Dave Matthews Band rolled into Tampa for their first summer show on Wednesday night, May 22nd, at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater and for many, summer has officially begun. Starting off summer tour in Florida, it was hoped that it would be much cooler than the mid July shows of years past, but Mother Nature had other plans. Tampa is seen as an odd show for the die-hard Dave Matthews Band fan. Being sandwiched in between Atlanta and West Palm Beach, it’s often a “sleeper” performance that has pulled out some stellar shows in years past.
With temps in the upper 90s and a full moon rising over the lawn, the band came out of the gates strong yet again opening with an energetic “Warehouse”, to many people’s surprise. Having just come off a month long tour of Europe, it was uncertain if DMB would need time to find their groove. What was noticeably different about this show from years past was that many of the crowd favorites that appeal to the masses were not played. In fact, not one single song off their most beloved album Crash was even done. Despite this, they made up for in spades with the holy trinity of “Warehouse”, a crazy jammed out “Dancing Nancies” and a super-long “Typical Situation”, with a long breakdown outro complete with dancing Dave feet.
Over the years Dave Matthews Band often throw in a new cover song each year to shake things up. The summer’s first cover, of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, made its debut and really got the people dancing, as if they needed more fuel. “Drunken Soldier” made a rare summer appearance and one could see that this was clearly no ‘warm up’ show in the making. One notable highlight of the evening began with band organist, Buddy Strong, playing a very quiet intro in the dark, which slowly built up into the powerhouse “American Baby Intro” with the lyrical “She says” over and over and culminating with a primal scream from Matthews that sent the seats reverberating but not before segueing straight into longtime favorite “Break Free” off their most recent release, Walk Around the Moon (QRO review).
Other highlights of the night included “Madman’s Eyes fake->Minarets”, a high octane “Grey Street” with the long lost 3rd verse which was found on the infamous Lillywhite tapes. Finally, closing things out was a quiet solo “From Here On Out” with the full band returning afterwards to send it home with a jammed out “So Right”. By the looks of things, this is going to be a hot summer for all and DMB fans will be in for quite a ride.
Setlist
- Warehouse
- Old Dirt Hill (Bring That Beat Back)
- Walk Around the Moon
- Minarets (with “Madman’s Eyes” fake intro)
- Looking for a Vein
- Funny the Way It Is
- Drunken Soldier
- Grace Is Gone
- Dancing Nancies
- Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover)
- Typical Situation
- Granny
- All You Wanted Was Tomorrow
- American Baby Intro
- (>) Break Free
- You Might Die Trying
- Grey Street
Encore
- Here on Out
- So Right
