Dave
told them about his plans to record his songs, and they agreed
to help him. Stefan, who at the age of 16 had already gained
the respect of local musicians as an excellent upright and
electric bass player, was chosen for the project because,
as Dave said, "I just had a feeling about him, his spirit,
his sense of the music. It was so much beyond his years."
Rounding out the quintet back then was keyboard player Peter
Griesar, a fellow Miller's employee and friend of Dave's who
joined in as the band rehearsed at the club. When strings
were needed for a tune the band was working on, band members
called on Boyd Tinsley and his high-energy violin. After sitting
in with the band on a few different occasions, Boyd was asked
to join full-time, and The Dave Matthews Band was born.
After
several rehearsals in basements (first Carter's mom's, then
Dave's mom's), they were ready to play in public. The first
gig was May 11, 1991 at a party on the roof of an apartment
building in Charlottesville. About 40 people were in attendance
that night. Their first open-to-the-public performance was
at the 1991 Earth Day Festival on Charlottesville's Downtown
Mall. That exposure led to regular Tuesday night gigs at a
small restaurant called Eastern Standard. The owner of Trax
nightclub (the largest music venue in town) heard them play
one night and suggested they move the Tuesday night gigs to
Trax. The band agreed and were soon filling Trax to capacity
with locals and University of Virginia students week after
week.
As word
spread of the infectious new sound coming out of Charlottesville,
the Tuesday night gig evolved into three-, four-, and five-day
tours around the region. Having always allowed fans to tape
shows for their own enjoyment and for trading, the music often
arrived in towns before the band did! Frequently, audiences
were well acquainted with the band's music before ever seeing
a live performance. Consequently, the band began drawing considerable
crowds throughout the Southeast. As fans traded tapes and
mailed them to friends around the country, club owners got
wind of DMB as a hot live act. The tour schedule expanded
north to Philadelphia and New York and west to Boulder, Colorado.
As
the fan base grew, so did the demand for an album. Dave's
original demo tape that brought them all together had long
since been forgotten, and Peter had left the band. Not wanting
to interrupt their touring schedule and hoping to capture
the energy of a typical performance, DMB decided to release
a live album. They chose The Muse Music Club on Nantucket
as the site and recorded "Remember Two Things" in August of
1993.
DMB's
first album was released November 9 of that year and was distributed
independently from the tiny Charlottesville office that served
as the DMB home base. Fans loved "Remember Two Things" immediately,
and it debuted November 22 on the College Music Journal chart
as the highest independent entry.
In
February of 1994 DMB released another independent record,
a 5-song EP entitled "Recently." It contained previously unreleased
material and one remixed song from "R2T." At that time the
disc was only available at live shows or through mail order.
While
all this was going on, the band kept touring. And the number
of fans kept growing. DMB appeared with the summer 1993 HORDE
Tour in Richmond, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina and
as the opening act for Phish, Blues Traveler, Colonel Bruce
and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, and several other prominent
touring acts.
1994 proved
to be a huge year for DMB. They played their first theater
shows as the headliner. They toured the country most of the
summer, and spent three weeks as part of the HORDE. They also
recorded and released their major label debut. "Under the
Table and Dreaming" (recorded in Bearsville, NY) was released
on September 27th and DMB left the country in November for
their first European tour. They returned to the States to
close out the year as they had the previous two years with
a sold out NewYear's Eve show in Richmond.
The band
spent the first half of 1995 on tour with Big Head Todd and
the Monsters and on DMB's first "official" US tour promoting
their major label debut. Immediately following the tour with
Big Head Todd, DMB opened two shows for the Grateful Dead
at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas in May. After another European
tour in June (this one comprising mainly opening slots at
large festivals and some club shows), DMB hit the road for
the rest of the summer. With the exception of HORDE shows
in Milwaukee and Chicago, Dionne Farris was their support
act for this stint of touring.
Late in
1995 DMB went back to the Bearsville studio to record their
second major label album. Recording "Crash" kept the band
busy until almost the end of the year. They managed a brief
post-Christmas tour and ended 1995 with two shows at the Hampton
Colliseum in Hampton, Virginia December 30 and 31.
The band
toured promoting "Crash" starting in Richmond on April 30,
the day "Crash" was released. DMB also spent several weeks
in Europe that year. Support acts for the US part of the tour
included Soul Coughing, Ben Harper, Boxing Ghandis, Me'Shell
N'Degeocello, G Love and Special Sauce, Corey Harris, Robert
Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones.
The year once again drew to a close with a New Year's Eve
show in Hampton, Virginia.
Dave
Matthews Band took a needed and well-deserved break from touring
in 1997. Having toured and recorded for the better part of
five years, the time off in 1997 was the longest break in
DMB's history. The band went out for a six week tour that
summer with support acts Bela Fleck & the Flecktones and
Los Lobos.
Following
a short break, DMB went back into the studio (this time just
outside San Francisco) and recorded their latest release,
"Before These Crowded Streets" available in stores now. The
band kicked off their 98/99 international tour with a sold
out stadium show in Roanoke, Virginia, and just finished the
first leg of that tour with another sold out show at Giants
Stadium, in New Jersey.
Dave Matthews Band:
- Best of What's Around
-
- Real
Audio
- Crash
-
- Real
Audio
- Satellite
-
- Real
Video
-- Reprinted from the official Dave
Matthews Band site.
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