Dave Matthews Band Dusts Off ‘Sledgehammer’ & ‘Watchtower’ In Chicago

On Friday night Dave Matthews Band brought their summer tour to Chicago for the first of two shows at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island. The jamband stalwarts, who are now a month and a half into their run, continued to dig into their catalog offering up a pair of covers for the first time on this tour.

Dave Matthews & Co. got their night going in the Windy City with “Come Tomorrow,” the title track from their recently released ninth studio album. “Stay Or Leave” from Matthews’ solo release Some Devil and “Rooftop” off of Away From the World were trotted out for just the second time each this summer. Three songs later the band reached for their cover of “Sledgehammer.” The tune from Peter Gabriel’s seminal 1986 release So was debuted back in 2008 but had been sitting on the shelf since a handful of performances in 2015. The band reeled off a string of setlist staples next with takes on classics like “What Would You Say” and “Don’t Drink The Water” sitting alongside the revived “Lousiana Bayou” and material from Come Tomorrow.

Later on in the night, DMB served up one of the oldest and most-played covers in their repertoire “All Along The Watchtower.” The Bob Dylan tune, which was trotted out for the first time this year, was debuted all the way back in 1991 was and has remained in rotation ever since having been played a total of 755 times over the years. The second “Digging A Ditch” on this run and the old-school favorite “Jimi Thing,” which nodded back to their Jimi Hendrix via Dylan cover, brought their 18-song main set to a close.

In other DMB-related news, Jennifer Hartswick has shared a cover of the closing track “When I’m Weary” from the group’s new album via her SoundCloud page. The singer and trumpeter took to her Facebook yesterday posting a touching message about how the song brought her to tears with “its simplicity, beauty and lyrical content.” She continued her message by saying “The only way I could to say thank to Dave was to record my own version of it.”

Watch fan-shot video of “Sledgehammer,” listen to Hartswick’s cover and check out the full setlist below:

[Sledgehammer | Captured by Gregory Marcus]

https://soundcloud.com/jennifer-hartswick/when-im-weary

Setlist (via DMB Almanac)

Do You Remember, Stay Or Leave, Rooftop, #41, Again And Again, Sledgehammer, What Would You Say, Can’t Stop, Don’t Drink The Water, Louisiana Bayou, Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin), You Might Die Trying, Come On Come On, Lying In The Hands Of God, You & Me, All Along The Watchtower, Digging A Ditch, Jimi Thing

Encore: Why Am I, Grey Street