“I like dental floss! It makes me feel good!” Dave kept talking about dental floss throughout the night – as many people say, it’s just Dave being Dave. Turns out it was a reference to the previous SPAC shows, in which Dave had talked about getting food stuck in his teeth and needing to get it out. Well, I guess he found his solution. This is just one small example of the added excitement and energy that the Dave Matthews Band brought to the second night at Jones Beach.
Although, the night started off slow with “Shake Me Like a Monkey” and “Eh Hee”, (at least they didn’t open with “Eh Hee” as they did at SPAC night 2) the energy that they brought on stage was pretty high. However, they quickly escalated things with their third song, “Jimi Thing.” Boyd Tinsley tore up the stage in the beginning followed by some amazing horns solos. Trumpeter Rashawn Ross played some really jazzy stuff up there with some back and forth soloing with him and saxophone player Jeff Coffin. The entire crowd sang along to the now classic “For What It’s Worth” outro verse.
The next big highlight of the night was “Big Eyed Fish” segueing perfectly into “Bartender.” “Big Eyed Fish” may not have been anything spectacular, but that “Bartender” was unreal. Dave’s vocals were unbelievable, nailing each note with precision. Jeff Coffin was the star of this song with his long solo on the penny whistle. It was one of the most beautiful solos by Jeff that night. He ended it off with a really slowed down version of “If I Only Had a Brain”, followed by Tim Reynolds ending the song with a country based jam.
Next up, came fan favorite “So Right”. Even though Dave botched the lyrics in the middle of the song, the energy that the band brought to the song was still high. And they carried that energy on through “You Might Die Trying.” Fans were up and singing along to every line and Rashawn led the way with some dirty trumpeting.
The band switched gears into a very groovy and chill little song, “If Only”. The horns really added a lot to the song and many hope that they keep playing this song throughout the tour.
The band then launched into the fan favorite “Lie in Our Graves” which, as always, was crushed by violinist Boyd Tinsley. Boyd’s solo started out really slow and really pretty until he gradually built it up and started going nuts on his violin. He then brought it back down to a reasonable tempo until Tim Reynolds took over to carry those beautiful notes, with the help of Jeff and Rashawn, to a slow end until the reprise where the band pours out with energy.
“Write a Song” was pretty standard and nothing in particular stood out, but it was well done. Then came another new song called “Gaucho.” This song was pretty awesome with Rashawn on backup vocals and some added help with the horns. “We gotta do much more than believe if we really want to change things.” Those lines echoed throughout the venue with the true fans singing along.
The show at this point really slowed down and took a huge dip. “Funny the Way It Is” got a killer intro this tour, but other than that, not many people wanted to hear it and a lot of people were sitting down. It got even worse when they brought out the piano and Dave sat down for “Out of My Hands.” Really? Why play it? Everyone was sitting and those who weren’t got up to go to the bathroom. But from there, things got interesting.
Everyone got up as soon as they heard the first two chords of “Warehouse.” It brought all the energy back right away. Everyone was “woo”-ing with the classic stop-time intro and the horns were just wailing with Rashawn’s solo and in the salsa jam.
The next part of the show was by far one of the biggest highlights of the tour. The band started off with a pretty standard “So Much To Say”, but then where we all were expecting “Anyone Seen the Bridge?” drummer Carter Beauford threw in a different beat. Everyone was thinking “Wow, this is a pretty cool new beat!” until the horns came in and everyone lost their shit! Did they really just play Beastie Boys? Dave came in with those famous lines “Brass monkey! That funky monkey!” The whole stage was exploding with energy and everyone was singing along to “Brass Monkey” Afterwards, they went into a “Too Much” fake into “Ants Marching” where Jeff, Carter, and Boyd all crush the jam to close the set. I think we found a new triplet! SMTS>Brass Monkey>Ants
The encore started off with “Time Bomb” which was met with some disappointment from the crowd. Dave was just yelling at points and it just did not sound good at all. Hey, at least it was short! They then ended the show with “Two Step.” Dave used the same “Time Bomb” lyrics in the intro for “Two Step.” At least things got better from there. Tim was shredding on his solo and Carter, well Carter was unreal. He went ballistic on that drum solo. A lot of people thought the song was over, but Carter made the band keep going for at least another minute and a half.
Overall, it was a pretty great show. The So Much To Say>Brass Monkey>Ants Marching segment was an absolute highlight of the entire tour, and classics like Jimi Thing , Bartender, and Lie In Our Graves were all played to perfection. The show could have been perfect, except the begging of the first set and encore were minor disappointments. Overall, another great stop on the 2012 tour.
Here’s a link to download the show:
http://www.dreamingtree.org/details.php?id=9083
By Baby D