Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band’s overdue return to Rogers, Arkansas was met with nothing but blue, clear skies and excited fans eagerly awaiting the group....
Dave Matthews Band : Live
Dave Matthews Band : Live

A severe thunderstorm had cut the last Dave Matthews Band show short at the Walmart AMP back in October of 2021. However, the band’s overdue return to Rogers, Arkansas on Tuesday, May 23rd, was met with nothing but blue, clear skies and excited fans eagerly awaiting the group coming back to Arkansas. 

The third stop on their annual summer tour also marked five days since their newest album, Walk Around the Moon (QRO review) was released. The band’s pandemic release and tenth studio record, Walk Around the Moon is the first studio album since 2018’s Come Tomorrow. With it having just been released, it wasn’t a surprise that several of the songs played from Walk were met with open ears and a quiet audience response.

The curiosity of the night was the show opening with “Bismarck”, a rare piece that has only made an appearance during the 2016 tour but has now been played as an opener at a handful of 2023 performances. The band took liberties with a rousing high-energy cover of “Brick House” featuring trumpet player Reshawn Ross’ vocals, which saw resounding excitement from the crowd.

Horns

With 30 years of touring now under the band’s belt, there is always an expectation of the band to play “the hits” (and as such, Dave Matthews even addresses this early in the show) adding: “Most of all, I hope I enjoy myself.”Songs such as “Grey Street”, “What Would You Say” and “Ants Marching” have a large appeal to all Matthews’ fans, ranging from college-aged students to attendees past Matthews age of 56. 

The non-musical highlight of the night was hearing Matthew’s classic davespeak, during a quiet moment that allowed Matthews to share his feelings on how we as a society should take more time to get to know each other and share our commonalities. As such, the more we see we have in common with each other, the less that differences are important. 

The band’s summer tour continues with a full tour of the United States including several dates at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in July, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York also in July and the perennial summer tour finale at the Gorge Amphitheatre on Labor Day weekend. 

Dave Matthews Band

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