bass drum hit that vibrates the spleen only slightly less than it does the building, now cowering in fear as it's stripped of its grandeur by the band about to pulverize it.

Sorry, Jacko, but DMB eats venues like you for breakfast.

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpSeptember 28, 2006

Dave Matthews: Farmer rocker

September 27th, 2006

By Dan DeLuca - Inquirer Music Critic

Dave Matthews, youngest of the Farm Aid principals, really plows into this cause close to his heart.

Among the Farm Aid four, Dave Matthews is the baby of the bunch.

The jam-band star and Virginia gentleman farmer - a headliner at the annual benefit concert, to be held Saturday at Camden's Tweeter Center, along with Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp - was a teenager in his native South Africa when the first Farm Aid took place in 1985.

Nelson organized that show after Bob Dylan made remarks in support of American farmers at Live Aid in Philadelphia that year. Nelson, 73, Young, 60, and Mellencamp, 56, have performed at every Farm Aid since.

Matthews, now 39, played his first Farm Aid in 1995, back when his enormously popular Dave Matthews Band was not so enormous. "Dave was just starting out," recalled Mellencamp, who invited him to play along with another band that was breaking that year - Hootie and the Blowfish. "He hadn't become Dave Matthews yet. But he came and played that year in Kentucky, and he got really into it."

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 27, 2006

Fenway Park CD Review

September 26th, 2006

by Thom Jurek

The sixth volume in the Dave Matthews Band's Live Trax series is a whopping four-disc box. It's sold fairly cheap — $29.98 — and there are no frills. It contains two complete concerts recorded in July of 2006 at Fenway Park in Boston. Like the other recordings in this series, the sound is gorgeous.

The track selection between the two evenings contains no song duplications. Trumpeter Rashawn Ross guests on the majority of the tunes, and keyboard wiz Butch Taylor is here throughout. Of the two performances, the July 7th gig is more passionate and has a more upbeat feel, especially on the raw, from-the-heart version of "Crash into Me," which contains a riff from Lowell George's "Dixie Chicken," and what immediately follows, in "Jimi Thing," where Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth" makes an appearance. (The latter worked better when Robert Randolph guested on it to dress it up.) It's a more song-oriented gig in general, though there are four long jams in the first concert.

2006, album review, articlesdbtpSeptember 26, 2006

Dave Matthews Band Christens New Arena

September 23rd, 2006

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Dave Matthews strolled out with his bandmates, hugged his acoustic guitar to his chest and waited. For about four minutes, the band wandered around the stage, smiling, pointing at the screeching crowd and simply reveling in their homecoming.

For a guy who earned his first paychecks as a musician playing dingy clubs and making drunken frat boys feel invincible, it was only fitting that Matthews' return to Charlottesville was adjacent to the U.Va. campus.

He and his unwaveringly solid band kicked into the opening "Rapunzel" sounding so crisp that the notes practically broke in midair. For more than two hours last night, the Dave Matthews Band officially christened the new John Paul Jones Arena (which technically opened last month) with a set list that zigzagged through its 15-year career, but always retained a special layer of comfort for a hometown crowd that included Gov. Tim Kaine and his family.

2006, articles, concert reviewsdbtpSeptember 23, 2006

Tinsley's works mirror his past

September 22nd, 2006

By Matt Deegan

His charitable fund allows 42 underprivileged Charlottesville musicians to take private lessons and provides one-on-one tutoring for disadvantaged city students. He helped the University of Virginia host a professional woman’s tennis tournament. UVa even named a tennis center for him after he donated $1 million to help build it. If an “All-Charlottesville” team were to be drafted, who would get picked first – Boyd Tinsley, hometown author John Grisham or king of all things music, Dave Matthews?

The story of Matthews, a community-college dropout who bartended and reluctantly tried out his material at a local watering hole, Miller’s, is branded in local lore. His return to Charlottesville always prompts its retelling.

Matthews launched his music career here. However, Tinsley, the violinist in the Dave Matthews Band, laid his roots in Charlottesville and was first exposed to classical music in its school system.

His wife and two children still live in the city and he frequently makes local appearances to support classical music and tennis, his other passion. His charitable fund recently donated $75,000 to the city schools to finance private lessons, academic tutoring and equipment for tennis.

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 22, 2006

So Much to Pay

September 22, 2006

Imagine showing up for the Dave Matthews concert tonight, ticket in hand, only to be informed at the door that your ticket is worthless. Such may be the fate of someone who bought their ticket from a reseller for higher than the original face value, due to a policy of canceling resold tickets.

John Paul Jones Arena has an anti-scalping system for online tickets where tickets are canceled if they are resold for a price higher than face-value. While the arena has every right to set the terms for the sale of its tickets, reselling tickets is not illegal and tickets should not be cancelled regardless of how they were obtained.

Larry Wilson, general manager of John Paul Jones Arena, was not available for comment for this editorial, but he told The Cavalier Daily that the canceling of resold tickets is often undertaken at the request of the artists. But just because artists are requesting the action rather than other parties doesn't give them any more legitimacy. Many recording artists were pushing the crackdown on music downloading that led to lawsuits against students and universities, proving that artists aren't always looking out for students' best interests.

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 22, 2006

Scalped DMB tickets may be nixed

September 22nd, 2006

By Matt Deegan

If you bought a Dave Matthews Band ticket from a secondary vendor such as eBay or Craigslist for more than its face value, you may be turned away at the door of the John Paul Jones Arena tonight or Saturday night.

Musictoday, the official ticket provider for the arena, has a broker prevention department that monitors tickets on secondary Web sites, said Larry Wilson, the arena’s general manager.

Broker protection officials search the sites for tickets that are being sold above face value and then invalidate some of the tickets. Fans who purchase them online do not know they have been invalidated. They would find out when they hand their ticket to an arena ticket handler, who would scan it to reveal that it is invalid. The fan would then not be allowed in the arena.

“Unfortunately, that’s true,” said Del Wood, chief operating officer of Musictoday. “There’s no way to notify a third party. We want to take care of the primary fan.”

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 22, 2006

Dave Matthews Band Opens New Arena

September 22nd, 2006

Philip Stewart

It was a hometown band for a hometown crowd as the John Paul Jones Arena celebrated it's official grand opening celebration.

Charlottesville's Dave Matthews Band opened up the new arena. Fans were more than excited.

Travis Williams drove all the way from Lexington, Kentucky to see the band play.

"They're my favorite band," said Williams. "This will be my 27th show and tomorrow is my 28th show."

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 22, 2006

Stefan Has So Much To Say

September 22nd, 2006

Dave Matthews Band bassist, bandmates eager for home gigs

By JANE DUNLAP NORRIS / Daily Progress staff writer

Just because they've been on tour buses for months on a wildly successful summer tour doesn't mean that Dave Matthews Band members are on cruise control.

Coming home to play tonight and Saturday in the John Paul Jones Arena, the band will be heading into the University of Virginia's new basketball venue with its game on.

"You really have to give it your all," bassist Stefan Lessard said.

Starting the final two shows on the current tour will turn up the excitement level for the musicians, and playing for the home folks means "there's a certain amount of nervousness," he said.

"You always want to impress,'' Lessard said. But when the band plays in Charlottesville, and even in such nearby towns as Manassas, when the five men know that local friends and family members are likely to make the trip, "there's always going to be this extra push to impress," Lessard said.

2006, articles, interviewsdbtpSeptember 22, 2006

Weekend Concerts

September 21st, 2006

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI - TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

It's taken five years, but the Dave Matthews Band is finally coming home again.

Tomorrow and Saturday, the Charlottesville-based mega-band will officially christen the John Paul Jones Arena at the University of Virginia for what venue officials are deeming its "grand opening."

Yes, the building has been open since Aug. 1, when Cirque du Soleil brought its traveling spectacle, "Delirium," and has since hosted shows from James Taylor, Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley, who shot his new video for "She's Everything" at JPJ during last Friday's concert.

But this weekend is the official hoo-ha.

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 21, 2006

Like it or not, Reynolds tagged as Dave Matthews’ collaborator

September 21, 2006

By Sean Moeller

The state of Iowa — actually one city (Decorah) and one college (Luther) — has played a significant role in Tim Reynolds’ musical life since he performed here with a Charlottesville, Va., buddy in the winter of 1996.

On stage with Dave Matthews, considered a god by certain people, Reynolds performed an acoustic show in the home of the Norse that was officially released three years later. Since then, his name has been synonymous with the leader of a band that fraternity brothers and sorority sisters make out to every chance they get.

“Of course I still get connected to that. It’s America and the big media. Once you get connected with something ... it takes some serious effort to shake,” Reynolds said from his hotel room in Ann Arbor, Mich. “For the first few years after that record was released, it definitely brought in a different element. It took a while for people coming to gigs to realize that there weren’t going to be any Dave Matthews tunes. Like everyone, you always want to do your own thing. There are different things to fight for and (not being associated with Matthews) sounds like a silly thing.”

2006, articlesdbtpSeptember 21, 2006

The boys are back: DMB come home to finish up

September 21st, 2006

in issue 0538 of the HooK. - By VIJITH ASSAR (An Interview with Boyd Tinsley)

The Dave Matthews Band's last album sold more than 20 times as many copies during its first week of release as the number of people who will read this issue of the Hook. Tickets for this week's two-night stand at UVA's John Paul Jones Arena sold out almost immediately after it was announced.

But through it all, the boys have kept their feet on the ground when there's really no earthly reason for them to do so. Boyd Tinsley granted an interview to the hometown press, the band kept trucking with hurricane relief benefits well into 2006, and they only grudgingly agreed to release the greatest hits compilation due out November 7 once they realized they were obligated to do so under the terms of their record contract.

Even beyond their charitable aims in support of Live Arts, the John Paul Jones Arena concerts testify to the band's humility: even when the hysteria around town seems completely deranged, they still manage to love us back.

2006, articles, interviewsdbtpSeptember 21, 2006

Light master: DMB did it for Fenton

September 21st, 2006

in issue 0538 of the HooK. - By COURTENEY

In 1991, Fenton Williams was a typical student taking classes at PVCC and hoping to transfer to UVA to earn an engineering degree. But then he had a better idea: drop out of college and hang out in bars!

Fun, sure, but a smart career move? For most people, not so much. But for Williams? Sheer brilliance.

"Things panned out from there," says Williams, stating the obvious during a recent phone interview from a hotel room in Los Angeles.

Now 35, Williams has worked for the Dave Matthews Band for 15 years, starting as its road manager and serving for the last decade as its lighting designer and video director.

"Everyone involved had a good feeling like something special was going on," he says of the band's beginning.

Special indeed, as the Dave Matthews Band-- getting ready to wrap up its 2006 tour in Charlottesville on September 22 and 23-- has consistently been one of the top earning concert acts in the world for the past decade, selling out stadiums and spawning legions of devoted fans.

2006, articles, interviewsdbtpSeptember 21, 2006