Dave Matthews Band, Brixton Academy, London

4.00

Before their support set for Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park, Dave Matthews Band played a pair of "intimate" sets at Brixton Academy, one of London's largest venues. This is a group accustomed to stadium shows back home in the US; in the UK they are best known as one of the few huge American acts whose sound hasn't translated into fame this side of the pond. They remain, to an extent, uncategorisable: blues, bluegrass and jazz fusion all battle for their place in the DMB sound.

The band's well-received new album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, went straight to No 1 on the Billboard chart in the US and is the rockiest thing they've put on record. On the evidence of this show, they're a good fit for a bill topped by The E Street Band, boasting old-school rock mannerisms – noodly guitar lines, jokes about ale, bandannas, 10-minute drum solos – so brazenly naff that they manage to be cool.

A so-called "jam band", DMB's gigs are always full of added value: many of the songs are built around nagging, toe-tapping central riffs, which spin off into long improvisations. One example is the looping banjo hop of "Corn Bread", which here demonstrated the enviable tightness of the seven-man group.

Big Whiskey is in part a tribute to DMB's saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died during its recording. Matthews drew the album's cover art, which features Moore as the laughing head on a Mardi Gras parade float. At Brixton he dedicated a song to his fallen comrade, the driving bluegrass boogie "Why I Am". Moore's death creeps into the lyrics elsewhere, as does Hurricane Katrina's effect on the parade's home, New Orleans, the waters rising around Matthews' daughter Stella, perched on a rooftop in "Alligator Pie".

More Big Whiskey highlights in the set included the melancholy "Funny the Way it is" and "Lying in the Hands of God", with an airy saxophone line that recalls nothing so much as Sting's "Englishman in New York".

There was little sign of some of their biggest songs, such as "The Space Between" or "Crash into Me", but the magnificent "Two Step" from 1996's Crash LP was the centrepiece of a rousing encore, producing a deafening response from a crowd not entirely composed of Americans. Some of the band's endless jams have as many false endings as a Lord of the Rings movie, but Matthews and co did not outstay their welcome.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

The Fall ‘Darkness Visible’ – Series 1, episode 2

There is a good many moments in the second episode of this psychological thriller that deserve refle...

‘Vicious’ – Series 1, episode 4

The opening titles squeal ‘Never Can Say Goodbye…’. Oh Lord how I wish I could heave this series off...

Game of Thrones ‘Second Sons’ – Season 3, episode 8

Even though there was a complete absence of our favourite odd couple Brienne and Jaime, we got anoth...

       

ES Rentals

    National archives: Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

    Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

    Newly unearthed papers reveal a shocking extra dimension to the constitutional crisis over monarch’s abdication
    Sent down at the Old Bailey: A tour of the world's most famous court

    Sent down at the Old Bailey

    A tour of the world's most famous court
    Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

    Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

    The Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis’s date for his movie premieres isn’t arm candy  – it’s his 87-year-old friend who he saved from homelessness
    British football scores an own goal

    British football scores an own goal

    Many managers barely survive a year in post. Martin Baker talks to experts who make a case for clubs using forensic business skills to find the best staff
    James Lawton: Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again

    James Lawton

    Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again
    Dylan Hartley: Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong

    Dylan Hartley talks tough

    Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong
    Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

    Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

    A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
    'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

    'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

    Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
    Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

    Plenty of sleaze

    Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
    Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

    The Freemasons’ Code

    Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
    Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

    Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

    Nick Buckles survived the Olympics débâcle and a £5bn bid fiasco but a profit warning finally triggered his downfall
    How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

    How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

    Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar
    Why clubs are keen to take a stand

    Why clubs are keen to take a stand

    There's a real desire around the grounds for safe standing. But will the authorities listen?
    In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

    In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

    Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
    James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

    James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

    British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death