Though their cover dominance might suggest that in 20 years C-VILLE has covered nothing artsy but Dave Matthews Band, we want to set the record straight right here and now: Once in a while we have reported on other pressing cultural matters, including the controversy over the state song and the 20 minutes that Georgia O’Keeffe spent in our midst. We kid! Still, it cannot be denied that Dave and the Fellas have captured our attention from the start. Hey, we know a juggernaut when we see one. This week, in honor of DMB’s two nights at the John Paul Jones Arena, we offer a greatest hits package of DMB covers. Feel free to hum along. You know the tune.
 |
“It all sounds so simple. Write a few songs. Recruit skilled musicians to interpret your ideas and help clarify arrangements. Have a ball playing great music. Dave Matthews remembers exactly how far from that rosy image their first rehearsal strayed. ‘The first time we played together early last spring we were awful. Not just kind of bad, I mean heinously bad. We tried a couple of different songs and they were all terrible.’”
—Stewart Deck, February 5, 1992
 |
“In November, 1991, the group secured its first regular gig: Tuesday night at Trax. Soon they were packing the place. Then they took the show on the road. By the fall of 1992, DMB performed more often in Richmond than in Charlottesville. Our golden boys became the golden boys of the whole region. They put out a CD on their own Bama Rags label (Remember Two Things). The day before they got signed to RCA, they put out one last CD (the five-cut Recently) on Bama Rags. Then they put out a studio-recorded CD with RCA: Under the Table and Dreaming, which debuted on the Billboard charts at #34. They appeared in Rolling Stone. They got on MTV. They played for Dave Letterman. They did SNL. They toured, toured, toured, from Seattle to New Haven. Our golden boys became the toast of the nation.
“And now it looks like we’re going to have to share them with the rest of the world.
“From June 21 through July 11, the band is embarking on a European tour…”—Jennifer Niesslein, June 20, 1995
|
|
“C-VILLE asked DMB publicist Ambrosia Healy when the internationally renowned band might play in its hometown again. It’s been since the fall of 1994, for goodness sake.
“‘Where are they supposed to play?’ she responded.”
—Arts Watch, March 4, 1997
 |
“But his success has come with a hefty price tag. Although boosters heap praise upon the Dave Matthews Band (which includes violinist Boyd Tinsley, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, bassist Stefan Lessard, and drummer Carter Beauford) and Matthews’s acoustic collaborations with longtime friend Tim Reynolds, most music reviewers have turned on the guitarist with a vehemence that’s usually reserved for the Kennedy family.
“Various theories have arisen, but whatever the real cause, there’s no question that Matthews has become a critical scapegoat.”
—Joshua Green, July 29, 1997
 |
“It’s Christmastime and Dave Matthews is standing in line with an armload of books in the Barracks Road Barnes & Noble. A few whispers are heard here and there from other customers, but the Dave, after signing a couple of autographs, walks out the door with his shopping bag.
“Just about everyone in Charlottesville has a Dave story. And soon they’ll only be memories.
“In the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Matthews says he’s taking a break from living in Jefferson’s Virginia. According to the article, he’s heading to Seattle to be with his wife, Ashley, who’s begun graduate school. He also wants to be close to Los Angeles to be near producer Glen Ballard, who saved the new Everyday album.
“What? Charlottesvillians gasp. Well, never fear: Matthews is quoted as saying, ‘It’s my home and I’m happy here,’ but adds, ‘I have to go where my wife is.’”
—Brigitte McCray, February 27, 2001
 |
“Tickets for the first local DMB concert since 1994 sold out—after a presale to locals the previous day—in 35 minutes on the morning of Saturday, March 3.
“The fans who watched the first football game back at Scott Stadium in 1931 probably couldn’t imagine 50,000 Daveheads swarming down its aisles. Even the folks who, back in 1997, envisioned the expansion of the stadium might claim that music wasn’t on their minds either. But DMB fans, primed to enjoy the first concert hosted in Scott Stadium, must be glad that UVA spent three years on a new and improved arena.”
—Brigitte McCray, April 17, 2001
 |
“Somehow I can’t help but feel like my grandfather must have when taking my teenage mother to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to scream at the Beatles. Cranky beyond my age, I find few things more frustrating than people who focus on stardom, on personality, on Dave’s unshavenness. Listen to the goddamn music, and don’t just wait for the crowdlights to pop on to cue you to start shrieking with glee when the chorus comes.
“By the end of the set, the reluctant triviamonger in me couldn’t help but notice that the band hadn’t played ‘Recently,’ ‘The Song that Jane Likes,’ ‘Jimi Thing,’ or ‘The Best of What’s Around’—the four songs that constituted Dave’s original four-track demo, recorded 10 years ago at Greg Howard’s home studio. How cool would it have been in Dave had, as an encore, recreated the original tape on stage?”
—James D. Graham, May 1, 2001
 |
How do you guys gear up to get ready to go on a tour?
Boyd Tinsley: Take a deep breath. And keep on taking it.
Stefan Lessard: Pretend. You pretend that it’s not happening until the last day. I also like to have two weeks before the actual tour just to be at home, be with my family and garden. Put my plants in that I won’t see till the fall and just sort of spend time being real homey and stuff and then I get pumped up.
BT: It’s just, like, basically the night before I’ll get my gig clothes ready, I’ll get packed and I’ll get all the stuff ready. And I’ll just go “O.K., it’s time to go, let’s go.”
—Interview with Cathy Harding, May 10, 2005
 |
“Lyle Begiebing is also a 15-year-old Dave Matthews Band fan. I meet him and Simon on another day at the Omni where we talk over iced tea and Cokes. Lyle was born here, and unlike Simon, he has seen the band twice. His parents went to UVA and used to go see the band on some of those early, electric nights. Lyle is a drummer, and in the concert he mostly watches Carter Beauford. ‘[Carter]’s the best around. I play along to the albums but it’s impossible to do everything he does. I’m trying to learn how to play the same style, like, open: He doesn’t cross [his arms] when he plays.’ …I ask him what it is exactly that he likes about the band and he says that he likes ‘how their songs aren’t, like, two-and-a-half minutes. It’s not held back … and they don’t have just like chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, all of that. It’s a lot more.”
—J. Tobias Beard, September 19, 2006
