LITTLE ROCK — When considering the Dave Matthews Band, it's important to remember two things - while incidentally recalling that the group's initial album, released in 1993, was titled Remember Two Things.
First, the five-man band was intended to be a band, not just Matthews' backing group.
Second, although founding member Leroi Moore died last year, the group has continued to write, record and perform music.
Saxophonist Moore was injured in an all-terrain-vehicle accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Va., on June 30, 2008. At the time his injuries - broken ribs and more - were not thought to be that serious. Matthews even told a Colorado reporter that Moore was "a little beat up, but he'll be OK. He didn't break anything that won't fix itself."
But Moore died from complications on Aug. 19, 2008, in Los Angeles. In accordance with what band members thought he wouldhave wanted, the group went ahead with a concert that night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with Matthews informing the fans,"It's always easier to leave, than tobe left."
On Tuesday, the band will perform at Dickey-Stephens Park - its second concert in central Arkansas. The first took place in what was then Alltel Arena on July 13, 2003, with 12,353 fans attending. Pete Laven, general manager of the Arkansas Travelers, announced in February that the band would perform at Dickey-Stephens.
For the concert, the stage will be set up against the center-field wall. All reserved seats in the park have been sold, Laven reports, but general-admission seating on the field is still available.
Jeff Coffin will be filling Moore's role in the band, as has been the case since last year's accident. Other additions to the lineup are trumpeter Rashawn Ross and Matthews' longtime pal and occasional duo partner, electric guitarist Tim Reynolds. (Reynolds is no stranger to the central Arkansas club scene, having played here several times in the past decade or more.)
Matthews, a singer-songwriter-guitarist and former bartender, started the band with drummer Carter Beauford and Moore. Having recruited bassist Stefan Lessard, they performed publicly for the first time at the Earth Day Festival in Charlottesville in 1991. Violinist Boyd Tinsley joined a year later.
The Dave Matthews Bandwent on to record eight studio albums and more than 15 live albums, some only available in download formats. The group is known for its social consciousness, with benefit shows performed for Hurricane Katrina survivors, environmental causes, the annual Farm Aid concert (set for Oct. 4 in St. Louis) and a show in memory of the shootings at Virginia Tech.
The band has sold more than 35 million CDs and DVDs and drawn more than 15 million fans to live shows, with Billboard magazine naming it the top-drawing American band in the world.
After Moore's death, the band finished its first album in four years, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. Released by RCA Records on June 2, it debuted on the Billboard top 200 albums chart at No. 1 - the band's fifth consecutive album to do so. Rob Cavallo, whose resume includes work with Green Day and My Chemical Romance, produced the album.
Matthews has explained the strange title as a combination of a tribute to Moore, whosenickname was "Groogrux," and a salute to a New Orleans street musician and panhandler who said he was going to buy a "big whiskey" with the $20 the band gave him.
The new album opens with "Grux," a 1 minute, 11-second instrumental that features a saxophone solo by Moore, who was involved in writing seven of the album's 13 songs. On a DVD that accompanies the "deluxe" version of the album, band members are shown rehearsing and recording in Seattle and New Orleans and discussing the challenges facing them.
"There was poison leaking out of our great friendships," Matthews muses on the DVD, "and I just wanted to get it out."
Beauford spoke to the members' desire to continue: "We still got a lot of music left in us. It's time to unleash the tiger."
Matthews, who created the intricate artwork for the new album partly as an homage to Moore, spoke of how he views the new recording: "If this is my last album that I ever make, I hope it's the only album people listen to. I want to make an album that I think is the band and that honors 'Roi and those of us he left."
Dave Matthews Band Opener: Gregg Allman 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dickey-Stephens Park, 400 W. Broadway, North Little Rock Tickets: $65 for outfield general admission at Ticketmaster outlets (all reserved seats have been sold) (800) 745-3000
Style, Pages 55, 60 on 09/27/2009