Summer Concert Series Follow-Up

What summer concert review would be complete without featuring what these bands are capable of live? Listed below is each band live that was featured in the Summer Tour review. Enjoy!

O.A.R. - Hey Girl, Live at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ (7.22.05).



Earth, Wind, and Fire with Chicago - September, Live at the Greek Theater in LA (2004)

Rascal Flatts - Too Good to Be True, Live at Daytona Beach



U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday, Live at Slane Castle in Dublin, Ireland (Sept. 2001)



Dave Matthews Band - Two Step, Live at Woodstock (7.24.99)

Summer Concert Series: Five Bands to See

With summer here, there are a slew of activities to enjoy, including trips to the shore, barbeque's, block parties, fireworks displays, ballgames, and outdoor concerts. Here is a small list of bands worth checking out this summer.

5. Of a Revolution (O.A.R.)

One of the better bands to emerge from college radio, Of a Revolution promises energy and slamming tunes with each set. Perhaps best known for their original hit, "That Was a Crazy Game of Poker," O.A.R. has established themselves commercially, with newfound hits in "Shattered" and "This Town," the latter of which has become the name for their current '09 summer tour. This go-around, O.A.R. headlines with Matt Nathanson (check out "Car Crash" and "Come on Get Higher" from this San Fran-based troubadour).

Visit http://www.ofarevolution.com/ for more information, including a local stopover at Bethel Woods, just down the road from Woodstock.

4. Earth, Wind, & Fire with Chicago

These two behemoths, like Elton John and Billy Joel before them, have made it a point in recent memory to join forces for a summer tour that is big on radio-chart toppers and nostalgia. These ultra-talented forces promise two jam-packed shows, complete with several songs in which both will be playing together for a display and range of talent that, even 30 years after their peak on the musical scene, delivers some hard-hitting, jazz and soul stylings. Earth, Wind, and Fire has channeled the Beatles for a track or two ("Gotta Get You Into My Life"), but has "brought the fire" with some other memorable tracks, including "Shining Star," "That's the Way of the World," and "Mighty Mighty" that translates relatively well to the live setting. Chicago, despite lineup changes that have affected their sound over the years, has delivered some stupendous hits in the form of "Saturday in the Park," "Make Me Smile," and "Colour the World," not to mention later hits in the Peter Cetera-laden tracks "You're the Inspiration" and "Glory of Love," that latter of Karate Kid II fame.

Visit http://www.earthwindandfire.com/tourdates.html for more tour related information, including a nearby stop at Bethel Woods in upstate New York.

3. Rascal Flatts

They are one of the few country-rock acts to produce mainstream hits that display their collective talents of a band at its apex, one whose live show is truly a spectacle to marvel over. Gary LeVox has, arguably, one of the best voices in the music business, a set of vocals that is not compromised on-stage whatsoever. Behind LeVox are the talented Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney, both of whom convinced Gary to join their musical pursuits in a chance meeting at Printer's Alley in Nashville, TN in 1999. The band will feature material from their latest effort, Unstoppable, with former Hootie and the Blowfish lead man Darius Rucker providing support as an opening act.

Visit http://www.rascalflatts.com/?content=tour for shows near you, including a stop at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA.

2. U2

Mind you, you'd have to be in Europe to savor the majority of their summer tour, but the European Union's fanbase is as rabid as they are stateside, promising some shows that allow the band to build off the energy that pulsates from the crowd night in and night out. Throughout the 360 Tour, U2 will be showcasing material from their latest album No Line on the Horizon, which Rolling Stone magazine touted as a classic on the level with Achtung Baby. Most recently, the band headlined several shows to support President Barack Obama's campaign, candidacy, and inauguration, even going so far as to feature tracks from Horizon on a five-night run on the David Letterman Show in April. You would think that the non-stop touring and global advocacy would tire the likes of Bono and the Edge out, but their efforts have been channeled into delivering diverse sets that promise a near-religious experience for fans that come out in droves to witness their high-energy shows. Visit http://www.u2.com/tour/index/ for more tour information; they'll be stateside for good come September.

1. Dave Matthews Band

In having seen the band 8 times in concert, I can say, without question, that the Dave Matthews Band offers something unique through every single show they concoct, with setlists that portray a vast catalogue that exudes the good feelings of the summer season. The band boasts variety, various interpretations of their studio material, and jams that will leave you gaping in awe of the talents the band projects. In support of Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King, DMB will be putting on their first full tour without founding member Leroi Moore, the band's one-time sax player. With each show serving as a tribute to Moore, this summer proves to be even more magical than previous years.

Visit http://www.davematthewsband.com/#/tour for local stops that include Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA and Bethel Woods in NY.

Album Review: DMB's "Big Whiskey"

For the Fallen
In one of the more highly anticipated albums of the summer (a solid four years since DMB's last release, the ho-hum Stand Up), the Dave Matthews Band crafted another classic-in-the-making: Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King; albeit, this effort was completed without the band's sax player and founding member, the fallen Leroi Moore, an untimely victim of an ATV accident last August.

The term "Groogrux King" was a moniker the band created for the taciturn Moore, a man who often diverted interviews and public attention at every turn. Once called "DMB's soul" by one-time producer Mark Batson, Moore's jazzy influence was often the impetus for the band's signature in-concert jams, a man the band replaced with Jeff Coffin (of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones fame) at the time of his death for the remainder of the '08 summer tour and the remaining Big Whiskey sessions. Despite the switch, Moore appears to be all over the album, including its opening track Grux, an instrumental featuring Moore's sax and drummer Carter Beauford's rolling-thunder drums. The 1:41 minue-long clip is but one of countless highlights pouring through DMB's latest return-to-form, the 13-track bombshell that serves as a fitting tribute to the band's fallen comrade.

5. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Tim Reynolds

Perhaps best known for his supplementary work on Live at Luther College, Tim Reynolds has proven to be formidable with the axe, both acoustic and electric. With great ease and prowess, Reynolds, through countless acoustic shows with Matthews, helps fill the space left void by the band (after all, Matthews and Reynolds live is strictly a two-man show) with his innovative plucking, solos, and multi-layered effects, including pedal-work and use of the slide. He is now the band's "unofficial" seventh member (along with Matthews, Beauford, Coffin, violinist Boyd Tinsley, bassist Steffan Lessard, and trumpet player Rashawn Ross), as he is featured on a number of Big Whiskey tracks and is currently on-tour with the band, who recently played before a packed house at the Saratoga Performing Arts Centre in Saratoga Springs, NY. Simply put, his work on the electric guitar is mind-blowing enough to warrant (let's hope) a permanent stay with the band, who have featured his talents in one way or another for the past 17 years (since the band's inception in

Charlottesville, VA in 1992).

4. How about those vocals?

Most noteworthy amongst Big Whiskey's highlights is the vocal renderings of Dave Matthews, whose voice appears to be healthy yet again (for a time, the band had to abandon "Satellite" in its live sets because several ailments, including cigarette smoking and vocal chord strain, wouldn't allow him to reach the chorus' falsetto range). He's heard scatting, growling, crooning raspily (in a raw tribute to Moore, "Baby Blue"), wailing, and smoothly laying down some great vocals not heard from him in quite some time. Producer Rob Cavallo (of My Chemical Romance and Green Day fame, circa American Idiot) has beautifully captured Matthews's vocals that have become the driving force of the band's live sets, whether he's heard bellowing the "I'm on bended knee" lyric on "Bartender" or heard scatting on "Too Much" and "So Much to Say," two lively tracks from 1996's Crash. Simply put: very few effects are needed to refurbish Matthews's voice, an instrument that, even at Matthews's 42 years, remains as powerful as it ever has.

3. Whispers of "Big Three" status

When you think of Dave Matthews Band, there are three albums that come to mind: Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash, and Before These Crowded Streets, a trio of musical works that featured the band at its peak from 1994 to 1998. As a result of a grass-roots following, DMB rose from the frat house to the stadium, selling out show after show from one summer to the next...even playing as much as three consecutive sets at the likes of Giants Stadium and Fenway Park. While Big Whiskey will need to grow in order to reach "Big Three" status, its tracks have translated extremely well to the live setting, as first heard at the Beacon Theater, a show telecast on the Hulu Network earlier this month, the first of its kind. The band has truly returned to its roots with Big Whiskey, abandoning synthesizers and drum tracks in order to blend with the unique sound of horns and strings that made them the band they are today.

2. Carter Beaford on the drums!

For those of us who listened to Stand Up for the first time (DMB's last studio album, circa 2005), you may have noticed one glaring omission: the signature percussion/rhythm section that was the band's heartbeat. Beauford's feral drumming was oddly replaced by hip-hop drum beats that left the band sounding flat (quite fitting, when you consider the producer at the time was Batson, who had worked previously with hip-hop artist Nas). Thankfully, the mastery of the band's eldest member returns with some much-needed fury. Listen to "Shake Me Like a Monkey" if you don't believe me (a track that runs amok with horn-work by Coffin and Ross, as well).

1. Their Best Record in over a Decade

The mellow stylings of the band returns with the wonderful tracks like "Lying in the Hands of God," "Time Bomb," "Baby Blue," and "You and Me,"a sound combined with toe-tapping gems in "Why I Am," "Alligator Pie," and "Seven," all of which speak to the carpe-diem/universal love themes that have allowed the band to grow as chart-topping monsters and summer-concert heroes for the college coed and top-40 listener alike. Without question, Big Whiskey bests the likes of Everyday and Stand Up by a long shot, two albums that were considered clunkers by many loyal fans of the band. No doubt, DMB is back...and here to stay, thanks to the in-your-face return-to-form of the perfect summer album, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King.