This Is All Still Happening: Dave Matthews Band At Jones Beach – Review, Setlist & Photos

Words by: Chad Berndston

Images by: Adam McCullough

Dave Matthews Band :: 6.21.16 :: Nikon At Jones Beach Theater :: Wantagh, NY

This. This is still here. This is all still happening.

Dave Matthews Band — for so many of us, frozen in memory like a high school time capsule — is still out there as an old reliable, celebrating 25 years now of eclectic, high-potency jams, masterful musicianship and a fan base that’s been saluted, celebrated, mocked, derided — and throughout, has stayed true.

You have to give Dave & Co. this: they ascended not only to the jam scene vanguard, but also to the upper echelons of American pop music, and throughout 25 years of changing tastes, peaks and valleys, they’ve been consistent, rarely faltering, paying close attention to the care and oiling of their machine parts while other bands tried on different identities. New and occasionally interesting songs enter their mix, but somehow the old warhorses — “Two Step,” “Ants Marching,” “Too Much,” “#41,” “Jimi Thing,” you know ’em all — are ever summoned forth, thrillingly rendered as ever, even as their mileage is now measured in decades.

I’ve kept up with the band sparingly in recent years, glancingly familiar with the newer material and the establishing of a larger, deeper touring band that includes Tim Reynolds, Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross as permanent “touring” members — never quite fully “in” the band and never quite not in it. Live, there are a lot of people on stage to account for, and a lot that goes on during one of the band’s signature pillar jams. You admire an ensemble that still seems to want to find new colors to paint with and ideas to flesh out; DMB could definitely be coasting at this stage of its evolution.

So how did this show go? Swimmingly – and not least because, in one of those brilliantly cosmic moments of concert-going, the skies opened up and doused the crowd with rain during “Don’t Drink the Water.”

DMB’s returned to its protracted-one-set-with-dessert-encore format after last year’s forays into a two-set acoustic/electric split. This, of course, is the more familiar, long-established DMB show structure, in which the band elects between 18 and 22 songs, roughly five of which will be massive jam vehicles. You can be sure of ample room for Boyd Tinsley to saw away on country-jazz violin, or Reynolds to walk the line between professorly fusion and bugfuck psychedelic noise-rock, or for Coffin and Ross to egg each other on – DMB’s horn “section” is a true corps — or for the still-dazzling drummer Carter Beauford to hit that pocket with longtime foil Stefan Lessard on bass and find “it” — whatever “it” is — that enables band, crowd and overall vibe to groove in unison.

This show was well paced. You scarcely had time to remember all the words to “Granny” and “One Sweet World” before we were in the throes of “Seek Up,” a 20-minute voyage through terror and philosophy, providing room for everyone to move, from the Rashawn/Jeff give-in-take in a long, long build-up intro, to the way Boyd’s quietly pinching solo gave way to a roiling Tim master class – a set of guitar layers that built on each other and became a wind tunnel of metallic-sounding notes.

From there they went all over the place: the punch-drunk jerky boogie of “Seven,” the click-into-place anthemic rock of “You Might Die Trying,” the desperate-sounding, Dave-at-piano love song “Death On The High Seas,” the pensive “Digging A Ditch,” and the galloping “Grey Street.” Of the newer songs, “Samurai Cop” and “Bismarck” seem to have the most potential. The former leans 1990s alt-rock, almost like Temple Of The Dog in its stabbed-out vocals, while the latter could be of a piece with Under the Table And Dreaming-era DMB, light like a Paul Simon song without being flimsy.

Following a drawn-out “Ants Marching” whose jam segment became a hoedown, the encore drew in a big rock finish with “Why I Am,” that then gave over to DMB’s long-nurtured version of “All Along The Watchtower” – love their version or hate it, a dependably fierce closer.

The one I’ll keep from this show was “Crush,” in which the band collectively eased into a beautiful set of unhurried jam sequences – one led by Boyd, the other by Tim – whose peaks really delivered thanks to patient plotting by each of them. It’s still such a sexy, vibe-y song, and it was the one point in the show that the band succeeded in stopping time – everyone in the crowd was in thrall, and giving the vibe back to the musicians on stage.

Dave Matthews Band is machine-like at this point, but you knew that and you’re OK with that. They found what worked decades ago and they stuck with it, slightly varied. Those memories you have of your Listener Supported recording – look up at the big screens and you many see the same expressions and faces, maybe with a few more wrinkles and graying hair and beards.

It’s impressive to be so reliable, and it didn’t happen by accident. And it’s inspiring to see goofy ol’ Dave up there, dancing like he always did, surely knowing by now everything his band is capable of because he’s heard it all before, but also knowing the potential for magic is always there.

Setlist

One Set: Granny, One Sweet World, Seek Up, Seven, Death On The High Seas, You Might Die Trying, Samurai Cop, Bass solo > Crush, Digging A Ditch, Don’t Drink The Water, Grey Street, Gravedigger, Bismarck, Rooftop, Crash Into Me, Bob Law, Ants Marching

Encore: Why I Am, All Along The Watchtower

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