ThickDick420 posted:

The reason for this bands dwindling is Dave Matthews. He's lazy, stubborn, and old. This band was once great bc their energies and passions were 100% focused on their craft and artistry. Now, their attention is far from the band. Dave is so creative in his ladder years that he draws inspiration from child lullabies

Mariana Horchata posted:

ThickDick420 posted:

Dmb vs the rest of the music world
DMB vs. the rest of the music world


Anyone spending the time to read this is more than just an avid fan but a hardcore fan enough to care to read about blogs from it’s own fanatic alike. That being said it’s safe to say that we all love DMB and have in one form or another a certain expectation. However that might’ve changed over the course of our love, intimate and personal kinship with it’s members, the music and the power it has had in our lives. I personally have had the great opportunity to see them in a variety of stages and locations over the decades from their heart of C’Ville to WBP, Alpine, SPAC and the first Caravan in Atlantic City. Though more hardcore fans can consider me still a newbie compared to the 90’s original lovers, I like so many of you have read every review per night, love the live setlist and crave the next climb up the expectation ladder every tour year. Which is why I have arrived at my point for writing this.
I am sure many of you have been reading the personal letters from fans placed front and center on the antmarching.org home page and have felt inclined to write in your view as well because deep down we all care at our core that our voice feels a need to be heard whether to agree or conjure another point of view. I liked their songs both studio and live recorded but I became an instant fanatic from my first concert. I get it, I do, that love like a drug that you crave to get the same high you did from that first take. That’s why we all love DMB because for the longest time we felt every year there was this climbing need from the band to one up themselves whether it was harder more intense jams, sick improvs, or just a total blind side Last Stop or the likes of. It was this crazy excitement you got from the moment you packed up the truck or car with your buddies and headed out for the tailgate so many of us have come to love almost as much as the actual night of fun. It was an experience you looked forward to, give you something amazing to look forward to and then look back and reminisce about.
But then it was as if we as a fan base hit a wall. Sure there was always criticism but overall we knew we were more than happy to come back and love it all over again. My personal goal was to checklist off as many songs as I could over the years as if it were a bucket list. I had my subtle fears the year before a two setlist concert came that DMB felt they were beginning to grasp at straws both for their own personal love of it all and their losing of how they could please their fans as much as they use to as they went almost too beyond to please. That year they played Halloween two nights in a row, both amazing from a transition and Watchtower to Halloween was epic but to me it was it they were trying so hard to go all out that they were losing sight of what made it so much fun for them. This is all culminating to my title for this piece in that DMB is unlike most any other band that has come before it and still in the game.
Dave Matthews as well as the rest of the band are an incredibly talented, creative, and heartfelt group of people. Despite what Dave will say he does give a poo poo about what he plays, how he plays it and the order to the chaos upon which it is played. But he is also human and the current setlists are also describing how he feels about his place in life and the leader of an amazing band that he ingeniously sought out to create and still create with. The man truly loves what he does and it shows even in the acoustic setlists even if everyone else has checked out to ‘stolen away’. This is not the first time the band has been in a critical position. Before LeRoy died he had gone to Dave and said that basically if he doesn’t start leading this band he is going to lose it. LeRoy dying re-ignited Dave and the band and we got some truly emotional moments and music from DMB. But now once again they are in what might seem to most like autopilot and it infuriates us. We can all say a night at DMB is better than any day at work but we all the same know that this band is holding themselves back. Having said that we must, if not painfully so, make a point and fact to how different this band is to the rest of the music world.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the Beatles ‘Love’ at the Mirage in Las Vegas and I must say without a shadow of a doubt it was one of the most moving pieces of theater I have seen. But besides the beautifully choreographed tapestry and storyline infused with their music it was their music that I still keep hearing in my head. It actually was what motivated me to write this. The Beatles are iconic. They’ve motivated our boys as well as the rest of the world and their lyrics and progressions can still be heard subtly and definitively throughout the music world today. But our boys are not the Beatles.
Led Zeppelin is one of the most powerful bands to grace this world with music people could not help but not just notice but be moved by. There is not a year that goes by that at least one of their songs is used in a movie or commercial to keep them heard. They have written some of the most diverse and eloquently delivered music and it can still be loved generation after generation. It transcends genres much like the Beatles. Dave loves their music and wishes he could cover them with the same skill they made seem so graceful. But our boys are not Led Zeppelin.
There are dozens of other bands with immense talents and have made their mark on the music scene in such astounding ways. Climbed radio charts to No. 1 or like U2 and could literally play only radio played songs for three hours and no one could complain. But that’s not our boys either.
Nor is DMB a John Butler Band or on the other spectrum a Coldplay. I know each and every one of us smile every time we hear a DMB song in a reception office even if it’s Mercy because to us we feel our kinship to it yet another part of us hoping it might strike a chord in a non-fan to maybe take their shazam app out and then get interested. Everyone knows who Coldplay is yet DMB has just as loyal fan base but like trekies are made fun of for it. Yes perhaps Coldplay can be our Star Wars reference lol. Yet if you ask any of your friends who John Butler is yet alone one song he’s played more often than not they’ve never heard of him. Heck you can make the point with Damien Rice who is an exceptional artist and lyrist that except for blower’s daughter no everyday person would’ve ever heard his music.
This is how I’ve come to this medium and point I want all of you to take away from this or at the very least think about for even a moment and perhaps re-evaulate DMB with. With one last tangent I was raised uniquely and was heavily exposed to Neil Diamond; one of the best writers of both lyrics and music. To me he most closely relates to my love of DMB. He has kept the same band over the decades, reinvents his music, can’t ever stop creating and has a true affinity and love for wanting people to love his music. That being said he has a very specific style all on to his own and reaching outside of it usually doesn’t play out well.
We have different expectations with DMB because we truly love them. They aren’t a reunion tour to play the hits or a chart topper to get their nut and enjoy the fame. They love music plain and simple and even if we disagree how they play it we still deep down love them. I hate to have to say this but I know you’d all listen to a bunch of poo poo DMB songs for a concert if Dave died before you got to see him just one more time. It happened with LeRoy so don’t think fate can’t take another close friend.
Maybe it’s time we stop expecting them to one up it every tour. They still love playing for you and they show it with the joy in how they play it not which song it is they’re playing. You can’t expect them to be as enthralled with the thrill of it all in their forties like they were in their twenties. Most of us forget coz we want each experience to be so intimate but they have to bring it for every show not just our ticket stub.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t love some muster and tenacity to change it up but if they want to feel comfortable to keep playing year to year I’d prefer that than to lose my summer DMB fix altogether. We need to know when as a fan base to pull back the lashings coz we are such a very unique group to love such an equally unique band. Take that into serious consideration the next time you want to throw the next stone at a band you ultimately love.