Review & Setlist: Dave Matthews Band stays locked in at Xfinity Center

Dave Matthews Band played Xfinity Center in Mansfield on Friday, stuffing the setlist with old and new hits like Bartender and Warehouse.

MANSFIELD – There’s a current trend in music where artists lean into nostalgia, pegging an entire tour to the anniversary of a massive hit album released 25 or 30 years ago.

Dave Matthews Band certainly could do the same, with albums “Under the Table and Dreaming” (1994), “Crash” (1996), and “Before These Crowded Streets” (1998) all going multi-platinum, and helping to define the band as one you immediately think of when you think of the 90s.

To call Dave Matthews Band a nostalgic act, though, misses the point because they’ve been here the whole time. Since those first three studio albums, the band has released seven more, as well as dozens of live shows. DMB, which has toured almost annually since forming in 1991, routinely sells out amphitheaters and basketball arenas, playing the occasional larger venue. The setlists, written by Matthews before every show, keep even the most ardent fans guessing, and it’s not uncommon for members of a fan base now with more disposable income to catch double-digit numbers of shows each summer.

Whether you’ve never seen the band live, or, like me, have seen them dozens of times, Friday night’s tour stop at Mansfield’s Xfinity Center was fairly representative of what Dave Matthews Band is in 2024. Three original members — Matthews, drummer Carter Beauford, and bassist Stefan Lessard — are still active. Jeff Coffin has replaced LeRoi Moore, who died in 2008, on saxophone and flute. Violinist Boyd Tinsley is no longer with the band, but for years Rashawn Ross has been an anchor on trumpet, and more recently Buddy Strong on keys. It used to be a big deal when guitarist Tim Reynolds joined the group, but he’s here all the time now, adding a decided edge to a band that for a time could have been accused of too much noodling.

No longer. Dave Matthews Band still jams, but it’s more accurate now to call them a tight rock ensemble. Friday’s opener, So Right, is off the “Everyday” album and starts with a searing lick from Matthews on electric guitar. The two songs that followed, Big Eyed Fish and Bartender, are fan favorites that often go together. Coffin and Ross close the latter with some “Wizard of Oz” themed bars that are a nod to Moore, who managed to communicate emotion (mostly melancholy) through his instrument as well as anyone has.

Some highlights from Friday’s nearly three-hour show: Matthews’s passionate vocals during the Warehouse intro; Beauford’s drum solo (and bubble blowing) to start Gravedigger; the band’s total synchronicity over extended jams during Lie in Our Graves and All Along the Watchtower.

Strong, who wore a black Jayson Tatum Celtics jersey, has taken the lead role opposite Matthews on vocals. Their back and forth on Everyday, during which the crowd sings, “Honey, honey, come and dance with me,” was another standout.

Matthews, 57, is ageless, except he’s not wearing oversized pajama pants anymore, and he’s unequivocally a better singer and performer now. Gone are the vocal squeaks and occasional gaffed lyrics that might have turned off some casual fans back in the day. Here still are his suggestive eyebrow raises, cool-dad dancing, and a seemingly bottomless well of energy.

To go back to the top for a second, to say DMB shows are entirely without nostalgia isn’t quite right either. Many fans undoubtedly shared some of the same experiences following the band as I did: sending blanks and postage to other fans to burn CDs of live shows which were returned to sender in the actual mail; scrolling forums like antsmarching.org and dreamingtree.org; nearly crashing my college computer downloading torrents of shows on sites like Napster and LimeWire. Even though the music is all on my phone now, I still have binders of DMB shows burned onto CDs, with the misguided notion that someday, for some reason, I might need them.

At Dave Matthews Band shows today, fans often try to predict the next song based on which guitar Matthews is holding, a tradition spanning back decades. I met my wife at a Mansfield DMB show in 2007, and sitting in eerily similar seats Friday night briefly brought me back to a different time. Call that nostalgic if you want.

For Dave Matthews Band and their fans, at least for now, the music doesn’t stop. DMB are in Virginia Saturday night before playing a pair of shows in Gilford, New Hampshire, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Setlist: Dave Matthews Band at Xfinity Center, July 12, 2024

So Right

Big Eyed Fish

Bartender

Warehouse

Funny the Way It Is

Proudest Monkey

(>)

Satellite

(>)

Will It Go Round in Circles (Billy Preston cover)

The Only Thing

Gravedigger

Everyday

Rooftop

Squirm

27

All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover)

The Ocean and the Butterfly

Lie in Our Graves

Grey Street

Encore:

Some Devil (Dave Solo)

Why I Am

Crash Into Me