Dave Matthews Band Live, June 1, 2018

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Dave Matthews Band

KeyBank Pavilion, Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, USA, June 1, 2018

By Doug Hardesty

The Dave Matthews Band, one of the most successful jam bands in history, returned to the KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown Friday evening for the first time since 2016. It was the eighth concert on a forty-nine-stop 2018 summer tour.

The seven-piece band featured a new lineup as violinist Boyd Tinsley is no longer with the group. Carter Beauford

Dave Matthews (credit: HARDESTY IMAGING)

(drums), Stefan Lessard (bass), Tim Reynolds (guitar), Jeff Coffin (sax) and Rashawn Ross (trumpet) accompanied Matthews. Buddy Strong was recently added to play keyboards. Strong is a Phoenix, Arizona native who previously toured with Usher and Ariana Grande and performed with a host of other artists. He is the first DMB keyboard player since the departure of Butch Taylor in 2008.

The show opened with “That Girl is You” from the new album Come Tomorrow to be released June 8th. Come Tomorrow, is the band’s ninth studio album and their first since the 2012 release of Away from the World. Later in the set the band performed “Can’t Stop” and “Samurai Cop” also from the forthcoming album.

It didn’t take Matthews long to establish a party atmosphere and get the performance into high gear with favorites “One Sweet World,” “Squirm,” and Dave’s powerful vocal on the seldom played “#27.” The crowd was singing with the band by the fifth tune, “The Best of What’s Around” which featured a lengthy sax solo by Coffin. Percussion by the sixty-year-old Beauford and bass generated by Lessard was in full throttle.

Matthews thanked the crowd twice during the show for attending while the band “learned to walk again.” The band did not tour in 2017. DMB is going through a transition due to the departure of longtime member Tinsley. The band covered his absence during “Dancing Nancies” with solid guitar and trumpet solos by Reynolds and Ross. Next up was a raucous version of “Warehouse” which included another pronounced trumpet solo by Ross.

Newly added keyboardist Buddy Strong made his presence known with a lengthy jam outro during “Lying in the Hands of God.”

Next up was beloved “Satellite” followed by a true highlight of the evening, the rarely performed “Save Me,” from the

Dave Matthews (credit: HARDESTY IMAGING)

2003 Matthews solo album Some Devil.

Mathews finished the main set with a rousing rendition of “Don’t Drink the Water” followed by “Pantala Naga Pampa” and “Rapunzel” which featured additional over the top takes by the horn section of Ross and Coffin.

The band returned to the stage for a three-song encore which included a poignant and powerful solo performance of “Sister” by Matthews. The band ended the night performing “What Would You Say” followed by a pounding crescendo of “Louisiana Bayou.”

The show featured twenty-three songs, solid encores, and three hours of high energy music. The rain held off, and summer officially arrived in Pittsburgh!

Set list: That Girl Is You, One Sweet World, Squirm, #27, The Best of What’s Around, Seven, Dancing Nancies, Warehouse, Too Much, So Much to Say, Can’t Stop, The Space Between, Lying in the Hands of God, Satellite, Save Me, Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin), Drive In Drive Out, Don’t Drink the Water, Pantala Naga Pampa » Rapunzel; Encore: Sister, What Would You Say, Louisiana Bayou.

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