Old Friends, New Venue: Dave Matthews Band Closes 1st Richmond Run In Nearly 30 Years

Dave Matthews Band returned to Richmond in the group’s home state of Virginia for the first time since 1996 on Tuesday. The two-night finale at Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront on Wednesday saw DMB bring out live recording engineer Joe Lawlor and longtime collaborator John D’Earth.

Dave Matthews Band kicked off the concert with vintage tune, “The Song That Jane Likes.” Before These Crowded Streets deep cut “The Stone” followed. “Satellite” came next sans its partner for the past few years, “Proudest Monkey,” but more on that later.

Walk Around The Moon standout “Madman’s Eyes” followed ahead of the favorite “Lie in Our Graves.” The band continued to shuffle the deck with an early-set “All Along the Watchtower,” which included the partial “Stairway.”

After “Dive In,” Dave Matthews took a moment to acknowledge the DMB crew before introducing “Virginia friend and great crew member” Joe Lawlor. Joe got “The Only Thing” underway with some bluesy guitar riffage before shredding some Hendrix-esque licks during the instrumental breakdown and swapping smoke with DMB guitarist Tim Reynolds on the coda.

Watch Joe Lawlor on “The Only Thing” below:

DMB continued the setlist shake-ups with a mid-set “Ants Marching,” a classic that has historically served as a closer but has seen some different placements on Summer Tour 2025. The “Lying in the Hands of God”/“American Baby Intro” pairing followed ahead of Crash crooner “Crash Into Me.”

The band finally delivered “Proudest Monkey” in the 13th song slot, ten songs removed from “Satellite.” It marked the first time “Monkey” didn’t precede “Satellite” (or at least a fake) since August 6, 2021, as per DMB Almanac. The Richmond performance of the Crash cut was also the first standalone version since 2018.

More importantly, “Proudest Monkey” saw trumpeter John D’earth adding to the horn section. A staple in the Virginia music scene, D’earth has been around Dave Matthews Band since the beginning as he often performed with late founding saxophonist LeRoi Moore around the time DMB formed in 1991. He’s also worked in the studio with the band, providing the arrangement for the aforementioned “The Stone” and BTCS cut “Halloween,” along with playing trumpet on the latter. D’earth also stuck around for the excellent oldie “Typical Situation.”

Continuing on, Dave aborted “Drunken Soldier” after misreading the setlist. The band got on track with their new staple cover, Cameo’s “Word Up,” led by trumpeter Rashawn Ross. “Drunken Soldier” then fell in its rightful place before DMB sealed the set with “So Right.” The Dave solo came in the form of “Some Devil” to kick off the encore before the band returned for the rousing “Two Step” to wrap the band’s first trip back to Richmond in three decades.

Check out more video from the concert below:

Setlist (via DMB Almanac)

Set: The Song That Jane Likes, The Stone, Satellite, Madman’s Eyes, Lie in Our Graves, All Along the Watchtower » Stairway to Heaven [partial] » All Along the Watchtower [reprise], Dive In, The Only Thing, Ants Marching, Lying in the Hands of God » American Baby Intro, Crash Into Me, Proudest Monkey, Typical Situation, Drunken Soldier [aborted], Word Up!, Drunken Soldier, So Right

Encore: Some Devil, Two Step

Dave Matthews Band are on to SPAC. Scroll down for DMB’s tour routing and ticket info.