Disco de Dave Matthews Band: “Live At Luther College”

Having lived with two DMB fans, one of whom virtually worships the man and his band, I have been exposed to the vast majority of their tunes. I think they're talented, but between Dave's somewhat indecipherable vocals and the sometimes over-the-top instrumentation, I find that whatever message they're trying to convey often gets buried.

That being said, "Live at Luther College" is most definitely one (or two, if a two-disc set can't count as one) of the ten recordings I'd want with me if I were stranded on a desert island.

I'd give all but maybe one or two songs a 5-star rating. Even the "Christmas Song," which, subject-wise, isn't exactly my cup of tea, is just too perfectly executed to deny.

There are thousands of recordings that use electric guitar and of which I'm a huge fan, but if I had to choose, I prefer the purity of acoustic guitar. The use of acoustic guitars alone gives this set a huge edge.

And Tim Reynolds is a virtuoso--probably as technically gifted as many respected classical guitarists, but with an equally impeccable ability to reinvent each of Dave's songs so that they have every bit as much groove, humor, emotion, and force (and often more) as they did with his full band backing him up. Dave isn't half-bad either.

And while they take their guitars to the very limits of unplugged rock, Dave's voice is still able to shine through clearly, and I can actually understand what he's saying more often than not (I've actually memorized most of the album, although there are some areas where I still mumble incoherent phrases in conjunction with what seems to be coming out of Dave's mouth).

Virtually all of the power and emotion is generated by the musicians themselves, not by special effects or gadgets, and you can really feel what a memorable experience it must have been to attend that show.

This release is a double CD set that chronicles a 1996 live show Dave performed with his old-friend and acoustic guitarist Tim Reynolds. The two met in C'Ville when Matthews was working as a bartender at Miller's. Reynolds, who has played on each Dave Matthews Band album, also has his own group, TR3. Dave and Tim first began touring together in 1993 when Dave decided he needed an outlet for his creative energies when he wasn't touring with the band.

The duo started off playing small coffeehouses and theatres, and have since managed to keep their shows in somewhat intimate venues. These live shows don't have the festival, party atmosphere of the usual Dave Matthews Band concert. Rather, they are characterized by a quiet sense of respect for his music as art. This particular show was recorded Feb. 6, 1996 before a capacity crowd of 1,600 at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Matthews and Reynolds selected the Luther concert for the live album based on their own assessment of the performance, the technical quality of the sound, and the concert atmosphere.

As I listened to these acoustic versions of some of Dave's best-known songs, it reminded me that the best rock n' roll albums are really just collections of great songs done in a rock style. If you don't have a great song that can stand alone, you really don't have much. And few artists today can write songs like this - songs which are just as at home acoustically as they are layered with production and a full band.

The concert mainly features acoustic versions of well-known songs from Dave's albums: Tripping Billies, Jimi Thing, Satellite, Crash Into Me, What Would You Say, Ants Marching, etc. However, it also includes an interesting Tim Reynolds instrumental, Stream, as well as a few previously unreleased Dave Matthews songs like Deed is Done, Little Thing, and Granny, which he has played in concert for years but have never made it onto albums.

This music is the perfect mellow soundtrack to a crisp, bright, fall day - perfectly suited to an autumn drive around the colorful Virginia countryside. The interplay of the two acoustic guitars reminded me at times of the pleasantly serene guitar music that characterized early Windham Hill new age recordings, especially on the sweetly sentimental version of Typical Situation. At other times, Tim accents Dave's style with more bluesy fills, as on their bouncy rendition of What Would You Say.

Soon to become a cult classic Live at Luther is one of the best Live CD's on the market. Long before all the other pop arist discoved what a live album can do Dave was giving you live a long time ago.

This is one of the 20 best live albums I have ever heard. Dave and Tim are so crisp and tight on this recording, it is amazing that they recorded this live.

One thing to check out is Dave's ad-libs during a few songs. He doesn't acutally sing the published words to a few songs. Most notable is "Say Goodbye". I challenge you to find a published version that matches what he acutally sings. That is part of the charm of Dave, making music that is special each time you see him live.

The real highlights on this recording are "Seek Up", "Say Goodbye", and "Typical Situation". You can listen to those 3 songs all day and not get tired of them.

OC

There's a whole lotta love going around with this live CD. If you're into acoustic guitars and to having some crazy-fun with Dave & Tim, then this is the album for you. They're like an improvizational comedy-troupe performing [live] on stage for the masses at Luther College, with lots of banter and plenty of surprises. This is perhaps, Dave's best work w/Tim Reynolds. Tim provides the extraordinary, rythymic-backing on his guitar for his pal Dave; while, Dave's "quick-wit" and whimsical guitar-playing, delivers a scintillating (or otherwise hilarious) performance on-stage. His heart-felt work - on and off stage - is like and ode to a good friend. With his "cult-following" and the multitudes of people attending his concerts every year, he never seems to be letting-up, with his boundless-energy he posesses to pleasing his loyal fans. He's an assertive kind of guy, who likes to "turn-things-up-a-notch." The tracks on this CD are made-up of acoustical-versions (without the drums or fancy synthesizers) of Dave's songs consisting from his earlier albums such as: "Under The Table and Dreaming," "Crash," some B-Sides material, and some other cool-stuff that didn't get played very much on the radio. I've listened to this CD a lot. It's the one of those CD's in my collection, I will cherish for years to come.