Popcorn and Pen

To stay fresh, Dave Matthews Band took a step back. The band, which originally formed in 1991, returned to its “Steve Lillywhite” roots - long-time DMB producer who helped create Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash, Before These Crowded Streets and most of the material on Busted Stuff.

Embarking on their current summer tour, the band enlisted the help of an old friend and some new ones. Missing, however, were two familiar faces – keyboardist Butch Taylor, who decided not to return on tour with DMB, and original member LeRoi Moore, who was in an ATV accident and punctured a lung and is not able to participate in this leg of the tour.

For those “Dancing Nancies” that have been to shows for awhile, it was a pleasure to see Tim Reynolds return to the stage with the band for a tour. Reynolds was in the studio on all of the Lillywhite albums and was the unofficial member of the band for the first half of DMB’s career. Trumpeter Rashawn Ross also returned for his second tour in as many years and newcomer Jeff Coffin replaced Moore on the woodwind instruments.

Without a new album to take up a majority of the setlist, the band went through their versatile song arsenal Friday night, sticking mainly to older fan favorite live songs – “Two Step,” “Proudest Monkey,” “Satellite,” “Dancing Nancies,” “The Dreaming Tree,” “Lover Lay Down,” “Drive In, Drive Out,” “Jimi Thing,” “Stay (Wasting Time),” “No. 41,” “So Much to Say” and “Too Much.”

Kicking off the evening, which lasted more than three hours, was “Don’t Drink the Water,” followed by “So Damn Lucky” off Matthew’s solo album and “Eh Hee,” a new song which was first played live by the band last year at Verizon.

The new live favorite and unrecorded “Cornbread” had a different style with Reynolds, Ross and Coffin and the high octane song provided the audience a good laugh and applause after Matthews sang scat over the music. Friday night also offered the crowd the newest DMB cover – Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.”

“We’ve been playing this a lit bit lately,” Matthews said.

While a majority of the songs were older, they had a new feel to them without Taylor and with Reynolds returning. Reynolds’ electric guitar prowess allowed Matthews to stay on acoustic guitar all night and provided a gritty feel on old songs. When he was filling in notes, he stayed reserved, but when they needed him to wail, he wailed. Reynolds’ sound added something lacking from DMB shows of recent years, especially when older songs were played.