No matter how many times you listen to Dave Matthews on either of his top-selling discs "Under the Table and Dreaming" or this year's "Crash," you'd never guess how much the man loves to sing.
His voice not only rose to the powerful words of the jazzed funk-rock, but Matthews skit and scat, warbled and octave leapt as he distinguished himself as one of the best stylists with a voice as unique as Louie Armstrong's.
Sunday at the Jones' Beach amphitheater, under an open sky and dreaming, Matthews sang with abandon as his band backed every note. It was one of the most generous concerts of the year.
To make the kind of sounds gangly, goofy, geeky D.M. makes, he has to be willing to be a musical fool. Yet, that playful loopy quality charged the almost three-hour concert. Matthews was in top form for the entire show, from the early rendition of "Two Step" clear through his autobiographical piece "Proudest Monkey."
The sold-out house (some who paid more than $100 from parking lot scalpers to get in) was on its feet for most of the show, and stayed standing even during some of the super-long jazz noodlings the band performed. It didn't matter whether it was an old tune or a new one; the entire house knew all the lyrics and, unfortunately, were willing to sing along with Dave.
Of the new material, the best was "Too Much," a number where too much isn't enough. On that one, Matthews and company spiced the mix byleading the song into a cover of the John Lennon/David Bowie collaboration "Fame." The coupling of the two tunes was clever musicall and lyrically, since each song concerns a different aspect of the same excess.
During that song, fiddler Boyd Tinsley nearly sawed his violin during the concert's most enthusiastic solo. Saxman Leroi Moore was also good, especially when he was allowed to wail in the jazz solos. Yet, his Blood Seat and Tears horn transitions in a number of songs sounded out of place and dated.