"They sound just like the Dave Matthews Band!"
That's what our friend Beth from Chapel Hill told us Wednesday night at the Cat's Cradle, and it's about the highest compliment one can pay a cover band.
Joining Jim Morrison and John Lennon in the hallowed halls of covered-dom, Dave Matthews now has his very own cover band that also bears his name.
Sure, the man's not dead like those other guys, but hey, everything moves faster in today's culture. At least this quintet, fresh from Athens, GA (you know, the home of cool bands like R.E.M. and Olivia Tremor Control), waited about ten years into Matthews' career before copping all his hits for their own repertoire.
And what's more, they really, really do sound like Dave Matthews.
While his look is more reminiscent of John Popper, the DMCB's "Dave"-Athens native Dave Koon-seems to have absorbed all of Matthews' better qualities. Along with Matthews' pinched-nerve vocal squawk, Koon has the "real" Dave's constipated facial expressions and herky-jerky stage presence down pat. We're still
Watching the DMCB in action, we realized the secret to the original "Dave's" popularity-alcohol. While the modest Cradle crowd kept near the back of the room for the first few songs of the set (which, we might note, included a few nuggets we've never heard of), after a few beers, the mostly female crew was shaking its collective white thang right in front of the stage. As the band kicked out classics like "What Would You Say" and "Lie In Our Graves," the college- age crackers and their glossy girlfriends grooved to it amphitheater style. (For those of you who don't understand that reference, that means half a case of Bud Light and a dance that looks suspiciously like you just broke your leg in a BMX accident.)
In all seriousness, the DMCB really does have a lot to offer the Dave fan who doesn't have the dough for $55 lawn seats. Our man Chris (also from Chapel Hill) put it pretty plainly: "If you miss the band on tour, this is the next best thing."
Next best? Hell, not only does the "CB" sound just like the real "MB" (though they do substitute a harmonica master for the saxophone player), but they play the club environments that this music was made for-where the beer's cheap, the teenagers are absent and the sound system is half-decent. They even stuck in a few bars of Dave's new single, "I Did It," during "Warehouse." We also witnessed some gratuitous hand-holding during "Crash Into Me." But fear not-the DMCB doesn't just hit the highlights. Their current repertoire of Davedom boasts at least 40 tunes-possibly more than the Davemeister has been busting out himself on his recent all-too-repetitive tours.
The DMCB: They bring the chicks, they bring the noise, they sell the beer. Just like Dave. And though you won't mistake that gangly violin player for the hard-bodied Boyd Tinsley, these guys' sound is unmistakable. Or actually, not unmistakable at all.
Think you can tell the difference? They'll be back March 20, when they play Ziggy's in Winston-Salem.
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