Good Dave Matthews ReviewDATE: Friday, August 4, 2000
EDITION: Morning Final
SECTION: Eye
PAGE: 22
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: REVIEW
SOURCE: BY BRAD KAVA, Mercury News
UNAMBITIOUS MATTHEWS AND CREW
ON WHAT would have been Jerry Garcia's 58th birthday, the Dave Matthews Band took the stage at Shoreline Amphitheatre on Tuesday and launched into a 30-minute jam.
In this age of the short attention span, you have to give the band credit for that.
But other than on that opener, ''Seek Up,'' their idea of jamming was as close to the Grateful Dead's as a Brooks Brothers leisure suit is to a tie-dye T-shirt.
While some jam bands use the form in a jazz-like way, to explore free-form musical possibilities and create spontaneous new sounds live, the ever-laid-back Matthews and crew were unabashedly unambitious during their 2 1/2 hours on stage.
Their instrumental interludes on ''#41,'' ''Digging a Ditch,'' ''Ants Marching'' and ''Tripping Billies'' always stayed in a clean, well-lighted place.
Bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer Carter Beauford, horn and reeds player LeRoi Moore, violinist Boyd Tinsley, and guest keyboardist Butch Taylor, never wandered far from the clean-cut, straightforward material the band must have played when it began in Southern fraternity houses.
The result was well-produced, easy-to-listen-to and very melodic. But the formula -- staccato guitar chords with a mournful vocal or violin or horn over them -- crossed too close to the woozying sound you might get if Sting sat in with Kenny G.
Unlike the Dead or even show opener Medeski, Martin and Wood, there was no chance of the Dave Matthews Band moving into dark or scary ground, although you could tell that if they did, they were good enough to pull off some amazing things.
In the handful of times I've seen the band, it doesn't seem to cover much new ground, either because of a limited repertoire or it's catering to an audience that isn't quite ready for jazz.
Five years ago, when Garcia died, this Virginia-based band was on the short list of successors to the Dead's legacy, along with Phish, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler and the Dead spinoff bands.
Then, in the blink of a red-streaked eye, the Matthews band had a hit album with 1996's ''Crash'' and began selling out amphitheaters, as predictably as the Dead did.
Fans followed them across the country, taping shows and exchanging the results on the Internet.
But unlike the Dead's scruffy fans, these Matthews' followers were clean-cut and well-groomed, even if Shoreline shared the same marijuana haze.
Two of the show's highlights were Matthews' covers of Bob Dylan's ''All Along the Watchtower'' and Daniel Lanois' ''The Maker''; ''Watchtower'' for its exuberance and the ''Maker'' for its sublime, mournful quietness.
Like the opening jam, that was the kind of risk most arena pop bandswouldn't take.
But his fans were most satisfied with the safe path.
After the first hour, I longed for the roller coaster catharsis of great improvisation.
The opening act, jazz band Medeski, Martin and Wood did that kind of inspirational jamming to a less than full house. Much of their impact was lost, because they played a too-short set during daylight that would have worked better at midnight.
In my perfect world, the Dave Matthews Band might have been the opener for a longer night of Medeski, Martin and Wood.
CAPTION: PHOTO: FRANK OCKENFELS
Dave Matthews Band, from left: LeRoi Moore, Boyd Tinsley, Dave Matthews, Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard.
[000804 EY 22]
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