Matthews jams away to his heart’s content
Prior to the string of hits that began with 1994’s “Under the Table and Dreaming,” the Dave Matthews Band built up its fan base with jam-band strategies, such as the open trading of bootleg tapes of live performances. The group faced that facet of its personality head-on at the Comcast Center Tuesday (the first of a sold-out, two-night stand), favoring expansive groove-mongering over pop economy. Woe to the casual fan who came to hear the songs recognizable from the radio.
With few exceptions, in fact, most of Matthews’s songs clocked in at 10 minutes or more. “Crush” was closer to a quarter of an hour, as Stefan Lessard pumped out a bassline with the jazzy economy of Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” atop Carter Beauford’s supple drums. The groove they set gave ample room for a cutting contest between guitarist Tim Reynolds and sax player LeRoi Moore.
“Crush” was the second 15-minute song in a row, though, coming on the heels of “The Dreaming Tree,” and the near uniformity of the performances - set up a guitar or bass figure on infinite repeat, build up a head of steam, and then bring on the solos - sent the show into a bit of a rut.
Beauford’s crisp jazz-pop drumming was impeccable, but it also lent the arrangements an antiseptic feel. For his part, violinist Boyd Tinsley didn’t betray an ounce of pleasure until midway through his solo in the closing “Tripping Billies,” when he finally grinned at his own music-making.
Matthews occasionally strayed from the formula, with mixed results. He didn’t quite have the menace or swagger necessary to pull off a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Bitch,” but “Gravedigger” was suitably moody, and while Matthews’s keyboard playing on “Out of My Hands” was so rudimentary that he might as well have had only two fingers on each hand, it kept the song simple and dark enough to be mistaken for Massive Attack.
Through it all, the man at the center maintained an unassuming profile. His singing rarely strayed from a strong mumble, and even when his acoustic strumming would rise to a frenzy, his arm seemed to be immobilized north of the wrist. Just about the only time he addressed the audience beyond simply pointing out the other musicians, meanwhile, was to tell a story about brightly colored monkey genitalia. But from time to time, Matthews moved around the stage in a light skitter, jamming to his own tune right along with the audience.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
Dave Matthews Band
At: Comcast Center, Tuesday